The ride home felt longer than the flight of an airplane. Adrian kept his attention fixed on the night rolling past the window, jaw clenched tight, shoulders rigid.
Elena sat on the opposite side of the car, hands folded in her lap. She didn't look at him, not even once. Not because she didn't want to, but because she didn't trust what she might find in his eyes.
After the way he'd pulled away from her.
After the way he'd said she wasn't supposed to matter.
After the way he'd looked at her like she'd cracked open something he never meant to expose.
The car slid through the city in a smooth, muted hum.
"Are you alright?" she finally asked, barely above a whisper.
His gaze didn't shift. "I'm fine."
Lie.
She heard it in the tight edge of his voice.
She looked back at her hands. "You don't have to talk to me like I'm a stranger."
His stare flicked to her then. Sharp, cold, defensive. "I thought that's what you wanted."
She blinked. "When did I ever say that?"
He didn't answer. Not in words.
Just turned away again, as if anything he gave her would cost him too much.
The rest of the ride was quiet.
By the time they reached the estate, Adrian didn't wait for the driver to open the door. He stepped out immediately.
Elena followed him inside, the echo of their footsteps trailing down the hallway like a reminder they had no idea how to walk beside each other.
At the foot of the stairs, she stopped.
"So this is what happens now?" she asked. "We pretend nothing happened?"
Adrian paused mid-step.
A beat of silence.
Then another.
"Nothing did happen," he said quietly.
That one hurt more than she expected.
But she nodded.
"Goodnight, Adrian."
She started up the stairs before she lost her composure. Halfway up, she heard him exhale softly, like he wanted to say something but strangled the words before they could escape.
She didn't turn around.
She didn't want to see him shut himself off again.
Elena couldn't sleep.
Even after she changed, brushed her hair, and slipped beneath the sheets, her mind refused to quiet.
Every moment replayed:
Cecilia's sneer.
Adrian's subtle anger.
His rare flash of fear.
His hands clenching on the terrace railing after she left.
She wished she didn't care.
She wished she could pretend the contract was just a contract.
But there was a truth she couldn't hide from anymore.
She was falling for him.
She hated that.
Hated herself.
Hated the circumstance.
Hated Adrian too, a little, for being the kind of man a heart would trip for even when it shouldn't.
She finally drifted off sometime after midnight.
Adrian didn't sleep at all.
Not for a second.
He sat in his study with the lights off, the glow from the city painting faint lines along the edges of his face. He looked like a man trying to control the ocean with his bare hands.
Elena's voice kept replaying in his head.
"You don't have to talk to me like I'm a stranger."
He rubbed a hand across his jaw, frustrated at himself. He shouldn't have gone out to the terrace. He shouldn't have followed her. Shouldn't have let her touch him. Shouldn't have let her see what she wasn't supposed to see.
Weakness.
Softness.
Fear.
He wasn't supposed to have those left.
She was chipping at his walls without meaning to. Or worse, she did mean to. He didn't know which scared him more.
He was still awake when his phone vibrated.
A message from Victor, his head of security:
We have a problem. You need to see this.
A cold line slid down Adrian's spine.
Morning came, Elena made her way downstairs slowly, stomach tight with uncertainty. When she reached the dining hall, Adrian was already there, dressed in a fresh suit, perfectly composed but something in him looked colder than usual.
His eyes lifted when she entered.
"Good morning," she offered.
He gave a small nod. "Eat something before your tutoring session."
"What tutoring session?"
He tapped his tablet. "You'll be learning media etiquette, speech control, body language. My world requires more than a smile."
She stared at him. "You planned that without telling me?"
"I'm telling you now."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know."
She sat across from him, more annoyed than intimidated for once. "Everything can't just be decided for me whenever you feel like it."
His brow lifted a fraction. "That's how this world works."
"It's how your world works. Not mine."
He didn't respond. Didn't even look flustered. He cut his food with silent precision, every movement an act of restraint.
"Adrian," she tried again, "are we going back to pretending last night didn't...?"
He dropped his fork.
Not loudly.
But the sound cracked through the room.
His hands tightened on the edge of the table. His eyes closed once, like he was fighting something back.
"Elena," he said quietly, "don't push this."
"Push what?"
