Elena’s POV
The invitation arrived by courier, crisp and embossed, like something out of a life that didn’t belong to me. But my name was there, elegantly printed beneath Adrian’s, and I knew what it meant. Public appearances. Media exposure. Another test of what it meant to be with someone like him.
Adrian barely glanced at the envelope before placing it beside his coffee. "It’s just the hospital foundation gala," he said. "Formality wrapped in crystal chandeliers. We don’t have to stay long."
"You’re being honored," I reminded him.
"It doesn’t matter. You matter more." He said it so simply, like it cost him nothing. But I saw the flicker in his eyes, the distraction. Not coldness, exactly. Just... distance.
Later, while helping Natalie with dinner, she caught the shift in my express
