unmasked desire のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 81 - チャプター 90

The second revelation was nothing like the first. There was no careful buildup, no tentative language, no illusion that this truth could be eased into the room. Elias understood that the moment Alexander asked for the meeting. Not requested but asked. As if bracing himself for impact. They sat together this time. Not across the table, not at opposite ends of the room, not pretending neutrality. Elias chose the chair beside Alexander deliberately, close enough that their knees brushed. Alexander noticed. His breath hitched, then steadied. Whatever came next, they would face it visibly. Their parents arrived in fragments—Alexander’s father first, jaw set, already armored. His mother followed, eyes wary, tired from crying. Elias’s mother came last, her expression unreadable, concern etched deep enough to look like pain. No one offered refreshments. Alexander cleared his throat. “We’re not here to revisit what I told you before,” he said. “This is… an extension of it.” His father’

The knock came just after noon. Not sharp. Not hesitant. Three solid raps, like someone who expected to be let in. Elias looked up from the kitchen counter, where he’d been staring at a mug of untouched coffee for several minutes. Alexander paused mid-step near the windows, phone still in his hand, unread emails glowing on the screen. They exchanged a glance. “I’ll get it,” Elias said. When he opened the door, Marcus stood there with two pizza boxes stacked against his chest, an overnight bag slung over one shoulder, and another rolling suitcase at his feet. “Hi,” Marcus said brightly. “I brought carbs and moral support.” Elias froze for half a second. Then he laughed and it cracked, emotion rushing up too fast for him to dam it properly. He stepped forward and hugged Marcus hard, face pressing into his jacket. “You didn’t even call,” Elias said into the fabric. Marcus hugged him back just as tightly. “You sounded like you might collapse if I gave you time to overthink it.”

The first notification arrived less than thirty seconds after midnight.Alexander watched the screen light up from across the room, the glow sharp against the dark. He didn’t reach for it. Neither did Elias. They stood shoulder to shoulder by the penthouse windows, the city spread out below them like a restless organism—awake, watching, waiting.Then the second notification came.Then the third.By the time the clock turned to 12:03 a.m., the phone was vibrating continuously on the table, a low, insistent hum that felt almost alive.“That’s it,” Elias said quietly. “That’s the sound of it being real.”Alexander nodded. His chest felt tight not panic, not regret. Something closer to vertigo. Like stepping off a ledge and trusting the ground to appear beneath your feet.He picked up the phone at last.Hashtags were already forming. His name. The word gay threaded through them like a spark. Screenshots of the statement. Threads dissecting punctuation, tone, implication. Praise and condem

Alexander sipped his coffee slowly, the taste bitter against the hum of uncertainty that had been lingering in his chest all morning. Skylar had insisted on meeting him again not for coffee, exactly, but to “talk strategy.” He should have refused. He knew he should have refused. But something about the ease with which she carried herself, the certainty behind her soft voice, made him linger in her orbit longer than he wanted to admit.“You’ve done so much,” she said, smiling in that way that seemed entirely practiced yet disarmingly genuine. “Crisis management, PR, navigating the family fallout… And yet, here you are, publicly tied to him. Your stepbrother. Elias.”He frowned. “What about it?”She tilted her head, fingers drumming lightly on the table. “It’s… confusing public perception. And not just the tabloids. Partners, shareholders—they read between the lines. Do you really think your business recovery is easier if your personal life dominates the headlines?”Alexander leaned bac

The penthouse was silent except for the low hum of the city below, a background that did nothing to soften the tension between them. Alexander sat rigid in the living room, hands gripping the arms of the sofa, jaw tight. Elias stood across the room, arms crossed, eyes blazing not with anger at the world, but at the man he loved, the man he was terrified of losing.“I can’t believe you,” Elias finally said, his voice low but trembling. “After everything we’ve said, everything we promised… you’re listening to her. To Skylar of all people, over me.”Alexander’s head snapped up, eyes sharp, hurt flickering behind the usual mask of control. “I’m not listening to her!” he shot back, voice shaking with its own storm. “I’m trying to think, Elias! You have no idea the pressure I’m under—my family, the business, the media. Every decision I make is a tightrope. Do you think I take your feelings lightly? That I don’t care what we’re building?”Elias’s fists clenched, nails biting into his palms.