Chapter 96

Elias’s POV

Agonizing thoughts clouded my mind. Even through the haze of city smog, all I could picture was Maya with Adrian. Every weary breath felt heavy, weighed down by the image of them together. Then, without warning, a red mist seemed to descend over me—an instinctive warning I couldn’t ignore. I didn’t yet know what conclusions to draw, but I recognized that only Maya could clear this creeping dread. Despite myself, I resisted believing the implications Richard had planted in my head, yet Maya’s silence and half-answers were beginning to confirm every suspicion. Right now, all I needed was my wife’s clear explanation.

I cast one last troubled glance around the bustling lobby, eyes lingering on the guarded door beyond which I was due for my presentation. My mind wrestled with priorities: I knew the presentation at Ellis-Town should come first, but my turmoil left me rest