"Corrected a mistake."
She blinked. "What kind of mistake becomes… this?"
Vivienne watched in silence, her expression unreadable—calm, but with the faintest trace of curiosity at the corner of her mouth. She'd seen Adeline in many moods, but rarely this one.
Dominic, arms still folded behind his back, remained composed, but there was a flicker of something in his eyes as well.
Not just pride.
Satisfaction.
Because he had seen this moment coming.
Adeline, meanwhile, was still trying to place the weight of the figure standing before her. Her brother. Her former punching bag. The one she used to call "dead weight" with a laugh over dinner.
Now?
He wasn't just lighter.
He was ascendant.
She wet her lips unconsciously, her gaze flicking from his chest to his arms to his jaw again, as if trying to reconcile the pieces into something familiar.
But there was nothing familiar about this man anymore.
Damien let the silence stretch, enjoying it for a second longer.
Then—
