She touched my cheek briefly—like that alone was enough—then stepped back.
Adrian walked me to the front door.
“Have a safe trip,” I said to him.
He looked slightly surprised to hear it before nodding. “Can I let you know when I’ve landed?” he asked carefully.
It didn’t sound like a question about travel. It sounded like a question about us—about whether he was still allowed to exist in the quiet spaces of my life.
I forced myself to breathe before I nodded. “Yes,” I said softly. “You can.”
CHAPTER 38
Adrian
Abu Dhabi was still dark when my alarm rang.
05:00.
Seven-hour difference.
I swung my legs off the mattress and stood up without hesitation, like my body had learned this routine the way it learned survival.
Because I wasn’t waking up for work. I was waking up for my daughter andher.
The time difference was brutal. When it was five in the morning here, it was seven in the evening back home. That narrow stretch of time before her eyes went heavy, before she turned clingy, before she demanded one more story, one morekiss, one more minute of being a child who didn’t understand why Daddy lived across oceans.
I showered quick, threw on a plain T-shirt, made coffee I wouldn’t finish, then opened my laptop at the desk. The room was quiet. The city outside barely awake.
05:58.
I waited.
At 06:00 sharp, I called.
The screen connected and, as always, Elena appeared first—hair tied back, wearing something casual, adjusting the camera angle like she’d done it a hundred times already.
“Wait,” she said simply, then called out, “Haille. Daddy.”
Two seconds later, Haille climbed into frame like a missile.
“DADDYYYY!”
My chest loosened.
“Hey, bug,” I said, voice low. “How was your day?”
“FUN!” she yelled, then immediately started listing everything she did at daycare—she even started dropping names that were already familiar to my ears, because apparently she had favorite friends there—then snack time, running outside, and something about a worm she found in the dirt.
“A worm, Daddy,” she clarified proudly, like she’d discovered gold.
I lifted a brow. “You touched it?”
“Yes!” she said, louder. “It’s like... squishy. And long.”
Elena, off to the side, let out a tired laugh. “She tried to bring it home.”
My gaze snapped up. “She what?”
