CHAPTER 67 — THE NIGHT THE TRUTH SPILLED OVER
The mansion was too quiet—too still for a house that had been echoing with tension for days. Silence hung in the air like thick fog, heavy and suffocating. Elena felt it pressing against her ribs as she walked down the long corridor, her bare feet brushing against the cold marble. The sconces along the walls cast soft golden light, but the shadows they created stretched long and sharp, like ghostly fingers reaching toward her.
Adrian wasn't in his study.
He wasn't in the gym.
He wasn't in the east-wing balcony where he usually went to think late at night.
She checked all his usual hiding places, but he was nowhere. Each empty room only deepened the ache in her chest. After everything that happened earlier—her brother's unexpected return, the painful confrontation, Adrian's barely restrained fury—she couldn't bear the thought of him suffering alone.
Finally, she found him in the indoor garden.
