CHAPTER 18

ADRIAN

I couldn't stop looking at her.

Elena stood there with tears sliding down her face, staring at the ice cream in my hand like it might disappear if she blinked. For a second I actually second-guessed myself. All I'd wanted was to give her something small....something that might make today hurt a little less than it clearly had the potential to.

But the way she looked at us tightened something in my chest I hadn't asked for.

She wiped her cheeks fast, embarrassed at being caught crying. "Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me."

"I do."

Her fingers brushed the teddy bear before Elias thrust it into her arms without waiting to be asked. She smiled through the tears and took it. "Thank you, sweetheart."

He didn't say anything back. He just reached for her hand instead, and she took that too.

Something about it caught me off guard every single time I saw it. My son had spent years keeping people at arm's length, and here he was holding her hand like it was nothing at all, like it had never been complicated in the first place. And Elena looked happier than I'd seen her look since the day I hired her.

Maybe that's why I'd done it. Maybe I'd just wanted to see that look on her face.

I frowned at the thought before I could stop myself. Why did that matter this much to me?

"Let's go home," I said, turning toward the car.

The drive back was quiet. Elias sat beside Elena in the back seat, clutching the bear, and a few minutes in, Elena's head dropped against the seat. Asleep.

She'd barely slept the night before.... I'd seen the light under the library door long past midnight, knew she'd been running through notes for hours. Now she was finally letting herself rest.

I caught her in the rearview mirror. She looked different asleep. Younger. Softer. Beautiful. Whatever walls she kept up during the day had quietly come down.

I looked away.

I'd been paying too much attention to Elena lately. Her favorite foods. Her favorite color. The way she smiled at something small Elias did. Details I'd never bothered remembering about anyone else had somehow lodged themselves in my head without my permission.

When had that started happening?

My grip tightened on the wheel. She was supposed to be my fake wife. Nothing more. Separate rooms. Separate lives. No room in the arrangement for feelings that weren't in the contract. She was supposed to help Elias and I was supposed to give her a way to rebuild her life....that was the whole deal, plain and simple.

So why had I remembered the ice cream? Why the teddy bear specifically, the exact things her own parents used to give her?

I didn't like where that question was headed.

I glanced at the mirror again. Elias was awake now, watching her sleep. Carefully, he set the teddy bear against her side and guided her hand onto it, like he wanted her to keep holding something even while she rested.

My chest tightened watching him do it.

When had my son started caring about someone this much?

I looked at Elena, then at him, and a thought slipped in before I could stop it.

When did I?

I pushed it away immediately. I didn't have an answer for it, and I didn't especially want to go looking for one.

Elena woke when we pulled into the driveway, blinking around before she placed where we were.

"Did I fall asleep?"

"Yeah."

She glanced at Elias, still holding onto the bear, and a small smile crossed her face before she turned it on me.

"Adrian."

"Yes?"

"Thank you. The ice cream, the bear." She said it quieter this time.

I leaned against the car. "It was nothing."

Her smile dipped. "It wasn't nothing." She looked down at the bear in Elias's arms. "My parents used to do that. Every time."

"I know."

"You remembered."

I didn't answer right away. Of course I'd remembered.... I'd been listening that night more closely than I probably should've let myself.

"I remember things people tell me."

She gave me a small, real smile. "Well. You remembered something that mattered."

I didn't have a good response for that, so I just nodded.

She looked toward the house. "Walking out of the exam hall like old times felt nice. It didn't feel empty."

Something pulled uncomfortably behind my ribs at that.

"You shouldn't have to feel empty walking out of anywhere."

Her eyes met mine and held there a beat too long before she smiled again. " Yeah, I'll keep that in mind."

I cleared my throat. "Exams are done now, at least till results come back."

"Thankfully."

"So what's next for you?"

She shrugged. "No idea. I've spent so long preparing for that one exam I never thought past it."

I considered her for a second. "Then we'll figure something out."

"We?"

I nodded toward Elias. "The three of us."

He looked up at the sound of his name.

"What do you think?" I asked him.

He didn't answer, obviously. But he stood and took my hand and Elena's hand.

She laughed. "I think that's a yes."

I found myself smiling too. "Then it's settled."

---

The next afternoon we went to an amusement park. I hadn't set foot in one in years, couldn't remember the last time I'd willingly spent an afternoon around screaming children and overpriced snacks.

Somehow, standing there with the two of them, I didn't hate it.

Elias held Elena's hand as we walked, taking in everything....the rides, the games, the oversized stuffed animals hanging off every booth. He didn't say a word, but the curiosity on his face said enough for me.

Elena caught it too. "Look." She pointed at a small carousel.

He stared at it a long moment.

"Want to go?"

He nodded his head immediately and started walking toward it.

She looked back at me. "That's a yes."

"Apparently."

We watched him ride. I stood there for a good few minutes just taking it in... my son actually smiling, not the small polite one he sometimes gave her, but something real, eyes bright, shoulders loose. Elena stood beside me watching him with the exact same expression.

And I understood, standing there, why I'd brought them at all. I wanted this. Not the meetings, not the calls, not the contracts. This. My son happy. Elena happy. An ordinary afternoon that had no business feeling this good.

A family that wasn't really a family. A wife who wasn't really mine.

She caught me staring. "What?"

"Nothing."

"You're staring."

"Allowed to look at my wife."

Color rose in her cheeks. "Fake wife."

"Still my wife."

"You're impossible."

"So I've been told."

For the first time in longer than I could remember, I wasn't Adrian Blackwood the billionaire everyone tiptoed around. I was just a man spending his afternoon with two people who'd become important to me somewhere along the way, without my noticing exactly when.

Later, we walked a few steps behind Elias while he pushed a small toy car along the path. I was about to say something when a woman cut across our path without looking and bumped straight into Elena, hard enough to knock her off balance.

I caught her arm before she could stumble further. "Careful."

The woman turned halfway. "Sorry." She didn't wait for a response, just kept walking and disappeared into the crowd.

Elena hadn't moved.

Her face had gone completely white.

"Elena?"

Nothing. Her eyes stayed locked on the direction the woman had gone.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

I'd seen her scared before. I'd seen her hurt, and angry, and everything in between. I'd never seen her look like this.

"Elena." Still nothing.

I followed her gaze into the crowd, then looked back at her. "Who was that?"

Her lips parted. No sound came out. She took my hand and tightened around it without her seeming to notice she'd done it.

And for the first time since I'd known her, I had absolutely no idea what was happening in front of me.

Who was that woman?