جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 20

Ariana smoothed the strap of her satin dress, then entered Harrington Hall, the sound of her heels whispering against the gleaming floor. The place was already alive with conversation, glasses clinking, laughter rising and falling in practiced waves. It wasn’t her first time in a room like this, but tonight felt different.Tonight, she wasn’t alone.Adrian walked beside her, calm as ever, his presence steady in a way that made her feel both reassured and unsettled. He looked like he belonged here—more than anyone else in the room—and that thought alone made her glance at him twice.“Stay close,” she murmured under her breath.“I am,” he replied.Ariana nodded once and moved forward, slipping easily into the role she had created. Her shoulders straightened, her expression settled into polite confidence, and within seconds, she was greeting familiar faces, exchanging brief words, and smiling where necessary.But it didn’t take long.She felt it.That stare again.Her steps slowed just

Through the tall windows of Adrian Sterling's outside Annex apartment, the city’s lights glimmered like distant, cold diamonds. The cool evening air brushed against his face, straightening his coat as he stood looking out at the grid of the streets below. He felt incredulous. He could hardly believe he had actually cancelled a meeting with a possible partner worth $100million—a deal that most men would kill for simply because of this little lady who had accidentally entered his life. This little lady had called him to tattle about that fucked Mark Lawson digging about him and her, and for some reason, that had taken priority over everything else. Not that he cares about Mark anyways; Adrian knew how to bury a trail. If he didn't want a man to find out anything about him, even if that man dug six feet deep, he wouldn't get a single shred of information. He was a master of his own history, a man who had successfully scrubbed his true status to live this lie. But still, he couldn't help

The rain was drumming against the window like a persistent headache. Ariana stood in her kitchen, nursing a mug of tea that had gone cold twenty minutes ago. She wasn't "scared" she was pissed. Her life had turned into a high stakes chess match she hadn't signed up for, and the man currently occupying her guest room was the biggest question mark of all. Adrian was in the living room, hunched over a laptop. He still had that faded hoodie on, the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. He looked like a grad student pulling an all nighter, not a man who could blink and erase a company from the map. "You’re brooding," Adrian said, his eyes never leaving the screen. "It’s loud." "I'm not brooding. I'm wondering why my morning involves dodging ego bruised millionaires and watching the local news like it's a horror movie," Ariana snapped. Before he could answer, a sharp, rhythmic chime echoed from the door. It wasn't Mark’s frantic pounding. This was a knock that expected a red carpet. Ariana

The international arrivals terminal was a chaotic mess of noise and humidity that hit Ariana like a physical wall. The air-conditioning was struggling against the afternoon heat, and the crowd was a sea of sweaty faces and jagged luggage carts. Ariana stood by the metal railing, her feet aching in her office heels, feeling the grime of a long day at the marketing firm coating her skin. Beside her, Cassie was scrolling through her phone, remarkably composed for someone who had just spent eight hours staring at spreadsheets and was now stuck at an airport. Cassie had been a steadying presence since her transfer from the upstate branch. She was practical, she didn't gossip, and she’d stepped into the workflow at the firm without causing a stir. But today, the hierarchy was about to reset. Then, the sliding doors hissed open, and there she was. Maya looked like she’d been dragged through three different climate zones. Her hair was a frizzy halo of dark curls, her skin was tanned a deep

The drive back from Maya’s apartment was a long, suffocating stretch of silence. The silver hatchback didn’t have the same rattling charm as Adrian’s old rusted sedan, but it felt just as cramped. The AC was blowing a weak, lukewarm breeze that did nothing to cut through the humidity still clinging to their skin after hauling Maya’s life story up three flights of stairs. Ariana leaned her head against the window, watching the streetlamps flicker past in a blur of yellow. She kept thinking about Maya’s face—the way her best friend had looked at Adrian like he was a ticking bomb disguised as a delivery driver. Maya wasn't wrong to be suspicious. Everything about the last forty-eight hours felt like a fever dream. Mark Lawson, a man who had spent months making Ariana’s life a living hell, had suddenly vanished into a cloud of legal smoke. "How did you actually do it, Adrian?" Ariana asked, her voice cracking the quiet. She didn't look at him. She couldn't. She was afraid that if she l