ATTEMPTED ESCAPE

The sea wind at the Gavrila coast house was sharp and salted, scraping at Adelina's skin as if it could peel away everything she didn't want to feel.

Here, away from the mansion, away from Nathan, she thought she could find clarity. Space. Freedom.

Instead, she found herself pacing the library, her laptop open and glowing in the dim coastal afternoon.

An application form blinked back at her. The University of Edinburgh. International Politics and Cultural History. Far enough. Quiet enough. Hers.

She had filled it out three times already and deleted it twice.

The third time, she hit submit.

"I need to leave," she whispered to herself that night, curled on the sofa with a blanket she barely noticed.

And she knew it wasn't just physical distance she craved. It was identity. Autonomy. The right to be someone without history breathing down her neck.

Back in the estate, Mira's voice crackled through the phone, hushed but firm.

"You're actually doing it?"

Adelina nodded, though Mira couldn't see her.

"I applied. Three programs. No one knows. I used a private connection. Different email. I'm not waiting for permission."

Mira exhaled. "Good. About time. But… be careful. If Nathan finds out—"

"He won't," Adelina interrupted. "Not yet."

But secrets in the Gavrila house never stayed secrets for long.

When she returned three days later, Victor was waiting in the drawing room with a tablet in hand. Cassandra leaned against the fireplace, arms crossed. Stefan smirked from the bar, swirling amber in a glass.

Nathan wasn't there.

Yet.

Victor didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to.

"You applied to leave the country without informing the family. Without informing me."

Adelina stood straighter. "It's my life."

Cassandra laughed softly. "Not anymore. Not since you were born into this name."

Victor nodded. "You are part of an empire, Adelina. Not a private citizen. You do not walk away from this."

"I didn't ask for this!" she snapped.

Victor's face hardened. "You didn't have to."

Stefan raised a brow. "So, what, you were just going to vanish across the sea and reinvent yourself as a literature major?"

She turned to leave, trembling, furious.

That's when she saw him.

Nathan.

Standing in the doorway. Silent. Watching.

He didn't speak as she passed him. But he followed.

He cornered her in the west stairwell, where no cameras could see, where the marble walls kept secrets like old friends.

"You weren't going to tell me?"

She faced him. "I knew you'd try to stop me."

His voice dropped. "So you admit it."

"You want the truth?" she said, her voice breaking. "I'm terrified of who I am when I'm around you. I don't know what's real anymore—my memories, my feelings, my choices—everything gets tangled with you."

"I never wanted you to feel trapped," he whispered.

"But you did trap me," she snapped. "With kindness. With protection. With your constant, possessive love. And I let it happen because a part of me needed it. But I'm done needing someone else to breathe."

His hands balled into fists.

"Do you think you're the only one who's struggling?" he asked, voice low and fierce. "Do you know what it's like to wake up every day terrified that you'll disappear again?"

She flinched. "That doesn't give you the right to control me."

His eyes darkened. "I haven't just been watching you, Adelina. I've been stopping the offers. The invitations. The programs. Every time someone reached out to take you away, I buried it."

Her stomach dropped.

"What?"

"I didn't want to lose you," he said. "Not again. Not after..."

She stepped back like he'd struck her.

"You sabotaged me?"

"I protected you."

"You owned me."

The silence that followed was thick with devastation.

"I can't let you go," Nathan said finally, voice hoarse.

She stared at him. "Then maybe the only way I can survive… is to escape you."

Before he could answer, her phone buzzed.

She glanced down.

Another message.

Unknown Number:

You won't escape him. Not when you've always belonged to someone else.

Her breath hitched.

She looked up.

But Nathan was already gone.