Chapter 3: The man behind the name

The ride to Adrian Kane's office was quiet, almost painfully so, with Elena sitting in the back seat and watching the city pass through the tinted windows while the driver remained focused on the road, neither of them making any attempt to fill the silence.

She had spent most of the journey going over what she wanted to say, what questions she needed to ask and, more importantly, what she expected to hear, but every time she rehearsed the conversation in her head, the words seemed to disappear before she could arrange them properly.

She had never been nervous about doctors.

She had been nervous about this one.

A high rise building eventually came into focus through the windshield, towering over the surrounding buildings with an almost intimidating elegance. At the very top of its glass facade was a massive advertisement featuring a woman's face marked with surgical lines and delicate measurements, her expression calm and confident despite the markings across her forehead, cheeks and jaw.

There was no mistaking what happened inside.

This was Adrian Kane's world.

Elena stepped out of the car, adjusted her handbag against her shoulder and stared up at the building for several seconds before finally forcing herself through the entrance.

The reception area was enormous, polished marble stretching beneath her feet while soft lighting reflected against the glass walls. Everything looked expensive without appearing desperate to prove it, which somehow made Elena more conscious of the fact that she was there because she wanted to change something about herself that had been used against her for years.

The receptionist checked her name and directed her toward the waiting area.

Elena followed.

The waiting room seemed to go on forever.

People occupied nearly every chair, some sitting with their arms folded while others stared blankly at their phones, their expressions suggesting they had already been waiting for hours. A few faces were familiar, including a local commercial actress Elena had seen several times on television, though the woman seemed determined not to be recognized.

Elena took an empty seat near the corner.

Minutes became an hour.

Then another.

She checked her phone several times, but there were no messages from Damien, and surprisingly, she was grateful for that. She didn't want anything reminding her of the mansion or the man waiting there. She wanted this place to exist separately from the life she had been trapped in for three years.

Eventually, a nurse appeared at the entrance.

“Ms Blackwood?”

Elena lifted her head.

The nurse looked down at her clipboard before gesturing toward the hallway.

“Dr. Kane is ready for you.”

Elena stood, smoothing the fabric of her dress before following her.

The hallway was quieter than the waiting room, with framed certificates and photographs covering the walls, each one displaying a different stage of Adrian Kane's career. Elena caught glimpses of before and after photographs, medical diagrams and carefully preserved models of the human face, all of them reinforcing the reputation she had heard about.

The nurse stopped at a large wooden door.

“Go ahead.”

Elena placed her hand on the handle and pushed it open.

The first thing she noticed was the size of the office.

It wasn't really an office at all.

It looked more like a private medical gallery, with shelves filled with anatomical models, sculpted facial structures and detailed human caricatures arranged alongside books and medical journals. Everything had its place, yet nothing felt sterile.

Then she saw him.

Dr. Adrian Kane was standing beside his desk, dressed in a perfectly fitted shirt with the sleeves rolled slightly above his wrists. He wasn't what Elena had expected.

He was handsome.

Not in the polished, arrogant way Damien was handsome, but in a calmer way that didn't seem to require attention. His features were sharp, his posture relaxed and his expression surprisingly warm.

For one brief second, Elena understood why people spoke about him with such admiration.

He looked like the kind of man who could make someone feel safe simply by speaking.

He noticed her tension almost immediately.

“Here, hold my rabbit.”

Elena blinked.

“What?”

Adrian smiled and reached toward a small brown rabbit sitting comfortably inside a little enclosure near the corner of his office.

He lifted it carefully and placed it into Elena's waiting arms.

“This is Ekeba,” he explained. “She has been my office pet for longer than some of my employees have worked here.”

Elena looked down.

Ekeba was soft, warm and surprisingly calm, her little nose twitching as she settled against Elena's arms.

A smile escaped Elena before she could stop it.

Adrian noticed.

“There we go.”

“What?”

“You were tense when you walked in.”

Elena looked at him.

“I was?”

“Very.”

She looked back at the rabbit.

“Maybe I'm not used to being examined by someone who keeps rabbits in his office.”

He laughed softly.

“That's probably fair.”

Something about the exchange eased her nerves.

For the first time that morning, Elena stopped thinking about Damien.

The examination itself was thorough, with Adrian explaining every stage before doing anything and asking questions about her medical history, allergies, previous procedures and even whether anyone in her family had experienced complications from surgery. His manner remained professional throughout, but there was a gentleness in the way he spoke that Elena wasn't accustomed to receiving from men.

At one point, she lay back while he examined the proportions of her face, carefully studying the structure beneath her features.

A cool cucumber piece rested over her eyes while he prepared his notes, and Elena almost laughed at how absurd the situation felt.

“You can laugh,” Adrian said.

“I wasn't.”

“You were thinking about it.”

“How would you know?”

“I've spent years studying faces.”

Elena smiled beneath the cucumber slices.

“That's convenient.”

“It is.”

His voice carried a quiet amusement.

Afterward, Adrian carefully marked several areas on the examination sheet while explaining what could realistically be achieved and what could not.

He never once told her she was ugly.

He never once suggested she needed to become someone else.

Instead, he spoke about balance, proportion and helping her feel comfortable with the reflection she saw every morning.

That distinction stayed with her.

When the consultation finally ended, Elena sat across from him while he closed the file.

“My office will reach back out to you within three days,” Adrian said. “Once we've reviewed everything, we'll discuss the next step.”

Elena nodded.

“Thank you, Doctor.”

“You're welcome, Ms Blackwood.”

She stood, collected her handbag and walked toward the door.

Before leaving, she glanced back.

Adrian had already returned to his desk, but he looked up and gave her a small smile.

Elena returned it before stepping into the hallway.

The elevator ride felt strangely different from the one she had imagined.

She had gone there expecting to meet a surgeon.

Instead, she had met a man who had spoken to her with more patience in one afternoon than Damien had shown her in years.

By the time she reached the car, she was still thinking about him.

His voice.

His calmness.

The way he had noticed her nervousness without making her feel foolish for it.

And, annoyingly, how handsome he was.

Elena sat inside the car and stared through the window as the building slowly disappeared behind her.

She knew she shouldn't be thinking about Adrian Kane this way.

She was married.

She had gone there for surgery, not romance.

Yet as the city blurred beyond the glass, one thought kept returning despite every attempt she made to push it away.

She couldn't stop thinking about how gentle he had been.

And how dangerous it was that she already wanted to see him again.