The glimmer of the city lights spread before them, a sprawling mosaic of neon and steel beneath the velvet night sky. Emma stood at the edge of the rooftop, her hands clasped tightly in front of her as the cool breeze tousled her hair. The hum of the gala below was a distant murmur, replaced by the occasional clink of glasses and laughter echoing through the building. It was a sanctuary, a rare moment of peace, far from the chaos that seemed to swirl around Adrian Cross.
He stood beside her, leaning against the stone ledge, an air of indifference softened to solitude. His tuxedo, immaculate, as always, felt out of place in the intimate quiet of the rooftop, yet it somehow belonged here and now. The weight of the night-of the constant pressure that seemed to follow Adrian-was forgotten up here, with the expansive sky above.
"I wasn't expecting to find you here," Emma said, breaking the silence between them.
Adrian turned toward her, his expression unreadable. "I needed a break," he said simply, his voice gruffer than usual, and he ran a hand through his hair, a rare sign of agitation. "The noise it's unbearable sometimes."
Emma nodded, feeling a strange sense of connection to him in that moment. She had never seen him like this before—without the sharp, calculating gaze, without the distance he so carefully maintained between himself and everyone else. For a brief instant, Adrian Cross seemed human, vulnerable even.
"I know the feeling," Emma replied, more in a whisper. "Not in your world, mind-but." She fell quiet not really knowing how to go about voicing her point, "Sometimes it is enough but to simply breathe".
Adrian's lips quirked upward, but only for a second. "Breathe, yes, though for me, there's seldom time to do that." His gaze stayed fixed on the skyline, yet his mind was somewhere else. "Too many people rely on me, too much is at stake."
Emma didn't say anything at first. It wasn't her place to speak on matters she didn't understand-on the crushing weight of leadership, on the cost of the decisions Adrian had to make every day. But she couldn't help herself. She took a cautious step closer to him, her gaze softening. "You're only human, you know.
The words hovered in the air between them until Adrian's gaze flashed to hers, and his eyes sliced through the night with silent force. There was a tinge in his gaze-a sense of rawness unmasked. This one time, it appeared the mantle of his control might have slipped a trifle too low, allowing Emma a glimpse into a man wracked beneath it all. A man who wasn't merely a calculating CEO but an entity to which demons attached as firmly as weaknesses did.
"I don't have the luxury of being human," Adrian muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. "Not when everything I've built could come crashing down in a heartbeat."
There, it was—the weight of the empire he was carrying upon his shoulders. Emma knew Adrian's life wasn't that easy, his responsibilities stretched much further from the glass tower walls of Arcadia. To hear him utter it so clearly made something in her chest tighten. She had never fully understood the burden he bore until now.
She opened her mouth to answer, but the words caught in her throat. What was she to say? She was ill-equipped to offer solace to a man such as him. What could she do to ease the crushing loneliness that seemed to envelop him like an invisible cage?
Instead of speaking, Emma merely stepped closer to him, her presence quiet but grounding. She could feel the tension rolling off him in waves, and though she didn't have the answers to his problems, she wanted him to know-just for a moment-that he wasn't alone.
But to her surprise, Adrian didn't pull away. In fact, he leaned slightly toward her, as if her proximity offered him something he hadn't expected. A brief moment of peace, perhaps.
For the first time that night, he didn't look at her like an assistant or an obstacle or a tool to be used. He looked at her like. well, like she was something more. Something real.
The silence stretched, and Emma's heart quickened as the weight of the moment dawned on her. This wasn't a casual exchange. There was something between them, an undercurrent of tension that had been building for weeks, if not longer. A spark neither of them could deny.
Adrian shifted, the tension in his posture palpable, and for a moment seemed to wrestle with himself over what to say next. Always calm, always collected. But here, under this vast, unbroken sky, something in him was fraying.
"It's a lot harder than people think," he said, the words almost an admission. "Being the one everyone depends upon. The one everyone wants something from."
Emma's eyes softened, the hardness that had become momentarily evident suddenly dissolving, and her voice came softly and steadily. "I want nothing from you, nothing at all-I am only trying to do my work."
Adrian's eyes darkened, and he turned fully to her, his eyes narrowing, but this time not in suspicion-more like curiosity. "Is that all?" he asked, in a voice laced with something she couldn't quite place. "Is that all you want from me?"
Emma felt a heat rise to her cheeks, but she held his gaze, refusing to back down. "I'm not like the others," she said, her voice firm despite the racing of her heart. "I'm not looking for favors. Just. trust."
There it was-her unspoken truth. She wasn't interested in climbing the corporate ladder, wasn't trying to play a part in some game of power and influence. She was here because she wanted to do the right thing. Because despite the mess that Arcadia had become, she believed in the company's potential. She believed in Adrian, even if he couldn't see it himself.
Adrian studied her for a long moment, his eyes delving into hers as though searching for something hidden beneath her words. Then, for one brief instant, his features softened, enough to let Emma glimpse something she hadn't seen before. Vulnerability.
"I wish it were that simple," he muttered under his breath. "But sometimes, trust isn't enough."
Emma stepped closer, her voice low but resolute. "Then maybe it's time you stopped carrying that weight alone."
He didn't respond right away but ran a hand through his hair again, his gaze going far as he considered her words. But there was something in his demeanor now-something that hadn't been there before. The slightest turn of his body that gave the impression he was considering it. Maybe, just maybe, he didn't have to carry the weight by himself anymore.
Emma felt her pulse quicken, automatically leaning in toward him, as the chemistry that was once a spark between them finally flared into a tension that she could no longer ignore. But this wasn't about attraction anymore-not really.
It was about the unspoken bond they had formed over the past few weeks, an acceptance that went beyond words.
The moment stretched on, the silence between them now charged with anticipation. Emma could feel it in the air, in the weight of Adrian's gaze, in the quickening of her breath. For the first time, there was no mask, no pretense. Just the two of them, standing on the rooftop, under the stars.
And then, just as quickly as it had come, the moment shifted.
Adrian stepped back, his mask of coldness slipping once more into place. The distance was back between them, as it always seemed to end up.
"I shouldn't have come up here," Adrian muttered, voice cold and clipped once more. He turned away from her, heading back to the door that would deposit them once more into chaos.
Emma stood there, staring after him, her heart pounding in her chest. She knew better than to chase after him. She knew the walls he had built around himself were thick and high, and breaking through them would take time-more time than she might have.
But in that moment, she also knew something else: the Adrian Cross she had seen tonight—the one who had let his guard down, even if only for a brief second—was real. And it was a side of him she would do anything to understand.
The question, now, was whether she could ever get him to believe that.