Chapter 120

Claire's POV The doorway had become a battlefield, and I was caught in the crossfire between two men who seemed determined to claim pieces of me I no longer had to give. Adrian's grip on my wrist had tightened with each word of his desperate plea, his fingers digging into my skin with a possessiveness that made my stomach turn. I'd been trying to close the door, to end this conversation that felt like emotional violence disguised as romantic pursuit, when his hand had shot out to stop me. "Claire, please," he'd said, his voice cracking with the kind of desperation that might have moved me once, before I'd learned to recognize manipulation dressed up as vulnerability. "Just give me five minutes. Five minutes to explain everything." "I don't want explanations," I'd replied, pulling back against his grip while trying to maintain some semblance of calm. "Adrian, you need to leave. Now." That's when his fingers had clamped down harder, not enough to bruise but enough to make his intentions