ログインLila’s POV“YOU’REnot leaving me tonight,” Adrian said quietly.The words landed before I could step back.Before I could thinkor breathe.His hand closed around my wrist, firm but not rough, the grip precise enough to stop me without making a scene. It was controlled. Everything about him was always controlled. The pressure of his fingers wasn’t painful, but it wasn’t something I could ignore either. It was a decision made for me.I stilled.Not because I wanted to. Because I had to.The hallway stretched around us, empty and dim, the silence thick enough to hold every movement, every shift of breath. For a second, I didn’t say anything. I focused on keeping my expression neutral, on slowing the pulse that had started to spike under my skin.“I wasn’t aware I needed permission,” I said finally.My voice came out steadier than I felt.His grip didn’t loosen.“Not perm
Lila’s POV“DON’T LOOK nervous,” Jacob murmured behind me.I didn’t turn. I couldn’t.Because if I did, if I let myself lean into the sound of his voice, into the steadiness of him, I knew it would show. It would soften something in my face that I could not afford to soften right now. Not with everything tightening around us. Not with the air inside the estate feeling like it had shifted into something sharper, something that watched and listened even when no one was speaking.“I’m not nervous,” I said quietly.The lie sat too easily on my tongue.I stood in the dim corridor just outside the study, my hand curled loosely around the small object hidden beneath the fold of my sleeve. The drive pressed against my skin like a pulse I couldn’t ignore. Every second I held it, I became more aware of it. Of what it carried. Of what it could destroy.Jacob stepped closer behind me, just enough that I felt the heat of him at my back, not touching but close enough that my body registered it anyw
Lila’s POV“THAT’S too early,” Marco said sharply.His voice cut through the room before the door had even fully closed behind us.I stood just inside the study, the air still heavy from the rush of getting here, from the message still burning at the back of my mind. The shift in timing had already started to settle in my chest like something solid and immovable, something that refused to be ignored no matter how hard I tried to push through it.Too early.It echoed louder now. Because it wasn’t just inconvenient. It was dangerous.Marco paced once across the room, his hand dragging down his face as he turned back toward me, his expression tighter than I had ever seen it.“How much earlier?” he asked.“Morning,” I said. “Not afternoon anymore.”His jaw clenched. “That cuts our window in half.”“More than half,” Jacob said from behind me.I felt him step closer as he spoke, his presence settling at my back again, not touching but close enough to feel. Grounding. Watching. Always watchi
Lila’s POV“SAY GOODBYE now,” Jacob said. The words didn’t sound like him, they were too steady and too final. Like he had already walked through something in his head and come back with an answer he didn’t want to say out loud.I stared at him.We were still on the balcony, the night air cool against my skin, the silence of the estate stretching around us like something waiting to break. The lights below glowed faintly across the grounds, distant, almost unreal compared to the way everything felt up here.Close, tight, and too real.“I’m not doing that,” I said.My voice came out sharper than I intended, but I didn’t soften it.I couldn’t.Because the second I even entertained the idea of saying goodbye, it meant I was accepting that tomorrow could take him away from me.Or me away from him.And I refused.Jacob didn’t move right away.He leaned against the railing, one hand gripping the metal bar just enough that I could see the tension in his knuckles. His gaze stayed on me, stead
Lila’s POV“YOU SHOULDN’T be here,” I whispered.The words barely made it past my lips before the door clicked shut behind him.Jacob didn’t answer right away.He stood there for a second, just inside the room, his hand still resting on the handle like he was deciding whether to lock it or leave it as it was. The dim light from the balcony filtered through the curtains, cutting shadows across his face, making his expression harder to read but not hiding the tension in his jaw.“I know,” he said finally in a low voice. But there was something underneath it. Something frayed. Something too close to breaking.I took a step toward him. Like I wasn’t entirely sure what I was walking into. “You could get seen,” I added, quieter now.“I already was,” he replied.That made me stop. “What?”“Not enough to matter,” he said quickly, pushing off the door and stepping closer. “Security’s distracted. Adrian’s still tied up in the office reports. No one’s watching the west wing right now.”I let out
Lila’s POV“NOTHING’S MISSING,” Adrian said slowly. The words came after a long, deliberate silence. Long enough for every second to stretch thin, for my heartbeat to grow louder in my ears, and for me to feel every inch of the room before I even stepped fully inside it.I crossed the threshold carefully. Not hesitant or even rushed, but just measured. Like every movement mattered.The air inside my father’s office felt exactly the same. That was the first thing that hit me. No disturbance. No sign of struggle. No overturned furniture or broken glass.The desk sat exactly where it always had, papers aligned in neat, precise stacks. The chair was pushed in just enough to look untouched. The shelves along the far wall remained lined with books and old records, the same worn edges and familiar arrangement I had memorized over the past weeks.Too perfect and that was the problem. Like someone had come in and made sure it looked untouched. Or like nothing had ever happened here at all.I
Lila’s POVTHE ESTATE felt heavier after the challenger went public.Not louder. Not chaotic. Just dense, like the air before a storm that refuses to break.I spent the morning pretending to read emails while my thoughts looped around the same question. How much of this was happening because of me,
Lila’s POV“YOU DON’Thave to stay up,” Michael had said hours ago, his voice already heavy with exhaustion.I nodded, lied, and waited until the house fell quiet anyway.Sleep did not come. It ne
Lila’s POVI WOKEwith Jacob’s mouth still on mine.Not the act of it. Not even the heat. It was the restraint that haunted me. The way he had stopped himself when everything in his body had been leaning toward me.
Lila’s POVTHE ESTATE learned how to whisper before it learned how to scream.By the third morning after the missing documents, I could feel it in the way doors closed more carefully, in the way conversations stopped the moment I entered a room. Even the light felt filtered, as if the house itself







