Leo stood frozen in the center of the vast living room, staring at the mess on the floor.
It was immaculate. He had scrubbed it nonstop but now his hard work was ruined by himself. He was cleaning the already spotless house to begin with. But since it was his duty, he had to do it again. Though, he made it even dirtier.
And Adrian had arrived early before he could finish. He must be angry at Leo for not finishing on time. His shoulders drew inward instinctively and his pulse pounded thick and suffocating in his throat, each beat echoing the slaps that had once split his lip open for a single dropped plate, the heel that had ground his fingers into the dirty kitchen floor until his bones creaked and skin broke.
Years of continued abuse had engraved deep grooves into his nervous system, turning every minor mistake into a trigger for full-body terror.
In the early days, when the abuse started he was a little kid. He remembered Selene's hand cracking across his face for spilling juice at age twelve, while she called him a clumsy mute cunt who would never be worth the food they ate. Or the time when Kyle's fists rained down on him when Leo was fourteen, cornering little Leo and whispering in his ear that he's just a useless hole that should've stayed in the orphanage while rough hands wandered under his shirt, until Leo had learned to bite and scratch and kick with desperate need to save himself. Those early years had been the worst.
Over time, he learned to survive but the damage was done. The trauma lived in his body now, any interruption of routine, any sign of imperfection, and his mind would be flooded with the memory of being locked in the storeroom overnight without food.
"I asked you something."
The sound sliced through him like the brutal slap of his adopted mother making him flinch. His entire slender body jerked violently as if the words themselves had struck his cheek. A choked gasp tore from his throat. His stomach twisted violently. Sweat gathered across his palms and the nape of his neck, yet the rest of him felt ice-cold.
He didn't answer and his gray eyes locked onto a nonexistent speck on the coffee table, heart slamming so hard against his ribs he was certain Adrian could hear it. He waited to be scolded and slapped for not finishing the work before his husband arrived. It's the first day of his so-called marriage and he ruined it. He breathed slowly as if inhaling too deeply might remind Adrian of how useless he truly was.
The waiting was the worst part, the agonizing pause before the pattern resumed, the cold grip on his arm, the venomous reprimand that always preceded violence, the sudden impact that would send him sprawling across the floor like the filthy beggar they had always called him.
Adrian's footsteps echoed across the floor as he walked towards him.
Leo's shoulders trembled harder despite his efforts to still them. His good hand twitched at his side before closing into a tight fist, nails digging into his palm until it stung. A single tear escaped the corner of his eye and traced down his flushed cheek before he could stop it. He could already feel the blow coming.
When Adrian's presence stopped just behind him, Leo's entire frame locked completely. Every muscle went rigid. His breath stopped entirely for three long heartbeats. Lips parted slightly in a silent plea. Body curled inward like the broken boy he had always been taught to be. He waited for the yelling, and the beatings.
And hating the fragile spark of hope that maybe this time, just this once, the man who had given him a jacket, suits, food, and a room wouldn't be like the others. Maybe Adrian wouldn't crush his fingers or tear his gifts or call him worthless. Maybe, for the first time, his silence wouldn't end in pain.
Adrian stood motionless for a long moment, his dark eyes narrowing as he took in the scene. His little husband trembled like a leaf and the unconscious way Leo nibbled his lip made himself look smaller.
The little husband, Adrian thought with detached irritation, is going to wear himself out proving his worth at this point.
He exhaled in frustration. "Leo?"
Leo's shoulders shook at the sound of his name, but he didn't look up. This time even the rule couldn't make him meet Adrian's gaze.
Adrian sighed and his eyes roamed over the injuries on the boy. "Enough cleaning for today, alright?"
Adrian had expected this after reading Aaron's detailed report on Leo the night before. The file had laid out years of neglect and abuse. The report was provided by the servants Aaron bribed. They were the eyewitnesses of all the abuse Leo went through.
Adrian chose Leo because the boy seemed perfect for a silent marriage that offered stability with zero emotional demands. He had wanted a partner who wouldn't give him a hard time or disturb his precisely influenced world. Leo appeared mute, obedient, and undemanding the moment Adrian met him. So, he knew Leo was the perfect candidate.
