THE GUEST ROOM

The storm hadn’t let up.

 Thunder rolled through the city like a warning, echoing off the glass towers.

 Adrian led Lena through the quiet halls of his penthouse. Every step sounded too loud, too intimate. He didn’t speak, and she didn’t dare break the silence.

 He opened the guest room door, motioning for her to go inside.

 “You can stay here for the night,” he said, his voice steady but cold.

 Lena stepped past him, shivering. The room was spacious — marble floors, pale curtains, soft light spilling from a single lamp. She stood there for a moment, as if afraid to move.

 Adrian watched her from the doorway. The years apart had changed her — not just the curve of her body, but something deeper. The girl who once laughed at his sarcasm now looked like a ghost in borrowed light.

 He finally spoke.

 “You should get out of those wet clothes.”

 Her eyes flicked to his, startled.

 “I— I didn’t bring anything else.”

 He exhaled through his nose, running a hand through his hair. “I’ll have my assistant bring something up.”

 She nodded faintly, fingers tightening around her coat.

 “Thank you,” she murmured.

 Adrian turned to leave, but her voice stopped him.

 “Adrian…”

 He paused, back still to her.

 “I’m sorry.”

 He didn’t turn around.

 “You said that before you vanished,” he said quietly. “It didn’t mean much then, either.”

 Her breath caught.

 When he finally left, the soft click of the door sounded like an ending — but for both of them, it was anything but.

 ---

 In his office, Adrian poured himself a new glass of scotch, but it didn’t calm him. The image of Lena — drenched, terrified, and pregnant — looped through his mind like a broken reel.

 He had questions, too many.

 Why now?

 What was she running from?

 And most of all… why lie about the baby being his?

 He pulled up his father’s old files on his computer — encrypted, sealed with a password he hadn’t touched in years. His father, Richard Cole, had died suddenly — heart attack, the reports said. But Adrian had never believed it. The company’s research division had gone dark after his death. Several projects were “discontinued,” others wiped entirely.

 Now Lena was back, whispering about his father’s past.

 He typed in the old password — his mother’s birthday.

 Access denied.

 He tried again.

 Denied.

 He leaned back in his chair, jaw tight. Someone had changed the credentials.

 And that meant someone else was still in his father’s system.

 ---

 A soft knock at the office door.

 “Come in,” he said without looking up.

 The door opened.

 Lena stood there, wearing one of his shirts — white, oversized, buttoned wrong at the collar. Her hair was still damp, curling against her skin.

 He looked up, irritation colliding with something he refused to name.

 “You should be resting.”

 “I couldn’t sleep,” she said softly. “I keep… hearing things.”

 He frowned. “What kind of things?”

 “Footsteps. In the hallway.” She swallowed. “And— the lights flickered again.”

 He stood. “You’re safe here. No one can get past my security.”

 “That’s what you think,” she whispered.

 He studied her, trying to decide if she was scared or playing him. Her eyes gave away nothing except exhaustion.

 “Sit,” he said.

 She hesitated, then obeyed.

 “Start talking,” Adrian said. “You said this has something to do with my father. What did you mean?”

 Lena’s hands twisted together. “He was working on something before he died. A project called Erevos. He said it would change everything — genetics, medicine, even human DNA.”

 Adrian frowned. The word meant nothing to him.

 “What does that have to do with you?”

 Lena’s voice trembled. “I was one of the researchers. We thought it was about curing disease, but it wasn’t. It was about enhancement — control.”

 He froze. “Control?”

 She nodded. “The ability to modify human traits. Intelligence. Strength. Obedience.” Her voice dropped lower. “We were testing on embryos, Adrian. Artificial ones. Until they realized natural pregnancies could carry it, too.”

 A chill ran through him. “You’re saying—”

 “That’s why I ran.” She met his eyes. “Because I was pregnant… and they wanted my child.”

 The air thickened between them.

 Adrian could feel his pulse pounding in his throat.

 “Who are ‘they’?”

 “The same people who killed your father,” she whispered.

 Silence.

 Outside, thunder rolled again.

 Adrian’s hands clenched into fists. “You expect me to believe that? My father died of a heart attack.”

 Her gaze hardened. “Did he?”

 He stared at her, trying to read the truth in her trembling lips.

 For a moment, he saw not the woman who betrayed him — but someone terrified beyond measure, fighting to keep something safe.

 The baby.

 ---

 A sharp noise broke through the moment — a beep from his security monitor.

 Adrian crossed the room, checking the live feed. The elevator camera flickered.

 Then it went dark.

 “What the hell—”

 Lena jumped to her feet. “They found me.”

 “Who?”

 “Please, Adrian,” she said, grabbing his arm. “You have to trust me. We need to go. Now.”

 Adrian moved to the drawer behind his desk, pulling out a small pistol — standard protection, licensed and legal.

 “Stay behind me.”

 They stepped into the hallway. The storm outside masked the silence in the building. The only sound was the hum of the air vents and Lena’s uneven breathing.

 At the elevator, the lights flickered again — then came back on.

 Empty.

 Adrian exhaled. “False alarm.”

 Lena shook her head. “No. They don’t use doors.”

 “What?”

 She looked at him, eyes glistening with panic. “They use access codes. They could already be inside.”

 And then, from somewhere below, came the sound — faint but unmistakable — of glass shattering.

 Adrian’s pulse quickened.

 He turned to Lena, his voice low and steady.

 “Stay close. Whatever this is… I’ll handle it.”

 But deep down, he knew this was only the beginning — and that by letting her in tonight, he’d just opened a door he might never be able to close again.