A lie too heavy
Long after Adrian departed for the board meeting, Emilia remained rooted in the sitting room, her body still, her thoughts anything but. The image refused to release her. It lingered behind her eyes like a brand—too sharp, too vivid to dismiss as imagination. She could still feel the solid warmth of Adrian’s chest beneath her cheek, the way his arms had closed around her not as a shield, but as an instinct. For one reckless, unguarded second, there had been no contract, no surveillance, no threats lurking behind polished smiles. There had only been the illusion of something real. Of something tender.
And now she was expected to deny it.
She sat in the bright, glass-walled room with her fists clenched tightly in her lap, nails pressing half-moons into her palms. Voices d
