Adrian had been restless for days, though he didn’t admit it to anyone—not even Selene. Something gnawed at him in the silence between their conversations, in the way Viktor vanished into shadows and returned with nothing but that crooked smirk. Adrian trusted Selene—or at least, he wanted to. But the weight of his father’s empire and the constant sense that everyone around him was playing their own game left him raw, vulnerable, and hungry for answers.
So when he walked into the lounge that night and saw her, it was as if the past had risen like smoke.
“Adrian.”
Her voice was honey, smooth and sultry, with the faintest hint of laughter in it. And when she stepped into the light, he felt his chest tighten. Elena.
The name alone was a history lesson: his first love, the woman who had on
