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Adrian crossed to the door in two long strides. His hand closed on Eliana's wrist.

"Please." The word came out stripped of everything. "I know I have no right to ask. I'm asking anyway. Don't let him touch you. You're mine — you were always mine — I've loved you since before I even knew what to do with it —"

Sebastian turned.

"Loved her." His voice was not raised. It didn't need to be. "And what did that love look like?"

"That was Serena — she manipulated everything, I didn't —"

"You didn't manipulate anything yourself. You just found a cheap substitute and used her to punish Eliana for a transgression that never happened." Sebastian studied him with the calm disinterest of someone examining a piece of work that didn't quite hold together. "You couldn't bring yourself to ask her directly whether she loved you. The insecurity was easier to live with than the risk of an honest answer. So you hurt the one person who actually knew what you were worth."

Adrian's mouth moved. Nothing came out.

"That's not strength, Wyndham. That's someone who never learned how to be loved without turning it into a weapon."

The accuracy of it was devastating.

Adrian's hands opened. He took a step backward.

Sebastian wrapped one arm around Eliana and turned her gently toward the door, and this time she felt the warmth of his arm as something real — not strategic, not performance. Real.

His words were still reverberating through her. Like something she'd needed someone to say for years without knowing she needed it.

"One more time," Sebastian said, over his shoulder, to Adrian. "If you come near her again, you'll hear from our legal team before you hear from anyone else. The Calloway Group's counsel has a particular gift for making things inconvenient."

He opened the door for her.

She went in.