Chapter 117

Maya’s POV

I pressed on, my voice calm but firm. “Listen, Adrian. I know you’re not a bad person. Even in the cruellest parts of your plan, you had good intentions. But it isn’t only the end result that matters. In the process, you lost the very people you were trying to protect because you cut yourself off from us. You weren’t alone, yet you decided to carry the weight by yourself. You never gave us a chance to help—or even to choose our own fate. You looked down on us.”

He shook his head. “That’s not true.”

I met his gaze, refusing to soften. “You saw us as helpless people who needed your protection. Maybe we were, because you kept us in the dark. We were meant to be partners. Did you ever consider that things might have turned out better if you’d told me everything from the start?”

Adrian bit his lip, his eyes d