Chapter 6 ~ The Father, And His Son

{Harlow’s POV} 

“Harlow.”

My husband’s voice drifted through the room just then, and every muscle in my body immediately tightened.

“I’m in the bathroom,” I called back quickly. “One minute.”

No response came— which somehow made the moment feel worse.

I hurried to the sink and splashed cold water across my face before lifting my head toward the mirror. The woman staring back at me looked suspicious, and not in a criminal-mastermind sort of way either. She looked like someone who had recently made a series of spectacularly poor decisions and was now being forced to stand in the consequences.

Literally. 

I studied my reflection carefully now, searching for anything unusual. Anything obvious. Anything that might encourage questions I had absolutely no interest in answering.

Fortunately, my face still looked like my face.

Unfortunately, my brain still felt completely detached from reality. I still felt like I was sweating, only that it was on the inside now. 

I pressed my palms against the edge of the sink and forced myself to breathe. The problem wasn’t my appearance. 

The problem was that my thoughts refused to cooperate. One half of my brain remained trapped in the last twenty minutes, replaying moments it had no business replaying, while the other half was desperately trying to remind me that the owner of this estate was standing on the other side of the door.

Neither half was being particularly helpful.

I closed my eyes briefly and forced myself to focus. “Kael was tomorrow’s disaster. Adrien was tonight’s.” I told myself. 

With that wonderfully depressing reorientation firmly in place, I straightened my shoulders and stepped back into the bedroom.

Adrien stood near a wardrobe, removing parts of his formal attire from the banquet. His jacket was already hanging neatly beside him, and he was in the process of loosening his tie when he glanced in my direction.

The sight immediately reminded me why I had been sent here in the first place.

This was never a marriage. It was a transaction disguised as one, a contract I had accepted because my mother needed treatment and desperation has a remarkable talent for making impossible decisions sound reasonable.

In summary, I had no options here. No refusal. 

Adrien removed the tie completely and placed it beside the jacket before turning toward me.

His gaze traveled over me slowly, and my heart nearly stopped. For one ridiculous second, I wondered whether guilt was visible to the naked eye because if it was, I was finished.

“You handled the preparations well today, Harlow.”

I blinked.

“Oh.” I cleared my throat.

“Thank you.”

“The board was impressed.”

Relief and confusion collided inside my chest.

That was what he was looking at?

Not my expression? Or my nervousness?

Just the banquet. Good. 

“The hall looked exceptional,” he continued. “Several of them commented on it.”

I nodded politely while internally experiencing numerous nervous breakdowns.

“I’m glad everything went well.”

“It did.”

Adrien crossed the room at an unhurried pace, stopping beside a cabinet near the window. Everything about him always seemed measured, as though every movement had been considered beforehand. Nothing wasted. Nothing accidental.

It was strangely intimidating.

“You adapt quickly,” he said.

The compliment should have pleased me. Instead, it made me uncomfortable.

Maybe because I still didn’t understand him.

Or maybe because Elias’s note refused to leave my head.

You are not the first wife…

You will not be the last…

But you still have time to become the first who leaves alive…

The words resurfaced so suddenly that a chill slipped down my spine. The note hadn’t said leave. It had said leave alive, and the distinction continued to bother me in ways I couldn’t fully explain.

And there was the topic of Kael…

“Harlow.”

I realized belatedly that Adrien was looking at me again.

“Sorry?”

His gaze lingered for a second before he spoke.

“You seem distracted.”

Panic immediately returned.

“Oh. No. I’m fine.”

A terrible lie; an almost obvious one.

Thankfully, Adrien merely nodded.

“It has been a long day.”

“Yes,” I agreed a little too quickly. “A very long day.”

Silence settled between us; Not an awkward silence and not a comfortable one either, but the sort that seemed to stretch tighter with every passing second.

The longer it lasted, the more aware I became of the room around me, from the massive bed to the dim lighting and the uncomfortable fact that I was standing in my husband’s bedroom trying very hard not to think about what had happened there with his son. 

I immediately stopped that train of thought.

Adrien moved toward the bed.

My pulse stumbled, then accelerated, then apparently decided that running a marathon inside my ribcage was the required response to the situation.

I remained perfectly still. Not because I was calm, but because I was afraid moving would somehow make me look even more suspicious.

Adrien sat on the edge of the bed and regarded me for a moment. His expression remained calm, satisfied, and completely unreadable. More importantly, as far as I could tell, he remained completely unaware of what had happened before he arrived.

Or so I desperately hoped.

Then, after a brief pause, he spoke.

“Now.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“Your reward.”

And suddenly breathing became difficult again.