Hazel’s POV
“You didn’t need to,” he snapped. “Just by opening up all your wounds to me. Just by showing how fragile you were without Nicholas. That was enough to tell me you’d depend on me.”His words were poison. Slow but sure, they corroded everything I had once believed. I looked at him sharply, trying to find even the faintest trace of regret on his face. There was none. All I saw was a manipulative man who thrived on others’ pain.“I’m not dependent on you,” I said coldly at last. “I just misjudged who you really are.”Andrian gave a mocking smile. “And now you think you can just walk away?”“I will walk away,” I said firmly. “And there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”He shook his head slowly, that same twisted smile still lingering. “I don’t have to stop you. The world will do that for me. Do you think Sabrina and Nicholas will play fair? They have everything—money, influence, legal power. And you? You only have pain and foo