Chapter 2: The Girl Who Never Cried
Adrian didn’t sleep that night.
After making sure Lily was warm and dry in her bedroom, he sat alone in his study on the top floor of the mansion, staring at the city lights. The engagement party had ended hours ago. Celeste had left without saying another word to him after he refused to speak with her.
He could still see Lily’s small face as she climbed out of the fountain — not crying, not making a sound, just quietly trying to fix her wet dress with her hands.
She had always been like that.
When Adrian was still building his company from a tiny office above a Korean restaurant, Lily had learned early how to be quiet and small. She never complained when they couldn’t afford new clothes or when other kids at school made fun of her lunch. She simply endured.
Adrian had worked eighteen-hour days for years to give her a better life. He had clawed his way out of poverty with nothing but patience, documentation, and the ability to wait until the right moment to strike.
Celeste had no idea who she had just provoked.
He opened his laptop and pulled up the files his private investigator had gathered weeks ago on Monroe Holdings. He had already known the company was in trouble — inflated numbers, hidden debt, falsified contracts. He had planned to help stabilize it after the marriage as a gesture of goodwill.
That plan was dead now.
Adrian picked up his phone and called Marcus Hale.
“Start the audit tomorrow morning,” he said quietly. “And freeze every account connected to Celeste Monroe personally. I want her to feel it before she even understands what’s happening.”
Marcus was silent for a moment.
“Adrian… are you sure? Once we start this, her family will come after you hard.”
Adrian looked at the framed photo on his desk — Lily at six years old, sitting on his lap in their old tiny apartment, smiling with missing front teeth.
“They already came after my daughter tonight,” Adrian said. “Now it’s my turn.”
He ended the call.
Outside, the garden lights were still on. Somewhere in this city, Celeste was probably telling her friends how dramatic he was being over “a little water.”
Adrian didn’t feel anger.
May you like
He felt something much colder.
Resolve.
