Chapter 64 Chapter 64

Chapter 64 Chapter 64
“She’s going to break up with me,” Reno confessed, the words falling like heavy stones into the sterile silence of the corridor.

Saying it aloud was different than letting the fear gnaw at his insides in the dark. In his head, it was a nightmare he could still wake up from; whispered to the air, it became a cold, indisputable reality. Lisette was going to sever the tie between them, and he felt the sickening impotence of a man watching a storm destroy his home from behind a glass wall.

“I’m sure she won’t. She needs you now more than ever,” AJ said, placing a steady, grounding hand on his shoulder.

“I don't doubt that she needs someone. And God knows I need her like I need my next breath. But she won't want me here for this,” Reno sighed, the weight of his defeat bowing his head.

“She’s going to want to fight this battle on her own, to crawl through the glass until she finds her own feet again. And I’m going to let her.”

“Are you sure that’s what’s best?”

“She needs to know that if I stay, it isn't out of some hollow sense of pity. I won't have her looking at me and seeing an obligation instead of a partner. If the cost of her dignity is my absence, then I’ll go. I’ll go away for a while, let the dust settle, and then I’ll come back and we can start afresh. She needs time to mourn the person she was and accept the changes this reality is going to carve into her soul.”

AJ looked at him with a newfound sobriety. “You must really love my sister.”

“My heart beats for her, AJ. It doesn't just belong to her; she controls it, possesses it, owns every pulse. She is already my partner because she’s my soul mate—the literal other half of my life. In a few months, or years, I will make her my wife. But right now, her pride is wounded, and she needs me to step back so she can find her strength. It won’t be easy... but love that’s worth anything never is.”

Reno squared his shoulders and stepped back into the room. He was prepared for tears. He was prepared for a quiet, noble sacrifice where he told her he understood and that he would wait for her at the end of the road. What he was not prepared for was the literal battalion of words that marched out of her mouth and punched him squarely in the chest.

“I slept with Michael. I don’t expect you to understand. But you have to accept that we are done. It’s over.” Lisette’s voice was steady, a flat, dead tone that made Reno’s skin crawl. “As soon as Catalella gets better, Michael will annul their marriage. We want to be together—Michael and me. You have to leave, Reno. And you can’t come back.”

“But—” The sound of his own blood rushing through his veins became a deafening roar in his ears, a frantic drumbeat of denial. “Your virginity—you told me—”

“It was mine to give, and I decided to give it to Michael. When he married Catalella and you left for Hawaii, I realized he was the one I always wanted. You were just... a distraction.”

The world blurred. Through a rising haze of hot, stinging tears, Reno couldn't even read the expression on her face. In his mind, he imagined her beautiful, warm brown eyes turning to twin chips of ice, methodically shredding his heart with every wicked, calculated syllable. His body went entirely numb, the nerves firing off one last time before shutting down. He began to backpedal out of the room, his coordination vanishing. His legs, usually his greatest strength, simply failed. He stumbled into the hallway and collapsed into a pair of waiting arms.

“Reno?”

“DJ, get me out of here. Please. Just get me out.” He felt another pair of arms encircle his waist, lifting him, anchoring him. His father was there, holding his weight. “Father—”

“It’s okay, son. I’ve got you.”

In that moment, the years stripped away. Reno felt like a four-year-old boy again, his knee scraped raw and bloody, being lifted into the safety of his father’s chest. He had felt protected then, and now, through the suffocating mist of betrayal, he looked through the eyes of that same small child, seeking the only security left in the world in his daddy’s arms.

Days later, Reno stood in the expansive, hushed luxury of his father’s penthouse, staring at the family portrait that dominated the living room wall. The four of them—Dennis, Daniela, AJ, and DJ—were frozen in a moment of perfect, sun-drenched happiness.

He noticed the glaring absences. He and Rhyne weren't in that frame. They weren't part of the "real" Kent family. To the world, and perhaps to the portrait itself, they were outsiders—intruders in a life that wasn't designed for them. He felt a sudden, sharp pang of regret. He didn't belong in the concrete jungle of New York. If he had never left the island, his heart wouldn't be lying in a million jagged pieces on a hospital floor. He would be home, looking for his sister. He had to admit that despite all the Kent resources, he hadn't made nearly enough progress on his own. But now, he had a lead.

“I’m going back to the island.” His gaze remained fixed on Daniela’s smiling face as he spoke. “I don’t belong here.”

“You have more of a right to be here than I do.” DJ sat on the sofa nearby, the ice cubes in his whiskey glass clinking a mournful rhythm. “You’re the firstborn, Reno. The heir to the Kent fortune and the name.”

“I’m not legitimate, DJ. We both know that.”

“Let me never hear you say that word again,” Dennis’s gruff, commanding tone cut through the room from behind him. “You are just as legitimate as your brother or your sister. You are my son, and that is the only truth that matters.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Reno countered, his voice cracking. “I need to leave. This city is suffocating me.”

“You can’t run away from your heartbreak, son. It follows you across oceans.”

“I’m not running away. I’m just...” Escaping. Surviving. “I need to find Rhyne. She’s the only family I have left who hasn't been tainted by this mess.” Reno reached down, took DJ’s glass, and emptied the amber liquid in one stinging gulp.

“I have people searching for her, Reno. You need to stay. Finish your degree. Learn the ropes at Kent-Corp. Don't throw your future away because of a girl.”

Reno whirled around, a glare of pure fire directed at his father. He was ready to scream that Dennis had no right to dictate his life after twenty years of silence. But for a fleeting second, he forced himself to think. His ego had been pulverized, but he wouldn't allow his pride to go down with the ship.

Michael and Lisette weren't going to run him out of town like a beaten dog. He wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of knowing they had won. School and work—they would be his armor. He would bury himself in the chaos of the corporate world until the roar in his heart was silenced by sheer exhaustion. He needed the distraction.

“Fine. I want to be included in every update about Rhyne. Every lead, every phone call. I’ll stay.”

“That makes one of us,” DJ muttered, staring into his empty glass.

“I thought you came back for good, DJ?” Dennis asked, his frustration mounting.

“I came back because the girls were in the hospital and my brother needed me. I’m a wanderer, Dad. You know that.”

Reno felt a surge of genuine affection for the man sitting on the sofa. DJ really had come back just for him. “You need to stay, DJ. The family needs you.”

“He needs to do what’s right for him,” Reno interjected, shielding his brother. “If he needs some time off, let him go. I’ll take over his responsibilities at the firm while he’s gone. I’ll learn twice as fast.”

“You don’t have to do that, Reno.”

“I want to. I’m your elder brother, isn't that what we do?” Reno managed a small, tight smile and pulled DJ into a quick, firm hug.

“Thanks, big bro. You know how to reach me.” DJ stood, gave his father a mocking, two-finger salute, and walked out of the penthouse.

“DJ!” Dennis shouted, hot on his heels, his voice echoing with the demand for obedience.

Reno watched them go, shaking his head with a bitter chuckle. DJ was the rebel, a mirror image of the fire Reno used to carry. His gaze shifted back to the portrait. Daniela’s smile seemed to mock him now. She looked so much like Rhyne—the same bone structure, though Rhyne was slimmer, her skin the color of deep mahogany. Daniela was iron-willed, a sharp contrast to

Rhyne’s innate softness. But it had been twenty years. Who knew what the world had done to his sister? He had seen firsthand how quickly circumstances could turn a person into a stranger. Reno sat down in the silence, feeling the slow, poisonous heat of anger begin to build where his heart used to be.