Adrian’s POV
The glass broke before I even realized I’d crushed it.
Blood streaked down my palm, hot and bright against the pale marble. I stared at it, detached, watching the red slide between my fingers like the proof that something inside me had finally split open.
She had done this.
Sophie Hart.
The woman who used to tremble when I raised my voice now walked away from me with her chin high and her words carved from steel.
> “I’m not here to reclaim anything.
I’m here to take back what’s mine.”
The sentence replayed until it stopped being sound and became pulse.
Every camera flash had adored her; every whisper had followed her like she was some fallen star they’d been waiting for.
And me?
I was the man left bleeding in the dark.
---
Elena’s perfume hit first—amber and sp
