The city pulsed with its usual noise, but the Blackwood penthouse was still — caught in the kind of silence that warned something was about to break.
Adrian stood by the window, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a tumbler of scotch he'd barely touched. Below, the skyline glittered, indifferent to his exhaustion.
Behind him, the door opened.
"Couldn't sleep?" Seraphina's voice was soft, practiced — equal parts concern and seduction.
He didn't turn. "Didn't try."
She walked in anyway, barefoot now, wrapped in a silk robe that clung too tightly to be accidental.
"Rough day at the board?"
Adrian didn't answer. He stared out into the dark.
Seraphina crossed the room slowly, deliberately. "You push yourself too hard."
"You say that like you care."
"I do."
She stepped beside him, close enough for him to feel the heat of her. "You don't have to do this alone, Adrian."
"You think I'm alone?"
She smiled faintly. "You are alone. Everyone wants something from you — money, power, your name. But I've been here. Through all of it."
"You've been near me. That's not the same."
A flicker of irritation crossed her face. "I know you, Adrian. More than she ever did."
He looked at her then. "Do you?"
Seraphina didn't blink. "She left you. I didn't."
Adrian's jaw tensed. "You don't know anything about what happened between Lumina and me."
"I know enough. I know she couldn't handle this world. That she ran when things got difficult."
"She died, Seraphina."
"People die every day," she replied coldly. "Doesn't make them saints."
That did it.
Adrian stepped away, setting the glass down with more force than necessary.
"You think I kept her on a pedestal because she was perfect?" he said. "No. She was real. And for one moment in my entire damn life, someone saw me for who I was — not my last name. Not my inheritance."
Seraphina's eyes narrowed. "You're still chasing that girl from 13 years ago. The one who saved you in that fire."
His gaze darkened. "That girl saved my life."
"And I've been saving you ever since," Seraphina snapped.
Silence pulsed between them. Her mask cracked — not from rejection, but from jealousy. Deep, festering, and old.
"I was there that night too," she added, softer now. "Maybe you just don't remember it clearly."
Adrian tilted his head slightly, watching her. "You never talk about it."
She shrugged. "Trauma blurs things."
He stared at her a beat longer, then stepped back.
"You should go," he said.
Something flickered in her eyes — disbelief? Wounded pride?
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
She stood there a moment longer, waiting to see if he'd change his mind. When he didn't, she turned sharply and left the room.
The door clicked shut.
Adrian exhaled, dragging a hand down his face.
He turned back to the window — but his phone buzzed on the table.
Blocked number.
He considered ignoring it.
Then answered.
"Adrian Blackwood."
A pause. Then a man's voice — quiet, deliberate.
"You've been lied to."
Adrian's spine straightened. "Excuse me?"
"About the fire. About who saved you 13 years ago."
His grip on the phone tightened.
"Who is this?"
"Someone who owes her," the voice replied. "She never told you. She didn't want the credit. But it wasn't Seraphina who pulled you out of that building."
Adrian went still. The room seemed to shrink around him.
"What are you talking about?"
"You were unconscious. Smoke inhalation. The official report listed a 'young girl' found with you. Seraphina claimed it was her. But she arrived after."
Adrian's heart pounded in his ears. "Then who—?"
"Lumina Harrison."
Silence.
Impossible silence.
Adrian's voice dropped. "That's not—"
"She carried you out through a basement window. Burned her arm so badly she couldn't use it for weeks. Her father made sure it was buried — didn't want her linked to a Blackwood. Ask your security team. Ask your memory. You'll know I'm not lying."
The line went dead.
Adrian stood there, completely still.
He remembered…
He remembered the smoke. The heat. The moment his lungs gave out.
And then— arms. Smaller than his. Dragging him.
He'd always assumed…
But now—
Lumina.
Not Seraphina.
The room felt colder suddenly.
And for the first time in years, Adrian realized the girl he'd been chasing — the one who'd saved him, changed him — wasn't a ghost from his past.
She was the woman he had already let down.
The woman he'd married — and failed.