ADRIEN POV
The silence after she left was brutal.
I stood where she had been seconds ago, her warmth still clinging to me, the echo of her breath against my lips. The counter dug into my palms, grounding me, or maybe keeping me from following her down the hall like a madman.
My body still ached from restraint. My head, however, was already at war.
Nora's face had been a storm—wanting, trembling, wounded. And all I had given her in return was distance, the coward's retreat. Not because I didn't want her, but because I wanted her too much.
My phone vibrated again, Daniel this time, then Marcus. I forced myself to answer. The words came in fragments—headlines, leaked images, speculation. Sofia's name threaded through it like smoke.
Of course it was Sofia. She had been waiting for this.
By the time Marcus arrived, I had already stripped off my tie and poured a drink I didn't touch. He moved through the penthouse like a man ready for battle, phone pressed to his ear, issuing instructions.
"We'll bury the worst of it," he assured me. "Shift the narrative. Emphasize your focus on work. Push Sofia into the spotlight instead—let them speculate on her again. It'll draw fire off Nora."
Nora. The sound of her name alone cracked something open in me.
I nodded, because it was what I always did—control the message, turn chaos into order. It had worked with boardrooms, with investors, with hostile takeovers. But this wasn't a market to manipulate. This was her heart, already bruised by strangers with too much time and too little mercy.
When Marcus left, the apartment was cavernous, too quiet. I imagined her alone in her flat, seeing every cruel comment, believing them. Believing she wasn't enough.
The thought was unbearable.
My mother called that night. Her voice was cool, composed, pleased. "Sofia has been handling herself well in the press. Elegant. Discreet. A woman worthy of the Moreau legacy."
Her meaning was razor-sharp. She didn't have to say Nora's name for me to hear the dismissal in every syllable.
When the line went dead, I sat in the dark, staring out at the city that had given me everything, and for the first time I felt only the weight of what it could take away.
Because if Nora left—if this world drove her from me—it wouldn't just wound.
It would destroy me.