Chapter 2 2

The tiny apartment Adelynn shared with her mother was a world away from the silent, opulent luxury of Nowak Holdings. Here, the air hung heavy with the smell of boiled cabbage and the low, persistent drone of the television her mother kept on simply to chase away the silence. Piled high on the small kitchen table was a mountain of bills-final notices, glaring red warnings, each one a blade digging into Adelynn's chest.

She sifted through them, her stomach twisting with every envelope: hospital bills, mortgage statements, maxed‑out credit cards left by her father, whose name had long since become nothing more than a whispered tragedy.

Helen sat curled on the sofa, a faded quilt pulled up to her chin despite the stuffy heat. Her gaze fixed on the flickering game show, but Adelynn knew she was not truly watching. She was adrift, lost in a fog of grief and medication that had become her new reality since the accident.

"Anything good in the mail, sweetie?" Helen asked, her voice thin and reedy.

Adelynn forced a bright smile and tucked the most terrifying bill beneath the stack.

"Just junk mail, Mom. The usual."

It was a lie they both pretended to believe-a fragile truce against the crushing weight of their reality.

Later that night, as city lights barely pierced the gloom of her bedroom, Adelynn opened her laptop. The screen glowed with an unfinished design: a flowing, elegant dress that seemed to mock her from the digital canvas. It was a relic from her days at Parsons, when her future had felt as bright and boundless as the sketches in her mind.

She closed the program and pulled up a browser, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. Almost against her will, she typed one name:

Christian Mercer.

Search results flooded the screen instantly. Articles from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, profiles praising his ruthless business acumen and Midas touch. He had taken over Mercer Holdings at twenty‑five, following his father's sudden retirement, and tripled the company's value. He was a phantom-a shark in a bespoke suit. No candid photos, no mention of a personal life, no trace of the man behind the corporate machine.

He was thirty. Only five years older than her.

And yet he moved through a universe she could never comprehend-a world where a spilled coffee was an abstract problem solved with a silk handkerchief.

Her phone buzzed sharply on the nightstand, jolting her.

The screen lit up with a name that sent a sharp, tangled ache through her chest:

Jefferson.

She ignored the call, her eyes still locked on Christian Mercer's photograph. It was from a charity gala-the only image that revealed a flicker of something beyond his icy control. He stared slightly off-camera, and for a split second, his expression was unguarded. She saw it then: profound loneliness, a desolate, empty landscape that felt unnervingly familiar.

Adelynn shook her head, annoyed at her own foolish, hopeless romanticism.

He was a predator. A king in his castle of wealth.

She was just part of the scenery he owned... and ignored.

She shut her laptop.

His face lingered in the dark.