Chapter 16 — The Edge of Truth
The rain started before dawn.
Thin, relentless, the kind that seeped into the bones of the city and made the air feel heavy with things unsaid.
Adrian didn't sleep. He sat by the wide glass window of the penthouse, suit jacket abandoned, sleeves rolled up, one hand wrapped around a glass of untouched whiskey. The skyline below him glowed faintly through the rain — his kingdom, bleeding light.
He should have felt in control. But all night, the same question repeated like a pulse in his head.
What else hasn't she told me?
Behind him, the bedroom door opened softly. Aria stepped out, barefoot, her hair damp, wearing one of his shirts — not because she wanted comfort, but because it was the closest thing to armor she could find.
She didn't speak at first. She just stood there, watching him.
"You didn't sleep," she said quietly.
"I couldn't," Adrian answered without turning.
"Because of Rafael?"
"No." He paused. "Because of you."
Aria's pulse stuttered.
He finally looked at her then — eyes dark, unreadable, the kind of gaze that stripped away excuses. "You're hiding something else. I can see it. Every time his name comes up, there's something in your face that doesn't belong to the story you told me."
She looked away. "You think I haven't given enough already?"
"I think you've given me fragments." Adrian's tone didn't rise, but the restraint in it was sharp. "You expect me to fight him, but I don't even know which battlefield we're on."
Aria crossed her arms, every muscle in her body taut. "If you knew everything, you might hate me."
"Try me."
Her laugh came brittle, without humor. "You don't know what that word means yet."
Adrian rose from the chair and closed the distance between them. He wasn't angry — not in the way Rafael used to be. Adrian's control was quieter, colder. It was the kind of authority that came from knowing he didn't have to shout to be obeyed.
"Then make me understand," he said.
Aria hesitated — then something in her broke, just a crack. She walked past him, toward the small drawer near the bar, pulled it open, and took out a flash drive.
She turned it in her hand, the small piece of metal catching the dim light.
"Rafael wasn't just my lover," she said, voice low. "He was my employer. And I was his weapon."
Adrian's silence was sharp.
She continued. "The leaks you've seen — the corporate attacks, the anonymous trades — that's what I used to do for him. Digital sabotage. Corporate infiltration. Making companies fall from the inside. I was his ghost."
Adrian's hand tightened around the glass he was still holding. "You're telling me—"
"That Rafael trained me to destroy men like you," Aria finished. Her voice trembled once, then steadied. "And I was good at it."
The rain outside grew heavier. It sounded like static, like interference between them.
Adrian set the glass down slowly.
"So why did you leave him?"
Aria's jaw locked. "Because one night, he made me destroy someone innocent. A journalist who was going to expose his network. He framed it as a loyalty test. I passed." Her eyes glistened, though she didn't cry. "That's when I realized I wasn't his partner. I was his experiment."
Adrian exhaled, slow and measured, fighting the storm inside him.
Not at her. At the world that had made her this way.
"You think this changes how I see you?" he asked.
"It should."
He stepped closer, until he was inches from her. "Aria, I've done worse things for less reason."
She looked up at him sharply. "That's not forgiveness."
"No," he said. "It's understanding."
Their eyes met, heat clashing with guilt. Something in Aria wanted to recoil — the instinct of someone who had been punished for vulnerability — but Adrian didn't move to touch her. He just waited.
Slowly, she let out a shaky breath. "He'll use it. All of it. He'll expose what I did and make it look like I've been his spy inside your company."
Adrian nodded once, the strategist already forming behind his calm. "Then we'll make the story ours before he can."
Her voice softened. "You'd risk everything?"
His reply came quietly, like a vow:
"For you, yes."
The room went silent except for the rain.
For the first time, Aria let herself step closer. Her forehead rested against his chest. He didn't pull her in — he just stood still, a steady wall against the chaos.
And in that fragile moment, she whispered, "If you knew the whole truth, you might not say that."
Adrian's hand brushed a strand of hair from her face. "Then tell me, before he does."
Aria looked up — and the fear in her eyes wasn't for herself.
It was for him.
Because some truths didn't ruin the person who spoke them.
They ruined the one who listened.
---
That night, while Adrian made plans to counter Rafael's next move, Aria opened her laptop alone and plugged in the flash drive.
On the screen:
A folder labeled "Project HALCYON."
She clicked it open.
And froze.
Inside were blueprints. Files.
Names of companies she'd never seen before.
And one name she had.
Kane International.
Her breath caught.
Her hands shook.
Because the first attack — months ago, before she'd ever met Adrian —
had already been planned.
Rafael hadn't targeted Adrian because of her.
He'd brought her to Adrian
because of him.
---