Adrian Cole didn't believe in coincidences.
Not in business. Not in people. And definitely not in whatever this was.
The message blinked on his screen again.
"You ever feel like you built a life that doesn't actually belong to you?"
He stared at it longer than he should have.
Three months.
That's how long he'd been talking to her, Nova, she called herself. No face. No name. Just words that landed too precisely, like she'd been inside his head longer than he had.
It was reckless. Pointless.
And yet… he replied anyway.
"If it didn't belong to you, you wouldn't have built it."
The typing bubble appeared almost instantly.
"Or maybe I built it for everyone else."
Adrian exhaled slowly, leaning back in his chair. Glass walls. City lights. A skyline that screamed success.
None of it touched him.
"That sounds like regret," he typed.
There was a pause this time.
Long enough to make him wonder if he'd gone too far.
Then..
"It sounds like honesty. Most people just don't like hearing it out loud."
A small, humorless smile pulled at his mouth.
She did that. Cut straight through things.
No performance. No expectations.
Just…real.
And that was the problem.
Because Adrian Cole didn't do real.
"Adrian."
The voice snapped the moment in half.
He locked his phone instantly, expression hardening before he even turned around.
Elena Voss stood in the doorway of his office like she owned the building.
Which, technically, she almost did.
Same industry. Same level. Same relentless ambition.
Different problem.
"Your assistant said you'd try to dodge this meeting," she said, stepping in without waiting for permission.
Still the same.
Too bold. Too sharp. Too….
"You're late," Adrian cut in.
Her brow lifted. "By two minutes."
"Which is late."
She stared at him for a second, then let out a quiet scoff. "God, you're insufferable."
"And yet you're still here."
"Unfortunately, my brother trusts you."
There it was.
The only reason she was standing in his office at all. His best friend.
Her brother.
The one line Adrian didn't cross.
Didn't even come close to.
Elena dropped a file onto his desk. "Let's just get this over with."
He didn't touch it.
Didn't look at it.
He was looking at her instead.
Not obviously. Not long enough to be noticed.
Just enough to register what he always did.
Confidence. Control.
And something else beneath it.
Something sharper than she let people see.
It annoyed him. More than it should.
"You've changed," he said flatly.
Her expression didn't shift. "So have you. Just not for the better."
Silence stretched between them.
Tight. Familiar. Unresolved.
Then his phone buzzed.
Once. A message.
Without thinking, his gaze flicked down.
Just for a second.
But it was enough.
Enough to see the name.
Nova.
And somehow, for reasons he couldn't explain,
standing across from him, Elena Voss suddenly felt like a problem he hadn't solved yet.