"What do you an?" Eryx frowned, glancing briefly at Lunara, who also looked puzzled.
Adam shrugged casually. "You always think you’re so good at reading people, right? Who to trust, who to keep at arm’s length." He raised an eyebrow. "Well, her effort took ten years, Eryx. Ten."
Eryx’s jaw tightened, clear annoyance flashing across his face. "Can you just say it plainly? I’m not in the mood to play guessing gas."
Adam let out a mock gasp. "What? You’re not reading minds today? That’s a first."
"Can you stop being sarcastic?" Eryx snapped.
Adam chuckled under his breath, clearly enjoying himself a bit too much. "Alright, alright," he said, raising both hands in a mock surrender. "No sarcasm. I’ll talk."
He leaned in slightly, voice dropping just enough to draw both Eryx and Lunara’s attention closer.
"You rember Seraphine?" Adam asked, his tone serious now. "The first ti she approached us, back when we were just two nobodies trying to build sothing from scratch?"
At the ntion of her na, Lunara subtly tugged Eryx’s sleeve, a quiet signal of discomfort. "Maybe I should wait in the car."
Eryx shook his head and gently reached for her hand. "No. Stay. There’s nothing here I’d hide from you."
Then he turned his head slightly. "And you..." he nodded at the boy, who was halfway through another bowl of noodles, "order more. Because after this, I need your answer."
Adam exhaled sharply, feigning impatience. "Can I continue now?"
"Continue," Eryx muttered.
Adam tapped his fingers against the rim of his cup. "The night we t her. Ten years ago. Crappy jazz bar in Westborough. You rember?"
Eryx squinted, frowning in thought. His gaze flicked to Lunara as if drawing on her presence to anchor him, then he blinked. "She asked to borrow a lighter."
Adam pointed at him. "Exactly. Said her friend ditched her. Ended up sharing our table. Laughed at all your stupid jokes. Ordered that gross red cocktail with too much syrup."
"She said it was her favorite," Eryx muttered, more to himself.
Adam smirked without humor. "Yeah, well. Apparently she’s got a lot of favorites. Turns out she was playing the long ga. She targeted you from the beginning."
Eryx tensed. "What are you talking about?"
"I just found out," Adam said, his tone unusually sober now. "From soone who used to work with her—one of her early jobs, back when she was broke and climbing her way out of nothing. She learned fast. Got in with the right people. And then one day she heard about two ambitious guys trying to start a company on a shoestring."
"She didn’t even know I was from the family back then," Eryx said, shaking his head.
"Nope, she thought you were abandoned," Adam said simply. "She didn’t know the full story. She just saw two promising guys and decided to stick close to the one who looked like he had more heart."
Lunara’s brows furrowed. "But Eryx proposed, right?"
Adam leaned back in his seat, watching Eryx carefully. "That’s when she panicked. Our company was out at that ti. That wasn’t part of her plan. She didn’t want to marry soone who lost everything. Especially soone who might need help just to get back on his feet. So she walked away."
Eryx didn’t respond imdiately. He just stared at his glass like it had betrayed him.
Adam gave a short laugh, but there was no humor in it. "Turns out, we were both just stepping stones."
He continued, giving a crooked smirk. "You were ready to sacrifice everything for her back then, weren’t you?"
Eryx’s head snapped up, a flicker of alarm crossing his face. He imdiately glanced at Lunara, eyes wide with subtle panic, like her silence was louder than anything Adam had just said.
"It’s not like that," he said quickly. "It wasn’t like that at all."
Lunara blinked, her expression unreadable. "I didn’t say anything."
"But you were thinking sothing," Eryx said, a little too defensively. His grip around his glass tightened. "That was then. I didn’t even know what she really wanted. It was a ss, alright? I was a ss."
Adam snorted. "Relax. She’s not running away."
Eryx shot him a glare.
"I an, I get it," Adam continued, deliberately twisting the knife with a mocking tone. "Back then, Seraphine was all you had. You thought you lost everything, your company, your best friend and she was still standing there. Of course you clung to her like a lifeline."
Eryx opened his mouth to argue but paused, jaw locking shut.
"She knew exactly when to let go," Adam added. "And now here you are, still picking up the pieces, hoping soone won’t leave you again."
"Adam." Lunara’s voice was calm but firm, slicing through the tension. She reached over and gently tugged Eryx’s sleeve. "I’m not her."
That stopped both n.
Eryx looked at her, sothing raw flickering in his gaze.
"And I don’t plan on leaving," she said simply.
Adam let out a slow exhale and leaned back in his seat, almost satisfied. "Well, damn. You got lucky."
Eryx’s lips lifted slightly, pride softening his usually guarded face as he looked at Lunara. For a brief mont, the weight on his shoulders seed a little lighter until Adam spoke again.
"But that’s not the only reason I told you to be careful with her," Adam said, his voice dipping low, serious now.
Eryx turned to him, the faint smile fading. "What do you an?"
Adam rested his arms on the table, no trace of mockery this ti. "Two weeks ago, I found out sothing. And it wasn’t by accident."
Eryx narrowed his eyes. "Spit it out, Adam."
Adam leaned in. "I was following up on sothing unrelated, just one of my usual pokes into Seraphine’s recent transactions. But I saw a na. The odd one. The daughter of the woman who kidnapped Mila."
The air shifted, tense.
Eryx stared at him, confused. "What about her?"
"Rember the hospital’s bill after the daughter passed away? Guess who paid her hospital bill?" Adam looked directly at him. "Seraphine."
Eryx blinked, speechless for a second. "What...?
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