Deadline

The day of Kai’s deadline arrives with no warning shots.

I wake up knowing that by tonight, either I give him something that satisfies him, or he walks into Adrian’s study and starts talking. The knowledge sits in my chest like a stone.

Downstairs, Adrian is already working. He glances up when I enter the kitchen, eyes assessing me the way they have every morning since Damien left.

“You look worse,” he says bluntly.

“I didn’t sleep.”

He sets his pen down. “After the gala I’m sending you to the lake house for a few days. Alone. No Damien. No visitors. Just quiet.”

The offer is meant to be protective. It feels like another form of control.

“I have classes.”

“You’ll manage.” His tone leaves no room for argument. “One more day, Aria. Then we deal with whatever this is.”

I nod because I have no other option.

Kai arrives mid-morning. He doesn’t bother with small talk. He finds me in the library and closes the door hard enough that the sound echoes.

“Last day,” he says. “Have you ended it?”

“Damien is across the city.”

“That’s not what I asked.” Kai’s voice is tight. “Has he contacted you? Has he threatened you again? Are you still protecting whatever happened between the two of you?”

I stay silent too long.

Kai lets out a harsh breath and drags a hand through his hair. “I’m telling him tonight. I gave you time. I gave you chances. You’re drowning, and Adrian is one conversation away from figuring out the shape of it anyway.”

“Kai, please—”

“No.” He steps closer, eyes hard. “I watched you flinch every time Damien entered a room. I watched you lie to Adrian’s face. I kissed you and still watched you leave the door open for someone else. I’m done standing on the side.”

The words hit like open hands.

Before I can answer, my phone vibrates on the table between us.

Both of us look at it.

Unknown number.

Kai’s expression goes cold. “Answer it. On speaker.”

I don’t move.

He reaches past me, unlocks the phone with the code he has somehow known for years, and opens the message.

One day left. The gala will be memorable. Tell Kai that loyalty is expensive. Tell Adrian I send my regards.

The silence that follows is absolute.

Kai’s face drains of color, then hardens into something I have never seen on him before.

“That’s it,” he says quietly. “I’m going to Adrian right now.”

“Kai—”

“No more.” He is already moving toward the door. “Stay here.”

I follow him into the hallway, heart slamming, but he is faster. He reaches the study door and pushes it open without knocking.

Adrian looks up from his desk, immediately alert.

“Kai?”

Kai closes the door behind us both. His voice is steady and lethal.

“We need to talk about Damien. Now. And Aria is going to stay in the room while we do it.”

Adrian’s eyes move from Kai to me. Whatever he sees on my face makes his expression go completely still.

“Sit down,” he says to me. Soft. Absolute.

I sit.

Kai doesn’t waste time. “Damien has been contacting her since you sent him away. Threatening her. The messages are on her phone. He’s using the gala as leverage. And whatever happened between them before he left is serious enough that she’s been lying to both of us for days.”

Adrian doesn’t look at Kai. He looks only at me.

“Show me the messages.”

My hands shake as I unlock the phone and slide it across the desk. Adrian reads in silence. The muscle in his jaw jumps once. Then again.

When he finally sets the phone down, his voice is quiet and terrifying.

“Is it true?”

I could still try to minimize it. The habit is strong.

Instead the last of my resistance collapses.

“Yes.”

The single word changes the air in the room.

Adrian stands slowly. He walks to the window, back to us, and stays there for a long time. When he turns, the controlled man who has run this family for years is gone. What remains is colder and far more dangerous.

“Kai. Stay with her. Do not leave this house. Do not let her out of your sight.”

“Where are you going?” Kai asks.

Adrian is already moving toward the door. “To the apartment.”

“Adrian—”

He stops with his hand on the handle and looks at me one last time. The expression on his face is raw and furious and something else that makes my stomach drop.

“We will finish this conversation when I return. Lock the doors.”

Then he is gone.

The sound of his car leaving the driveway is too loud in the sudden silence.

Kai turns to me, face pale.

“You should have told him sooner,” he says.

I have no answer.

Outside, the sky is already darkening. The gala is tomorrow night. Damien is about to face Adrian alone. And the secret that has been rotting under this roof is finally, irreversibly in the open.

I sit in the study with my hands clenched in my lap and wait for the sound of a car returning.

Whatever happens next will not be private anymore.