Adrian's POV
I had just woken up, when a buzz sounded from my phone, picking it up I stared at the message, my grip tightening until the screen dimmed from the pressure of my thumb. Charles’s words weren’t a suggestion, they were a warning.
Charles: If you can’t control the narrative, I will.
Every part of me wanted to toss the phone across the room. Instead, I dropped it facedown on the table and scrubbed a hand through my hair. The air around me had shifted, heavy and electric. I knew what he was capable of, his version of “control” came with ruthless consequences and carefully manufactured truths. Elena wouldn’t survive the kind of spotlight he would engineer.
I paced the apartment, half-listening for the sound of Elena emerging from the shower. I needed to tell her, but how? She’d
