Chapter 7: The Only Difference

"I want him brought in for questioning," Adrian said. "Today."

Marsh rubbed his eyes across the desk. "The evidence isn't concrete yet, Adrian. A referral on a catering form isn't proof he knew anything about the gunman."

"It's enough to ask him questions. That's all I'm asking for."

"Fine," Marsh said. "I'll send officers to bring him in."

The officers left within the hour. Adrian waited by his phone, Claire pacing the length of his study beside him, both of them too tense to sit still.

The call came less than an hour later.

"We got there," the officer said, his voice tight. "The place is packed. Some kind of charity event. Reporters everywhere, cameras set up on the lawn. If we walk in and pull Vale out in front of that many people, they're going to want to know why. And once they start digging, it won't take long before they land on the wedding, and from there, on Sophia."

"So back off," Adrian said, jaw tight.

"Backing off now, sir."

The line went dead. Adrian set the phone down hard.

"They're pulling out," he told Claire. "Too many reporters."

Claire sank onto the couch, relief and frustration fighting for space on her face. "So he just gets to walk around free tonight."

"For now."

Ten minutes later, the officer called back, his voice grim.

"We got spotted leaving," he said. "A couple of photographers caught us on the way out. I don't know yet if they got anything useful, but they got something."

Adrian closed his eyes. "Understood. Keep me posted."

He hung up and looked at Claire. "This might already be a problem."

"How much of a problem."

"I don't know yet."

Dinner that night was quiet, staff moving in and out with plates neither of them touched much. Claire pushed food around hers, saying nothing.

Adrian watched her for a while before he finally spoke.

"You've barely said a word since we sat down," he said. "What's wrong."

"Nothing." She said

"Claire." Adrain replied

"It's nothing you need to fix tonight." She set her fork down anyway, some resolve visibly cracking in her. "It's just been sitting with me. That's all." She said

"What has." He said

She was quiet a moment longer, like she was still deciding whether saying it out loud was worth the trouble.

"What you said to me," she finally admitted. "The night we got married. That you never wanted a wife, that I was nothing more to you than a stranger you never asked for." Her voice stayed level, but it clearly cost her to keep it that way. "I told myself it didn't matter. That I shouldn't care what a stranger thinks of me. But it's hard to hear someone say you're unwanted twice in one lifetime and not have it land somewhere."

Adrian's expression shifted, something uncomfortable crossing it. "I didn't mean it the way it sounded."

"You said it plainly enough."

"I was trying to set boundaries. Not hurt you."

"You can set boundaries without making someone feel like a burden, Adrian." Claire's voice sharpened slightly. "And for the record, I didn't want a husband either. I didn't want any of this. I had a whole life before your father's business deal turned me into someone's wife overnight. I lost that the same day you did."

"That's not the same thing."

"Isn't it?" She looked at him directly now. "You lost your freedom to choose. So did I. The only difference is you got to be cruel about it, and I just had to sit there and take it."

Adrian's jaw tightened, something flickering behind his eyes that looked almost like shame. "You're right. I was cruel. I'm sorry."

"I don't need an apology that undoes what already happened."

"Then what do you need."

"I don't know," Claire said honestly. "Maybe just for you to understand that I'm not the enemy here. I'm not the one who did this to either of us."

"I know that."

"Do you? Because it didn't feel that way that night."

Adrian didn't answer right away, and the silence stretched long enough that Claire wondered if he even had an answer at all.

"I can't promise I won't ever say something like that again," he said finally. "I'm not good at any of this. I never learned how to be."

"That's not really an apology either."

"It's the honest version of one."

Claire shook her head, more tired than angry now. "We're not going to agree on this tonight, are we."

"Doesn't look like it."

His phone rang before either of them could say anything else.

He glanced at the screen, his father's name lighting up the display, and something in his face shifted immediately.

"I have to take this," he said, already standing.

Claire watched him step away, phone pressed to his ear, and heard his voice change the moment his father spoke.

"Dad? What's wrong?"

A pause. Claire couldn't hear Charles's side of the call, only watched Adrian's face go progressively more serious.

"Tonight? Why can't this wait until morning?"

Another pause, longer this time.

"Fine," Adrian said finally, his voice tight. "I'll be there within the hour."

He ended the call and turned back to Claire, all the softness from a moment ago gone, replaced by something closer to alarm.

"That was my father," he said. "He needs to see me at the office. Tonight. He said it's important, and he sounded..." Adrian trailed off, searching for the word. "He sounded very angry."

Claire's stomach tightened. "Angry?"

"I don't know," Adrian said. "But in thirty two years, I've never heard my father's voice sound like that."