Chapter Ninety-Two: Interruptions and Other Names

A week had passed, and somehow it already felt like a rhythm.

Kian had taken to showing up at Blackwood Hall without announcement, as if he had never been the boy who once stood at the threshold unsure if he'd be allowed back in.

Now, Samuel nodded when he arrived.

Lorence pretended to be annoyed by it.

Mikael teased him mercilessly about walking in like he owned the place.

He didn't.

But Chloe? That was different.

Most days, he picked her up after her hours at Levant Creatives, waiting at the curb behind mirrored glass in a modest graphite-colored car—not flashy, never vulgar.

Chloe would raise an eyebrow every time he opened her door for her. He'd just smirk like it was instinct.

It was Saturday now. No work. No errands. Just the three of them.

Today, they were heading to Atria Solis, the crown jewel of Aeloria's inner district—a high-end mall tucked between slate towers and glass promenades, humming with soft jazz and money old enough to wear silence like cologne.

Carter had insisted they go. Said he wanted a new notebook for his "research on clouds and kitchen smells."

Chloe had dressed light, casual, with a soft breeze twirling through her loose white blouse, sunglasses pushed up into her hair. Kian couldn't stop looking at her from the driver's seat. She rolled her eyes and stole his coffee anyway.

Carter was in the back, humming something off-key about mangoes.

Then Chloe's phone rang.

Kevin.

She answered quickly, voice gentle. "Hey."

Kian didn't say a word. But he heard it.

Kevin's voice was crisp. Almost too polite.

"Is Carter with you?"

Chloe glanced in the mirror. "Yeah, he's—"

"Daddy! Mama, put me on the phone!" Carter chimed from the backseat. "Hi Daddy! Did you see my pictures I sent? I made a chart! And Papa says we might get a telescope!"

That made Kian blink once.

He didn't flinch.

But Chloe saw the shift.

Just a breath. Just long enough.

On the other end, Kevin was quiet. Too quiet.

"Telescope, huh." A beat.

"Guess you've been busy with… your Papa."

Carter didn't hear the tightness. But Chloe did.

And so did Kian.

The rest of the call was short. Kevin informed her his flight was tomorrow. He'd be in Macresia the next day.

Carter cheered. Chloe promised to call when he arrived.

Then silence.

Kian drove without speaking, fingers relaxed on the wheel, eyes fixed forward—but something in him had quieted.

Not angry. Just alert again.

They pulled into the Atria Solis underground lot.

Before opening the door, Chloe looked at him and said, gently,

"I didn't correct Carter."

Kian met her eyes.

"You didn't have to."

Then, like smoke curling from certainty:

"Kevin heard enough to know where his place ends."