Chapter 5 The fire

Soren's Pov

The elevator doors closed on Adrian's pale face.

I should have felt nothing. That was always my strength, cold detachment, clean decisions. But as the steel doors slid shut, the echo of his words clung to me.

"You're insane."

He wasn't wrong.

For thirty years, I'd lived like a chessboard piece, moved, calculated, trained to win. Tonight, I flipped the board. My father's plan was turned down. Celeste was gone. The press was feasting on the scandal and instead of cleaning it up, I'd doubled down. Married a stranger. A man who couldn't even stand in my world without shaking.

A man who made me feel something. That was the real madness.

"Careful," Nathan's voice cut through my thoughts.

I turned. He was leaning against the far wall, hands in his pockets, watching me with a predator's smile. Of course he hadn't left.

"You're slipping, Knight," he said lazily. "The Soren I knew would've crushed that boy before he could blink. Now look at you. Playing house with a stray. All because Celeste bruised your ego."

I kept my voice flat. "Leave."

Nathan chuckled. "Or what? You'll glare at me until I evaporate? Face it, your father's done with you, the board's laughing, and your empire's balancing on a stranger's shoulders. Do you know how easy it will be for me to take it?"

I stepped forward, letting my silence answer for me.

His grin widened, but his eyes hardened. "Don't confuse luck with strength. You got drunk, made a spectacle, and now you're chained to him. That doesn't make you bold. It makes you reckless. And reckless men... die fast."

The air between us crackled. I didn't blink. "If you touch him, Nathan, you'll learn what fast really means."

His smirk faltered for a fraction of a second. Just enough. Then he shrugged, casual again. "Protective already. How touching."

The elevator dinged. He slid out with a mocking bow. "See you soon, husband."

The doors shut, leaving me in silence.

I dragged a hand down my face. My reflection in the mirrored wall stared back, dark circles under my eyes, jaw clenched, tie crooked. For the first time in years, I looked less like a Knight and more like a man on the edge and I hated it.

************************

When I finally reached my penthouse, the city stretched out in glittering silence beneath the windows. Usually, the view calmed me. Tonight, it felt hollow.

I poured a drink and let the whiskey burn down my throat. I replayed Victor's words, his sneer, his dismissal. I'd spent my life earning nothing but his approval, and in one night, it was gone.

And yet... I wasn't broken.

Because for once, I wasn't fighting his war. I was fighting mine.

The problem was Adrian.

Every instinct told me he was weakness. He didn't know our rules, didn't understand the knives hidden behind smiles in this world. He couldn't protect himself. Which meant he could be used against yet... When Victor threatened him, something in me snapped.

I hadn't planned that. I hadn't planned any of this.

The front door slammed. I turned sharply. Adrian stormed into the room, his sneakers squeaking on the marble floor. His hair was messy, his chest still heaving like he'd run the whole way up.

"I'm not your pawn," he spat.

I set the glass down carefully. "We've already established you're my husband."

His eyes flashed. "Don't say it like that. Like I'm just another move on your board."

"Then stop acting like you don't matter," I shot back.

He froze. For once, I'd caught him off guard.

I stepped closer. "You think I dragged you in just to provoke my father? You think I'd risk everything, my company, my name, for a pawn?"

"You did," he whispered.

My jaw tightened. "I don't make mistakes that large."

He laughed bitterly. "Then what the hell am I to you?"

The words hung heavy between us.

I could have said nothing. I could have turned away, poured another drink, let silence smother him. That was what I always did. But something in his voice cracked through the armor.

I stepped closer, close enough to see the anger trembling in his shoulders, close enough to feel the heat of him.

"You're the fire," I said low. "And fire either burns me alive... or burns everything else down first."

His lips parted, but no words came out.

Before he could answer, my phone buzzed sharply against the counter. A message flashed across the screen. From Clara.

Turn on the news. Now.

I grabbed the remote. The TV screen lit up with breaking headlines.

KNIGHT HEIR'S SECRET MARRIAGE: BUSINESS MERGER IN RUINS?

And then Celeste's face filled the screen. Perfect makeup, crocodile tears, voice trembling with betrayal.

"I loved him," she said into the microphone, her hand pressed against her chest. "But while planning our wedding, I discovered Soren's secret affair... with Adrian Vega and now he's thrown away our future, our families, everything we built, for a lie."

Adrian staggered back. "What?"

My blood iced over. "She's lying."

The reporters swarmed her on the screen. She kept weeping, whispering about manipulation, about money, about how Adrian had seduced me for power.

Adrian's face went white. "They'll believe her. Everyone will believe her."

I grabbed the remote, silencing the room. "Then we make them believe something else."

He shook his head, backing away from me. "I can't do this. I can't, my mom saw this, my friends are calling, I'm going to be branded a thief, a liar....."

"You think I care what Celeste says?" I snapped.

"You should!" His voice broke. "Because she just painted me as your whore, and you as a man who'll ruin anyone for revenge and you know what? Maybe she's not wrong."

The silence after those words was deafening.

I moved toward him slowly, every step deliberate. His chest rose and fell too fast, his fists clenched at his sides.

I stopped inches away, my voice low.

"Say that again."