Novels by Solar Coe

Sophia noticed the envelope while clearing the breakfast table, its cream colored surface partly hidden beneath Adrian's medical papers. The name of a law firm was printed across the front, and the recent date caught her attention because Adrian had never mentioned contacting a lawyer. She reached toward it, but before her fingers touched the envelope, Adrian's voice came from behind her."Leave that alone."Sophia turned and found him watching her from the doorway, his expression unusually guarded."What is it?""Something personal.""You have never needed a lawyer for something personal."Adrian wheeled closer and took the envelope from her hand, sliding it beneath the other papers with deliberate care. Sophia watched him closely because his reaction was far too serious for something he claimed was unimportant, but she decided not to press him immediately."Not everything concerns you."The words landed harder than he intended, and his expression softened almost immediately. Sophia

Sophia remained beside her car long after Damien ended the call, staring at the dark screen while his warning replayed in her mind. Someone inside the Vale family might have been involved in Adrian's accident, yet Damien had refused to explain why he was investigating it or what he intended to do with what he had discovered, leaving Sophia with more questions than answers. The folder Adrian had hidden from her was still inside her handbag, but she could not bring herself to open it because Adrian's words troubled her more than Damien's warning, especially the way he had told her she deserved another life as though he had already decided he would no longer be part of it.When Sophia finally entered the mansion, she found Adrian sitting near the window with an old photograph in his hands, and he quickly lowered it when he noticed her. She recognized the picture immediately because it showed the unfinished nursery in their old house, the same room they had once stood in while arguing pla

Sophia was fastening her earrings when her phone vibrated on the dressing table, and Adrian's name appeared on the screen with a question about where she had been the previous afternoon. Before she could answer, another message arrived from an unknown number with a photograph attached, and the sight of her car parked outside Damien's estate made her fingers tighten around the phone. Beneath the photograph were six words that immediately erased the calm she had been trying to maintain: You should be careful who you visit.Sophia enlarged the photograph and checked the timestamp twice, wondering how long someone had been watching her without being noticed. She grabbed her handbag and left the room, deciding that whoever had sent the warning had already crossed a line, and Damien was the only person who might understand what was happening.Damien opened his door before she could knock twice, but the moment his eyes settled on the phone in her hand, his expression changed. He took it from

Sophia returned to the hospital the following morning with Damien's words still circling through her mind, but the moment Adrian saw her enter, he closed the file on his lap and watched her approach with an expression that told her he already knew where she had been. She placed her handbag beside the chair and stood before him, determined not to allow another conversation to end with half answers, while Adrian remained silent until the tension between them became impossible to ignore."You went to Damien," Adrian said."You knew I would.""I told you not to go.""You told me to stay away from him, Adrian, but you never told me why."Adrian looked toward the window, his fingers tightening around the edge of the file. "Because Damien is not someone you should involve yourself with."Sophia folded her arms. "He said you knew he would refuse before you sent me there."Adrian's jaw tightened, and that reaction gave her an answer before he spoke. "It does not matter.""It matters to me."He

Sophia almost turned around when the black gates came into view because the address Adrian had given her led to an estate far more imposing than she had expected. A security guard approached her car, and after she gave him her name, he checked something on his tablet before opening the gate without asking another question. That small reaction unsettled her because it suggested Damien was expecting her, yet she had received no message from him and Adrian had never mentioned contacting his brother. Sophia drove through anyway, reminding herself that she had not come this far to retreat before getting the answer Adrian had refused to give her.She parked beneath the covered entrance and stepped out with her handbag in one hand. Before she could reach the front door, it opened, and a man walked outside with the calm confidence of someone who never needed to announce his authority. The resemblance to Adrian was unmistakable, but the similarities ended there because Damien carried himself w

Sophia turned the car around less than ten minutes after leaving the hospital. She had driven halfway home before Damien's name returned to her thoughts, and the more she tried to ignore it, the more impossible it became. Adrian's reaction had not been normal because he had not sounded annoyed or indifferent whenever Damien came up. He had sounded afraid, and that single detail refused to leave her mind. By the time she parked outside the hospital again, she had stopped asking herself whether she should investigate and started asking herself why Adrian was so desperate to stop her.The rehabilitation room was quieter than she expected. Adrian sat beside a treatment table while a therapist arranged equipment nearby, and both men looked up when she entered. Surprise crossed Adrian's face before he quickly buried it beneath his usual restraint, but Sophia noticed it anyway. She had spent years learning the smallest changes in his expressions, and she knew immediately that he had expected