Night had fallen, and the city lights outside the window shone brilliantly.

Feeling breathless, Mia Grant pushed the man away.

The man’s embrace had felt like a suffocating cage, but thankfully, a gentle push was all it took for him to retreat.

In the room, the fireplace was still burning. The flames leaped, dancing in tandem with the candlelight on the table as the dew on the roses slowly evaporated in the warmth.

Mia Grant hadn’t had a chance to take off her coat yet, and after that passionless kiss, her mouth felt dry.

She clutched her scarf, pulling it down.

Seeing this, Kian Keller reached out and untied her scarf. He then unzipped her down jacket, freeing her.

Mia Grant leaned back on the sofa and let out a long sigh of relief.

Her gaze drifted to him against her will.

’He’s knelt, and he’s kissed me.’

’Next up is the part where he cries.’

She had never seen Kian Keller cry, not even at his lowest point after the car accident.

She couldn’t imagine the sight at all.

Curiosity aside, if she was being honest with herself, she didn’t really want to witness such a scene.

Part of her found it absurd, but she also suspected she would be at a complete loss for what to do.

After a moment’s thought, Mia Grant sighed. "Weren’t we supposed to talk? Let’s talk sitting down."

She lightly patted the empty space beside her, gesturing for him to sit down.

Kian Keller stared at her hand on the sofa for a long moment before slowly coming forward and sitting down.

As he moved, her gaze naturally followed, landing on his legs.

He had been backlit before, so she hadn’t noticed. Now that he was closer, she could see them. ’Why are there footprints on them?’

She frowned, looking straight at him this time. "What is this?"

Following her gaze, Kian Keller noticed several dusty prints on his suit pants.

The dust stood out clearly against the black fabric.

The hotel carpet was very clean, so the marks couldn’t have been from when he knelt just now.

Kian Keller thought for a moment. ’It must have been Silas Grant’s handiwork.’

Mia Grant was clearly also wondering where the marks had come from.

’The hotel, the bus, the plane... he couldn’t have gotten marks like that in any of those places.’

’Unless he ran into some kind of trouble on the way here, or met someone.’

’But given his status, who would be suicidal enough to pick a fight with him? Besides, Aaron and his men are no pushovers.’

But the question didn’t trouble Mia for long. An answer formed in her mind almost as soon as the question appeared.

She hadn’t seen Silas Grant all day.

Hayes Hughes had been with her the entire day. She never once asked where Silas was, and Hayes never brought him up.

He had said last night that he planned to spend Valentine’s Day with her.

’So it’s unlikely he was suddenly called back to Portia on urgent business.’

Mia Grant closed her eyes. When she opened them a few seconds later, her thoughts were clear.

She leaned forward slightly, picked up a tissue from the table, and brushed the dust from his pants.

It was his injured leg; she couldn’t help but be concerned.

Still, she didn’t blame Silas Grant. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

It wasn’t her place to take sides in the matter between them. They both had their reasons.

It wasn’t a matter of right or wrong.

After all, if she were to really get to the bottom of it, she shared some of the blame, too.

Mia Grant fumbled in her pocket, only to find that her phone had died from a low battery.

"Your phone?"

Kian Keller handed it over. Mia glanced at her picture on the lock screen, then swiped up. "Password?"

"Same as before."

"I don’t remember."

She said.

Kian Keller was silent for a moment before reciting a string of numbers. Mia typed them in without hesitation or asking for a repeat, and the phone unlocked.

She scrolled through the contacts, found Aaron’s number, and made the call.

"Sir, are you all right?"

Aaron’s worried voice came through the moment the call connected.

That confirmed it—Kian really wasn’t in good shape.

Mia Grant pressed her lips together and quickly cut Aaron off. "This is Mia Grant."

Sure enough, the other end of the line went silent. It wasn’t just Aaron who stopped speaking; even the background chatter died down completely.

"Bring the doctor in."

Without another word, Mia Grant hung up.

She handed the phone back. Not wanting the stalemate to continue, she took the initiative. "What is your goal?"

Goal.

That one word created a distance between them, as if all their affection had been reduced to a tangle of conflicting interests.

"I..." As Kian Keller started to speak, a sharp pain shot through him, and the taste of blood filled his mouth.

"I don’t have a goal."

"I just heard that Felix Sinclair was making some moves. I couldn’t find any proof—it’s all just my own speculation."

"Whether it’s true or not, I never intended to use this information to target or coerce you."

"I care about you, not your identity."

"I was wrong to use those methods. Prying into your privacy was my mistake."

"I apologize."

"What can I do to make you stop being angry? Besides break..."

Kian Keller paused, then corrected himself. "Besides cutting me out of your life, I’ll do anything else."

"As long as you’ll stop being angry."

"I think I understand what’s bothering you. It won’t happen again."

Mia Grant frowned and looked up at him. "Do you really understand?"

"The truth is, I’ve hated your need for control from the very beginning."

"I also hate how you’re always testing me. It makes me feel like you’re trying to find some kind of leverage over me, something you can use to either control me further or just abandon me."

Kian Keller listened in silence, his expression unreadable.

Mia Grant said a great deal, most of it accusations leveled at him.

Accusations about the present, about the past—they all came tumbling out, rapid-fire like a machine gun.

She spoke rapidly, taking only short, sharp breaths at the end of each sentence before immediately launching into the next.

It was as if she had rehearsed these lines in her mind for a long time, going through draft after draft to deliver such a coherent performance now.

In truth, some of the accusations had nothing to do with him, but Kian Keller didn’t argue, simply absorbing the full force of her anger.

Then again, "anger" wasn’t quite the right word. She looked like she was angry, but not just at him.

It was as if some long-suppressed emotion had finally found a convenient outlet in him.

Gradually, he realized she was becoming agitated, abnormally so.

A sudden knock on the door rang out. Mia Grant startled as if waking from a dream, and her hands, which had been gesturing wildly as she spoke, slowly fell to her sides...

She had already stood up. Coming back to her senses, she met his eyes, as if trying to see her own disheveled state reflected in them.

But before she could get a clear look, she was already preparing to make a panicked retreat.

"I’m going to the restroom."

She tried to run, but he grabbed her hand.

Losing her balance, she stumbled backward into his familiar embrace.

He pulled her onto his lap, his arms wrapping tightly around her as if trying to meld her into his very body.

He apologized again. "I’ve been ignoring so much, especially your feelings."

"I’m sorry."

He agreed with her, calling himself a terrible person, but—

"I really do love you."

Of that, there was no doubt.