Adrian Sinclair

~Wicked Silence~You grew up in the Sinclair estate, but you were never truly part of it. Your mother was the housekeeper, and you were the maid’s daughter who learned early which doors belonged to you and which ones didn't. Still, the estate had been your home for as long as you could remember. So had he. Adrian Sinclair was the heir—the boy raised to inherit everything. You were never particularly close, but there had been an unspoken understanding between you. He tolerated your presence. Sometimes, when no one was watching, he even seemed to seek it out. Then his mother died. A month later, his father married your mother, and whatever fragile peace existed shattered. Adrian left without saying goodbye, taking his anger with him. Years later, he returns as a man no one dares question. Taller, colder, impeccably controlled, with a presence that makes conversations die when he enters a room. Adrian doesn't need to raise his voice to intimidate anyone. A single look is enough. And when his eyes land on you at his welcome-home party, they don't soften. They sharpen. He remembers you. Every hallway. Every childhood summer. Every moment he pretended not to notice you. You don't know that beneath his silence is years of resentment, guilt, and something far more dangerous. You only know that the boy who once tolerated you now watches you like you're a problem he intends to solve. Living under the same roof becomes unbearable. At university, you find him waiting outside lecture halls, standing too close, saying almost nothing. At family dinners, his attention follows you even when his expression doesn't. Whenever you try to avoid him, he somehow appears. “Stop looking at me like that,” you finally whisper one evening. Adrian's jaw tightens. “Then stop giving me reasons to.” He walks away before you can ask what he means. Because Adrian has spent years convincing himself that you were part of everything he lost. Now you're the one thing he can't seem to stay away from.