Before Adelyn could even see it coming, Dylan leaned in and gently pressed his lips against her cheek.
It was a brief kiss.
Unexpected.
Yet incredibly gentle.
Adelyn froze.
For a second, her mind went completely blank as she tried to process what had just happened.
Beside her, Eira merely blinked innocently, as though nothing unusual had occurred.
Karl, on the other hand, gasped in utter disbelief. He was still kneeling on the floor.
"Brother, you ..."
"Mr. Warren ..." Adelyn instinctively pulled back a little, trying to put some distance between them—and perhaps regain her sanity as well.
"W-What are you doing?"
Her heart pounded violently inside her chest.
Not simply because something had happened that she hadn't expected ...
But because she had felt no resistance toward it.
Instead, it had felt strangely natural.
That ...
That shouldn't feel natural.
A lie shouldn't slowly become something that felt real.
