The room stayed silent long after Adrian's words.
She chose who got saved.
The sentence echoed inside Luna's mind like something sharp and endless. She stood there, unable to move, as if her body had forgotten how. Her breathing felt wrong. Too fast. Too shallow.
No one spoke.
Because no one knew how to soften something like that.
Luna looked down at her hands.
They were trembling.
These hands.
Had they really done something that terrible?
Or had someone else inside her done it for her?
The thought made her feel sick.
"…Who?" she asked finally.
Her voice was barely there.
Adrian and Ethan both looked at her.
Luna lifted her eyes slowly.
"Who did I choose?"
Ethan answered first.
"Luna—"
"No." Her voice sharpened, even through the fear. "Don't do that again. Don't protect me. Don't decide what I can handle."
Silence.
That hit him.
Because she was right.
Again.
Her gaze shifted back to Adrian.
"You said I made a choice. Then tell me who."
Adrian didn't respond immediately.
For the first time, even he looked careful.
Because this truth—
Would change everything.
Finally, he spoke.
"There were two people."
Luna's chest tightened.
"One of them… was your father."
Her breath caught.
Everything inside her stopped.
"…My father?"
Adrian nodded once.
"The other…"
He paused.
And somehow, that pause felt worse.
"The other was me."
Silence exploded.
Luna stared at him, unable to process it.
Rain.
Running.
Fear.
Fragments slammed into her mind all at once.
Her father shouting.
Adrian grabbing her wrist.
A car's headlights cutting through darkness.
And her own voice—
desperate.
Only one.
Only one.
She stumbled back.
Ethan moved instantly, but she lifted her hand to stop him.
"No…"
Tears burned in her eyes.
"No, no, no…"
Because now—
she understood.
She hadn't chosen between strangers.
She had chosen between family…
and Adrian.
And somehow—
someone still died.
Her voice cracked.
"…I chose my father."
It wasn't a question.
It was memory.
Adrian looked at her quietly.
"Yes."
Luna covered her mouth with trembling fingers.
Because if that was true—
then why did it still feel wrong?
Why did guilt still sit so heavily inside her chest?
She chose her father.
Anyone would.
So why did it feel like betrayal?
Her eyes lifted to Adrian again.
"…Then why are you alive?"
That question changed everything.
The room went still.
Even Ethan's expression shifted.
Because that—
was the question no one wanted.
Adrian gave the faintest smile.
But it wasn't amusement.
It was sadness.
"Because your father made a different choice."
Luna froze.
Her heartbeat turned violent.
"What?"
Adrian stepped closer, slower this time.
"That night, you chose him."
His voice stayed calm.
"But your father…"
A pause.
"He chose me."
The world tilted.
Luna felt like the ground had disappeared under her feet.
Her father.
The man she barely remembered.
The man she spent years grieving.
He chose Adrian?
Why?
Why would he do that?
Tears slipped down before she noticed.
"…Why?"
Adrian's voice softened.
"Because he knew what was on that drive."
Ethan's jaw tightened.
But he stayed silent.
Adrian continued.
"He knew if it fell into the wrong hands, everything would collapse. People would die. Families. Companies. Names much bigger than yours."
Luna's breathing shook.
"And he believed I was the only one who could protect it."
"No…"
She shook her head weakly.
"He barely knew you."
Adrian's expression darkened.
"He knew me better than you think."
That line carried history.
Something deeper.
Luna looked between them.
Confused again.
Afraid again.
"…Who are you really?"
Adrian smiled faintly.
"Someone your father trusted."
Ethan finally stepped in.
"And someone who betrayed that trust."
The tension snapped instantly.
Adrian's eyes shifted to Ethan.
Cold now.
"And you think you didn't?"
Silence.
Luna turned sharply toward Ethan.
That reaction—
too fast.
Too personal.
Her chest tightened again.
"What does that mean?"
Neither of them answered.
And suddenly—
she was tired of silence.
"TELL ME!"
Her voice echoed through the room.
Broken.
Desperate.
Because every truth led to another lie.
Every answer created ten more questions.
She looked at Ethan.
Her voice trembling now.
"What did you do?"
For the first time—
he looked away.
And that hurt more than any confession could.
Because silence—
was confession.
Luna stepped back slowly.
Her tears weren't just from grief now.
They were from disappointment.
From exhaustion.
From the horrible realization that maybe—
everyone she trusted
had failed her.
"…I thought you were the one person who wouldn't."
Ethan looked at her.
Something real in his eyes.
Regret.
Maybe guilt.
Maybe both.
"Luna—"
But she shook her head.
"No."
The word was quiet.
But final.
"Not right now."
Because right now—
she couldn't survive another truth.
Not from him.
Not today.
She turned and walked away again.
And this time—
neither of them stopped her.
Because both men knew the same thing.
The next truth—
would either bring her back…
or destroy everything left.