Adrian POV
The problem with honesty is that it cannot be taken back.
The words still exist in the room even after silence returns.
I can still see the exact moment Lydia understood them.
I married you because I was tired of pretending you belonged to someone else.
It had not been planned.
Not calculated.
Not part of any strategy I built.
And that alone makes it dangerous.
Morning light spreads across the penthouse slowly, turning the glass walls pale gold. The city is waking beneath us. Markets will open in two hours.
Normally I would already be reviewing overnight reports.
Instead, I’m standing in the kitchen staring at a cup of coffee that has gone cold.
Lydia’s footsteps appear behind me.
Soft.
Careful.
She has always moved that way in the mornings, like she doesn’t want
