Chapter 56: She Wasn’t Supposed to Matter
ADRIEN’S POV
She walked past me without a single glance.
Not a flicker of emotion. Not the rage from earlier, not the fire she’d burned me with in my office. Just... cold detachment. Controlled. Poised. Distant.
The kind of distance that screamed louder than anything she’d shouted at me before.
And yet, her scent lingered in the air—faint notes of vanilla, a bit of rose, like the quiet after a storm. And I stood there, by the door of my office, trying to pretend like I hadn’t just lost the only ground I thought I had gained with her.
"Miss Miller?" the words were out of my mouth before I had the chance to stop myself.
She paused. Tilted her head slightly. Didn’t turn.
"Yes?" Her voice was clipped, almost bored.
I swallowed down whatever this thing in my chest was. "Let’s just pick up from where we left off with the Johnson proposal. Nine AM?"
She finally turned. Just a bit. Enough for me to see her face—carefully blank. A wall. One I had put there.
"Nine AM," she repeated. "Okay."