A D R I A N
She doesn't wait for me.
Not after that toast. Not after that look.
Elara rises from the table with a spine straight enough to cut steel and walks away like she didn’t just dare me to choose her and I blinked. I don't reach for her. I don't explain. I don't even f*****g drink.
And now she’s gone.
The investors murmur back into conversation, their laughter bubbling like nothing happened, like they didn’t just call the woman who saved a life a liability to her face. One of them sips his wine and says something about “optics in wartime.”
Selene glares at him like she’d rather stab him with her dessert spoon. Lucien doesn't bother masking his disgust.
I lean back in my chair, fingers still wrapped around the stem of the untouched glass. Her words echo harder than anything th