But Leo turned out to be the opposite in practice. The boy didn't disturb him with words or demands, yet finding him cleaning an already tidied house obsessively at dawn was disrupting enough. At this rate, the little husband might scrub forever if left unchecked, wearing himself thin in a misguided bid to prove worth. It was frustrating, not in an annoying way, but an irritating inefficiency that poked at Adrian's need for order and peace. He had chosen convenience but instead, he got a person who complicated the very silence he sought.
"Have you had breakfast?" Adrian asked instead. He wasn't angry at Leo but at the situation so his voice came out rather furious.
Leo flinched violently at the tone and an unconscious whimper escaped him. Adrian paused and felt oddly like he was bullying an innocent animal. The boy's reaction was too conditioned.
So, he lowered his tone slightly and made it less cold. "Have you eaten?"
Leo shook his head quickly, lashes fluttering as he nibbled his lower lip again without realizing.
As expected. Adrian let out an exhausted breath. The boy in front of him looked like a pitiful wife abused by a drunk husband.
"Follow me," Adrian turned toward the study.
Leo hesitated for a while, head tilting slightly in uncertainty. Was he gonna be beaten inside the room? He trembled at the thought but followed helplessly.
In the study, Adrian gestured to the leather sofa. "Sit there."
Leo's fearful eyes darted to the pristine cushions, terrified of dirtying them despite being clean himself. However, one look from Adrian's lifeless and piercing eyes was enough. Leo quickly plopped on the edge of the sofa.
Adrian retrieved the first aid kit and sat beside him. They sat close enough that their shoulders almost touched, and the difference between them felt almost unfair.
Leo looked impossibly small beside Adrian's towering frame. Even the way he sat carried nervousness. While Adrian was the opposite, solid and bold. His heavy presence was overwhelming. Next to that kind of strength, Leo didn't just look smaller, he looked breakable.
Adrian took Leo's injured hand, cleaned his wounds, and bandaged it neatly. Leo winced silently but stayed still, an unconscious puff of air escaping as he blew lightly on his fingers to ease the sting. Adrian noticed his actions and softened his movements. After winding up his hand, Adrian leaned closer and dabbed at the bruiser cheek and split lip. Their faces were inches apart. Leo's heart raced, pulse fluttering at his throat. The antiseptic stung the cut on his lip making Leo hiss.
"Sit still," Adrian looked up at him and scolded him.
From this proximity, Leo's gray eyes were clearer, innocent yet deeply fearful. Adrian couldn't look away for a long while. There was something hauntingly familiar in them, a buried echo he couldn't place.
When Leo couldn't hold the gaze, his eyes dropped instinctively. Adrian's fingers tightened on his chin roughly, forcing it back up again.
"Don't look away when I'm addressing you."
Leo nodded profusely, his gray eyes locked on Adrian's without breaking contact. His cheeks flushed a soft pink that spread to the tips of his ears, the color blooming across his pale skin like spilled watercolor. His heart hammered wildly in his chest, so loud in his own ears that he feared Adrian could hear the frantic rhythm echoing between them. He swallowed hard, but kept staring as ordered, the effort making his lower lip tremble slightly before he caught it between his teeth in a senseless nibble.
Adrian's mouth curved in a dry chuckle as he pulled out the brutally bitten lip back. "Persistent, aren't you?"
The action made Leo's flush deepen to a vivid rose, the pink now staining his neck and the hollow of his throat. He remained utterly still, hands clasped so tightly in his lap that his knuckles whitened, but one small foot shifted in an anxious shuffle beneath the sofa, toes curling inside the socks he wore. He sucked in the breath causing his cheeks to puff out.
Adrian felt an odd impulse surface inside him, to reach out and pinch those rounded cheeks. Leo was painfully thin everywhere else, sharp collarbones visible beneath the sweater, wrists delicate as twigs but his cheeks held a soft fullness that turned even rounder when colored like this. The thought irritated him in its irrelevance, he pushed it aside and continued dabbing the ointment onto the split lip with detachment.
