ISABELLA
The phone kept ringing.
Daniel’s name glowed on the screen like a warning flare, slicing through the haze of heat and breathlessness that had wrapped itself around me and Adrian only seconds before.
My pulse stuttered.
Adrian didn’t move.
His forehead still rested against mine, his breath uneven, his hands warm on my hips. But the moment — that fragile, beautiful moment — was already slipping away, dissolving under the sharp, unwelcome intrusion of my past.
The phone rang again.
I swallowed hard, reached for it, and hit cancel.
The sound cut off abruptly.
Silence rushed in.
A heavy, suffocating silence.
Adrian’s hands slowly slid away from my waist. His body went still beneath me, the warmth draining from him like someone had flipped a switch. The shift was immediate —
