Lucas didn’t even look at her the next morning. His cold demeanor had shifted from distant to completely dismissive. He avoided eye contact, his focus solely on the piles of documents they still had to sort through. Every time Emily tried to engage him, he brushed her off with short, clipped responses, making it clear that their relationship was now nothing more than business.
It stung, but she couldn’t entirely blame him. She had lied to him, kept Ben a secret, and now it was backfiring spectacularly. But the worst part was knowing how Lucas must have felt—that trust, that growing bond between them, shattered by her omission. She could sense the tension between them growing thicker, and it was suffocating.
Sitting across from him at the large mahogany table in the study, Emily watched
