ADRIEN'S POV
"The way you are smoking, you are going to get lung cancer."
I clench my jaw and look back at the familiar female voice. Lia Scotts stands three feet away, leaning against the rooftop railing, looking at me like I am the most confusing thing she has encountered this week.
"And the way your mouth runs," I say, "I wonder if your mother accidentally drank poison instead of honey while you were in the womb."
She scoffs. Leans back. New York stretches below us — steel and glass and the particular arrogance of a city that thinks it invented ambition. The rooftop of Laurent Corporation is not where I usually smoke. I usually smoke in my office with the window cracked. But my office smells like paperwork and decisions and today I needed air that did not smell like my own life.
Lia covers her nose and coughs slightly from the smoke. I roll my eyes.
"Why are you standing here if my smoking is bothering you?"
She shrugs. "Gaining points with the Vice Chairman. Hehe."