"Who did this?" Adrian inquired, gesturing briefly at the bruises along Leo's cheekbone and the swollen cut. "Your family?"
He already knew, he just wanted to check Leo's loyalty.
Leo shook his head quickly. Eyes still fixed on Adrian's as if the motion might break the rule. His bandaged hand twitched in his lap.
"I don't like lies," Adrian's expression turned serious.
Leo's eyes widened in fear, the pink draining slightly before flooding back darker. He slowly nodded.
Adrian exhaled through his nose. "Go take a shower. You can use the master bathroom upstairs. Wear something of mine from my closet,"
He didn't elaborate on how he knew that Leo didn't bring the clothes Adrian had gifted him. Aaron had reported to him about what the mother and son did to him and the gifts. Adrian clenched one hand at his side, keeping his anger calm so as not to send the boy into dread further. The little husband didn't need more terror today.
Twenty minutes later Leo returned. His hair was damp and he was wearing Adrian's black button-down shirt and sweatpants swallowing him whole. He tugged at the hem self-consciously. Without realizing it, he gave an anxious shuffle in place.
Adrian glanced up from his phone and let out another short chuckle. He walked over and Leo shrank into himself. He reminds Adrian again of some small creature caught in headlights.
"Come with me," Adrian turned and headed toward the dining room without waiting. Leo followed him silently, small steps hurrying to keep up the pace.
Adrian pulled out his phone to order breakfast for both of them, but then stopped dead in the dining room doorway. The table was filled with different dishes.
Adrian turned slowly, dark eyes narrowing on Leo. "You made all this?"
Leo blinked up at him and nodded. He wondered whether he should have asked Adrian's preferences first. He could have, but he had no way to reach him. At the Wards, breakfast had been the first chore every morning. He had done the same here upon waking up, driven by the same ingrained need to prove his worth. He wasn't looking up to impress or earn a reward, but simply to avoid being discarded.
Adrian's gaze moved between the table and Leo. His thoughts tangled in quiet frustration, not from anger, but a sharp irritation at the inefficiency of it all. The little husband had prepared an entire feast yet hadn't touched a bite himself. He could have sneaked and eaten. Adrian would never have known. Yet here Leo stood, waiting, starving, and conditioned so deeply by years of abuse that basic self-care felt like theft.
How thoroughly had the Wards broken him that even in freedom he acted like a servant who might be punished for eating without permission? Adrian had wanted silence and convenience, not this constant reminder of complications he hadn't bargained for.
"Let's eat, then," Adrian simply said and moved to the head of the table and sat. Leo remained frozen in place. Adrian looked at him and seriously said. "You don't have to follow the same rules you had with the Wards. You can eat whenever you want and whatever you like. Also, there are cleaners for the house, you don't need to do anything. Here, your position is my husband. Not a servant."
Leo slowly lowered himself into the chair opposite him. His expressions were blank as if the words hadn't fully registered with him. Adrian wondered briefly if he had even heard them.
"Eat now," When Leo made no move to serve himself, Adrian reached over and plated eggs, bacon, fruit, and toast for him. Leo robotically followed the orders and took a small bite.
Adrian served his own plate but paused when he heard soft sniffles followed by hiccupping sobs that Leo tried desperately to muffle behind one sleeve.
Adrian looked at him and for a moment couldn't name the feeling that tightened in his chest. The boy was crying simply because he had been allowed to sit at the table like a person, to eat without permission or punishment. A mistake had gone uncorrected, wounds had been treated by careful hands instead of meeting with more beatings. Leo had been treated worse than an animal for so long, starved, beaten, groped, and mocked that genuine kindness felt foreign now. He had forgotten he was a human, capable of emotions that didn't have to be hidden or punished.
Adrian set his fork down. Without a word, he rose abruptly and left the dining room. He pulled out his phone and dialed Aaron as he strode toward his study room.
"Aaron?" he said the moment the line connected. "About the Ward family. I have changed my mind. I'm not letting them go. I want their full financial status, debts, assets, business holdings, everything on my desk by noon."