Chapter 5 - The Family War
The Kane family exploded.
Richard denied everything.
Ethan survived surgery.
Adrian moved me and Mia into a secure residence.
I protested.
“I can't live here.”
“You can.”
“It's your house.”
“Exactly.”
“That's not comforting.”
He smiled.
For the first time, I saw the man beneath the billionaire.
The exhausted son.
The protective brother.
The lonely man.
Mia loved the house immediately.
She called it “the castle.”
Adrian pretended to hate the name.
He secretly loved it.
Every morning, Mia waited outside his office.
“Daddy?”
Adrian looked up.
“What?”
“Can we have pancakes?”
“You know I'm not your father.”
“I know.”
“Then why do you keep calling me that?”
She shrugged.
“Because you don't get mad.”
He looked at me.
I smiled.
“You're doomed.”
He sighed.
“Apparently.”
But something changed between us.
We became a family before either of us admitted it.
Adrian helped Mia with homework.
He learned her favorite cartoon.
He memorized the names of her stuffed animals.
He even attended her school play.
When she saw him in the audience, she smiled so brightly that I nearly cried.
Afterward, Adrian found me outside.
“She was incredible.”
“She was.”
He looked at me.
“So are you.”
I swallowed.
“Adrian…”
“I love her.”
I froze.
He continued.
“Not as a replacement for her father.”
He looked at me.
“And not because I need to save anyone.”
My heart pounded.
“I love her because she's Mia.”
Then he whispered:
“And I'm falling in love with you.”
May you like
I couldn't speak.
Because I had been falling too.
