POV: Lydia
The silence after my words doesn’t feel empty.
It feels alive.
Adrian doesn’t argue. That alone unsettles me more than anger would have. He simply stands there, watching me as if recalculating something he cannot solve.
“You only know how to keep people by trapping them.”
I hadn’t meant it to sound cruel.
But truth rarely arrives gently.
The city lights spill through the glass walls behind him, cutting his figure into sharp shadows. For the first time since I met Adrian Cole, he looks… uncertain.
Not weak.
Never weak.
Just unguarded for half a second too long.
He turns away first, walking toward the bar. The movement is controlled, deliberate. Distance disguised as composure.
“I ensure stability,” he says finally. “People confuse structure with control.”
I follow hi
