EMBERS OF THE UNSPOKEN

(Continuation)

The soft hum of the AC was the only sound in Adrian Nicholas’s office. Papers were stacked in precise piles across his desk, a pen dancing between his fingers as he flipped through documents without really reading them. His jaw was tight, his expression unreadable. He moved like someone trying to outrun his own mind.

The door burst open.

Evan stepped in, still looking slightly out of breath from having rushed over.

“Seriously?” he blurted before the door even closed. “You’re still here? You didn’t even go back to the hospital? Aurora literally woke up from the dead, and you—” he waved a hand at the desk “—you’re sitting here signing documents?!”

Adrian did not lift his head.

Evan continued pacing, muttering to himself.

“I mean, I know you don’t love her. But still—this cold? This level of emotionally frozen? She woke up after an accident that could have killed her. Anyone else would be crying, celebrating, thanking God or something. But no. You’re here. Working.”

He stopped pacing long enough to glance at Adrian’s face.

Nothing.

Not a blink.

Not a frown.

Not a single flicker of emotion.

Evan groaned dramatically and threw himself into the chair across from him.

“Seriously, Adrian, what is wrong with you? Are you allergic to emotions? Did love kick you when you were five? Did you swallow a block of ice as a child? You didn’t even bother going home after hearing she woke up! Does Aurora annoy you that much?”

Still nothing.

Just the steady flipping of papers.

Evan rubbed his face, exasperated.

“And here I was, thinking maybe—just maybe—you’d act like a normal human being for once.”

Adrian finally stopped flipping the document in his hand.

His fingers pressed down on the paper, stilling it completely.

His eyes lifted—cold, sharp, unreadable.

Evan sat up a little straighter.

A long, heavy silence settled in the office.

Then, in a calm, controlled voice, Adrian asked:

“Did Aurora settle in well?”

Evan blinked.

“…What?”

Adrian repeated, almost bored, “Did she settle in well?”

For a moment, Evan just stared at him, his earlier irritation melting into stunned disbelief.

“That’s… that’s all you’re going to ask?” he murmured.

Adrian said nothing more—already looking back at his papers as though emotions if express by him, were something that could kill him.