"The thing you think you saw."
She swallowed. "I didn't think I saw anything. I did."
His jaw flexed. "You saw a moment. That's all."
"No," she whispered. "I saw you."
He looked up at her then, and the pain in his eyes was so subtle she almost thought she imagined it.
Almost.
"Elena," he said in a low voice that wasn't meant to wound but still did, "the more you see me, the more danger you're in."
The room went silent.
She felt her heartbeat stumble. "Danger from who?"
His gaze darkened. "Everyone."
He stood abruptly, chair sliding back.
"I have a meeting," he said, already leaving. "Stay inside today. And don't go anywhere without security."
She watched him disappear down the hallway.
He wasn't trying to be cruel.
He was trying to protect her from something he refused to name.
And the part that hurt most?
She believed him.
Elena's day only got stranger.
Her training session started with a woman named Serena, a polished consultant who moved like someone carved out of etiquette books.
"Elena, darling," Serena said carefully, "your posture will shape the public's perception of you. Straighten your spine. Tilt your chin. Again. Good. Now let's walk."
Elena wanted to groan.
For two hours, she practiced smiling, shaking hands, balancing poise with warmth. It felt ridiculous and exhausting. She wondered how long Adrian had been doing this. How long he had been living as an image instead of a person.
After the session, she finally escaped to the front garden, needing air.
She wasn't alone for long.
A group of reporters stood behind the security gates. Cameras. Microphones. Voices rising above the metal bars.
Her heart kicked.
How did they know she was here?
How did they??
"Elena Vale!" a man shouted. "Is it true Adrian Vale married you without a prenup?"
She froze.
Another voice:
"People are saying you trapped him, care to comment?"
Her stomach dropped.
She stepped back. "I...no, that's not..."
Before she could finish, Adrian appeared beside her.
He didn't touch her.
He didn't raise his voice.
He didn't even look angry.
He just stepped between her and the cameras with a presence so controlled it felt like a shield closing around her.
"That's enough," Adrian said, tone level. "Leave my property before I have every one of your companies fined for harassment."
The reporters backed up fast.
Not because he yelled.
But because he didn't have to.
Elena stood there, breath shaking.
Adrian turned to her slowly. "Are you hurt?"
"No," she whispered.
"You scared?"
"A little."
His eyes softened, not enough for anyone else to see, but enough for her to feel.
"Go inside," he said quietly.
"Adrian..."
"Please."
The word struck her. He rarely said it.
She reached out before she could stop herself and touched his arm.
He went absolutely still.
His breathing changed barely, but enough for her to sense it. Enough for her to know she was getting too close again.
She lowered her hand. "Thank you… for stepping in."
He looked at her then. Really looked.
"Elena," he said, voice low, "you shouldn't have to thank me for basic protection."
Her lips parted slightly.
He exhaled, closing his eyes for a second like something inside him was crumbling.
Then he whispered almost to himself...
"I don't know how to keep you safe."
Her breath stalled.
Before she could speak, he stepped back.
"Go inside," he repeated.
This time, she listened.
That night, the house felt quieter than usual.
Elena sat by her bedroom window, hugging her knees as she replayed the day. Adrian's strange protectiveness. His warning. The haunting fear in his voice.
She heard soft footsteps outside her door.
She turned.
Adrian stood there.
Not in a suit.
Just… him.
Shadows under his eyes. Tension in his shoulders. A man wrestling with things he'd never say out loud.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Then he said softly, "I'm sorry about today."
She blinked. Adrian Vale didn't apologize.
"You didn't do anything wrong," she whispered.
"I brought you into a world where you don't belong."
"And whose fault is that?"
His expression flickered. Pain. Regret. Something close to self-loathing.
"Elena… I never wanted you hurt."
She took a small step toward him.
"Then stop acting like you don't care."
His breath caught.
He looked at her like that sentence cracked something inside him.
"Elena," he whispered, "I care too much. That's the problem."
Silence pulled tight around them.
He backed away slowly, as if getting closer to her felt dangerous.
"Goodnight," he said.
She watched him turn and walk down the hall like a man walking away from something he wasn't sure he'd survive.
And for the first time since their marriage began, Elena realized...
Adrian wasn't cold.
He was breaking.