unexpectedly your's

Mia's grip tightened around Adrian's phone, her pulse roaring in her ears.

This couldn't be happening.

She forced herself to read the article again, each word hammering into her like a death knell. Samantha Carter. The woman who had betrayed her. The woman she had cut out of her life.

Why now?

Adrian stood just a few feet away, his piercing gaze locked onto her. His expression was unreadable, but the tension in the air was suffocating.

"Tell me the truth, Mia," he said, voice controlled but laced with restrained fury.

She opened her mouth, then closed it. What could she say? That she had spent years running from a past that was now crashing down around her? That she had lied—again and again—to protect Liam?

Her silence only made Adrian angrier.

"Mia," he said again, softer this time, but no less demanding. "How does she know you?"

She clenched the phone so tightly her fingers ached. "I don't know how she got that photo," she whispered.

Adrian's jaw tightened. "Then explain why my former fiancée is suddenly interested in your life."

Mia's breath hitched.

Former fiancée?

She lifted her gaze to his, searching his face for any sign of deception, but Adrian didn't look like a man playing games.

"You didn't know?" he asked, reading the shock on her face.

Mia shook her head numbly.

Of course she didn't. She had spent years avoiding anything related to Adrian Sinclair.

"Samantha was engaged to me," Adrian continued, his voice sharp with bitterness. "Or rather, my grandmother tried to arrange it. I never wanted her."

The room spun for a moment.

Samantha. Engaged. To Adrian.

It made sickening sense now—Samantha had always been obsessed with status, always looking for a way to climb higher. And Eleanor Sinclair? She was the perfect gateway to power.

But if Samantha was no longer engaged to Adrian, why was she resurfacing now?

Unless—

Mia's blood ran cold.

Samantha must have found out about Liam.

Panic clawed at her throat. If Samantha was involved, this was only the beginning.

"She's trying to destroy me," Mia whispered, the realization sinking in.

Adrian folded his arms. "Why?"

Mia swallowed hard, her mind racing. If she told him the truth, everything would come crashing down. But if she lied… she wasn't sure she could keep up the act much longer.

Because Adrian Sinclair wasn't a fool.

Because she had seen the way he looked at Liam.

Because Eleanor was watching her every move.

"Because she hates me," Mia finally said. "Because she wants to ruin my life."

Adrian exhaled sharply, rubbing a hand down his face. "And what exactly is it that she thinks she knows, Mia?"

A long silence stretched between them.

Mia felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff. One wrong step, and everything would come crashing down.

Her hands trembled.

She had spent seven years keeping the truth buried.

But now…

Now, the past was forcing its way to the surface.

And Adrian Sinclair wasn't going to let her walk away this time.