Chapter 2 The Stranger In My Bed

I couldn't breathe.

Adrian stood in the doorway, his coat still damp from the rain outside, his eyes fixed on the white rose with predatory intensity. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but my body had turned to stone beneath the sheets.

"I asked you a question," he said, stepping into the room. Each footfall measured. Deliberate. "Who was here?"

"No one." The lie escaped before I could think. "I must have... I brought the rose myself. From the garden."

His head tilted. Slow. Calculating. "You brought a rose to bed and forgot?"

"I was tired. It slipped my mind."

Adrian crossed to the nightstand and picked up the flower, twirling it between his fingers. I watched his knuckles, the way they tightened around the stem. "The garden roses are red, Elena. This one is white."

My stomach dropped.

He brought the rose to his nose, inhaling deeply, and something in his expression shifted-a flash of recognition, quickly buried. "Interesting."

"Adrian, I don't understand what-"

"Go back to sleep." He tossed the rose into the wastebasket and began unbuttoning his shirt. "We'll discuss this in the morning."

But I couldn't sleep. I lay rigid beside him, listening to his breathing, feeling the cold space between us like a chasm. My mind raced through the previous night-the tenderness, the whispered conversations, the way he had touched me as though I mattered.

None of it made sense.

Adrian had been in Berlin. I had watched him leave. I had spoken to him on the phone just yesterday, his voice clipped and distant as always. Yet the man who had held me, who had kissed my forehead and called me beautiful-that man had worn Adrian's face.

Had I imagined it? Was I losing my mind?

The next morning, Adrian left without mentioning the rose again. But I noticed things I hadn't before-the way he watched me across the breakfast table, the way his gaze followed my every movement like a predator tracking prey. He was waiting for something. For me to slip.

I spent the day in a fog, replaying every moment of that night. The scar above his eyebrow. The hesitation in his touch. The way he had asked about my childhood, my dreams, my fears-as though he genuinely wanted to know the woman behind the trophy wife.

Adrian had never asked me anything.

That evening, I found myself in the library again, drawn to the same spot where I had sat with the stranger. I ran my fingers over the leather couch, searching for evidence that the night had been real. A faint trace of cologne lingered in the fabric-something warmer than Adrian's usual scent, with notes of sandalwood and amber.

A knock at the front door made me freeze.

The staff had left hours ago. Adrian had meetings until late. I wasn't expecting anyone.

The knock came again. Insistent.

I moved to the door on silent feet, peering through the peephole. A man stood in the hallway-tall, dark-haired, wearing a gray coat that dripped rainwater onto the marble floor.

My heart stopped.

It was Adrian.

But it couldn't be. He had left for his meeting two hours ago. I had watched him go.

The man knocked a third time, then stepped back, tilting his face toward the peephole as though he knew I was watching. His eyes-warm, patient, familiar-met mine through the tiny glass circle.

"Elena," he called softly. "I know you're there. Please open the door."

That voice. It was Adrian's voice, but softer. Kinder. The voice from that night.

My hands trembled as I unlocked the door.

He stood before me, rain-darkened and hesitant, and I saw it immediately-the small scar above his left eyebrow. The one Adrian didn't have.

"You," I whispered.

"Me." He smiled, and it transformed his face into something beautiful and heartbreaking all at once. "I owe you an explanation."

"Who are you?"

He glanced past me into the empty penthouse, then back at my face. "May I come in? What I have to say shouldn't be spoken in hallways."

Every rational instinct told me to slam the door. To call Adrian. To demand answers from the man I had married. But something in his eyes-that desperate, aching tenderness-held me captive.

"Please," he added. "I've waited years for this moment. I won't hurt you."

I stepped aside.

He entered, shedding his wet coat, and I noticed how different he was from Adrian despite the identical face. Where Adrian moved with rigid control, this man seemed almost uncertain-as though he was constantly checking himself, afraid of making a wrong move.

"I'm Julian," he said. "Adrian's brother."

The word hit me like a physical blow. "Brother?"

"Twin." He laughed softly, but there was no humor in it. "We share everything. Our face. Our DNA. Our rivalry." He paused. "But not you. You were never supposed to be his."

My legs gave out. I sank onto the armchair, gripping the arms so hard my knuckles went white. "I don't understand. Adrian never mentioned-"

"Of course he didn't." Julian's jaw tightened. "I'm the family secret. The one who refused to play by the rules. The one who built his own empire just to spite him." He knelt before me, bringing himself to my level. "But that's not why I'm here."

"Then why?"

He reached out, slowly, giving me time to pull away. When I didn't, his fingers brushed my cheek with impossible gentleness. "Because I've loved you since before you ever knew my name. I watched you at charity galas, at parties, at that awful auction where your father sold you to the highest bidder." His voice cracked. "I watched him break you, Elena. And I couldn't stand it anymore."

I thought of the tender night. The whispered conversations. The way he had held me afterward as though I were something precious. "It was you. The night I thought-you were the one who came back early."

"Yes."

"Adrian doesn't know."

"No." Julian's expression darkened. "And he never can. My brother would destroy both of us if he knew I touched what belongs to him."

"I'm not a thing," I said, my voice finding its edge. "I'm not his property."

Julian studied me for a long moment, and something shifted in his eyes-surprise, perhaps, or admiration. "No," he agreed softly. "You're not. That's why I'm here." He took my hands in his. "You deserve better than a cage, Elena. I can give you the key-if you're brave enough to take it."

I stared at this man who wore my husband's face, who had deceived me into loving a fantasy, and yet-

And yet, I couldn't let go of his hands.