A Line Crossed

Elena should have left.

She should have walked out of Adrian's apartment, slammed the door behind her, and put as much distance as possible between them.

Instead, she stood frozen in place, his fingers still brushing against her hair.

His words echoed in her mind—"Then trust me."

But trust didn't come easy, not when she had spent years training to see past lies.

And Adrian was lying.

She could see it in his eyes.

"Elena," he said softly, his voice pulling her back to reality. "I don't know what you think you saw, but it wasn't me."

She clenched her fists. "I saw you, Adrian. You were at Solace, giving orders like you owned the place."

His jaw tensed. "I wasn't."

Lie.

"Elena…" He stepped forward, but she took a step back.

"If I dig deeper, will I find the truth?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

His silence was her answer.

She turned to leave, but his voice stopped her.

"You won't like what you find."

A shiver ran down her spine.

She forced herself to walk out, her mind racing.

Adrian was hiding something.

And if he wasn't going to tell her the truth, she was going to find it herself.

The Forbidden File

Elena sat in the dimly lit station, her computer screen glowing in front of her.

She wasn't supposed to access restricted files without clearance.

But rules didn't matter when her entire world was falling apart.

She typed in a name.

Liam Cross.

A red warning popped up—Unauthorized Access Detected.

She ignored it, clicking through security layers until she hit something that made her blood run cold.

A photograph.

It was Adrian.

Or at least, it looked like him.

The same sharp jawline. The same piercing gaze. The same scar near his left brow.

But the file wasn't labeled Adrian Cross.

It was labeled Liam Cross – International Fugitive.

Elena's stomach twisted.

Adrian had always told her he was an only child.

So why did this file say otherwise?

"They are different people," she told herself. "They have to be."

But deep down, something told her she was wrong.

And if Adrian was lying about this…

What else was he lying about?

A Dangerous Encounter

Elena barely noticed the cold air as she walked through the city streets.

She needed to clear her head.

The sound of traffic, the glow of neon lights, the distant hum of voices—it all felt too normal compared to the storm inside her.

Then, she saw him.

Adrian—no, Liam—standing at the edge of a rooftop bar, looking down at the city like he owned it.

Her heart pounded.

She had to confront him.

She moved quickly, pushing past the crowd and up the stairwell.

By the time she reached the rooftop, he was gone.

But someone else was waiting.

A man in a dark suit, watching her with cold amusement.

"You shouldn't be here, Detective."

Elena's hand instinctively moved to her gun.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

The man smirked. "You're asking the wrong question."

Her pulse spiked.

Because as he stepped forward, she realized—

This man had the same face as Adrian.

Two identical men.

Standing on opposite sides of a war.

And she was caught in the middle.