[Sophie’s POV]

I know something is wrong before I even open the document.

The email subject line is neutral to the point of aggression: Revised Chapter 6 – Author Notes Included. No greeting. No softening language. Just the file attachment sitting there like a dare. I stare at my screen longer than necessary, my fingers hovering over the trackpad, my body already reacting before my brain has caught up.

Cassian texts me from the other side of the city, asking how my day is going. I don’t answer. Adrian hasn’t texted at all, which somehow feels worse. The office around me hums with its usual late-afternoon rhythm, keyboards clacking, printers coughing, someone laughing too loudly near the break room. I feel detached from all of it, like I’m underwater.

I open the file.

The first paragraph hits like a slap.

Not because it’s explicit. Not because it’s shocking on the surface. It’s because it’s precise.

The room she describes is underground. Windowless. Controlled lighting. Red-toned walls softened by fabric meant to absorb sound. She doesn’t call it a red room. She doesn’t have to. She describes the way the air smells faintly of leather and metal, the way the locks are silent, the way the furniture is positioned not for comfort but for obedience.

My mouth goes dry.

“No,” I whisper, even though no one can hear me.

I scroll.

She writes about rules presented as care. About consent framed like a gift that can be revoked if gratitude falters. About a man who speaks softly while orchestrating every variable in the room. A man who calls control structure. A man who insists he is different because he asks before he takes, because he prepares his subjects to want what he already intends.

My hands start to shake.

This is not research. This is not imagination. These are details you only know if you’ve been inside that world. If you’ve seen the way Adrian’s jaw tightens when he’s focused. If you know how he calibrates silence. If you’ve felt the way power settles in a room when he decides it belongs to him.

I scroll faster, panic rising.

She writes about the woman in the room as if she is both protagonist and cautionary tale. She writes about devotion disguised as choice. About how easy it is to confuse intensity with intimacy when someone is skilled at making you feel selected.

My stomach twists.

“This is not a coincidence,” I murmured.

A comment bubble appears in the margin, highlighted in yellow.

Author note: This chapter is essential. Please preserve the emotional specificity. Sanitizing it would undermine the truth.

I push my chair back abruptly, the sound sharp against the floor. A few heads turn. I force a smile and pretend I dropped something, bending down until my hair falls forward and hides my face. I breathe through my nose, slow and controlled, the way Cassian taught me when my thoughts spiral.

When I sit back up, my editor instincts kick in automatically, even as my personal world collapses. I start highlighting passages. Flagging language that crosses legal lines. Marking areas where the narrative slips from memoir into accusation without substantiation.

My cursor pauses over a paragraph describing a ritual. The pacing. The countdown. The deliberate withholding of touch to heighten compliance.

My chest tightens painfully.

She knows.

Or worse, she wants me to know that she knows.

My phone buzzes. Cassian again.

I answer before I can stop myself. “I can’t talk right now.”

His voice sharpens instantly. “Sophie, what’s wrong?”

“She sent a revision,” I say quietly. “It’s about him.”

There’s a beat of silence. “About Adrian?”

“Yes.”

“What do you mean?” Cassian presses.

“I mean it’s him,” I say, my voice shaking despite my effort to keep it steady. “Not named. Not directly. But it’s his space. His methods. Things no outsider should know.”

“That’s not okay,” Cassian says flatly.

“No,” I agree. “It’s not.”

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