Page 162 of Theirs to Tempt: The Marriage Claim

Lucian doesn’t move.

I feel Caleb go still too.

The tiny shift in the room tells me more than either of them could.

“I asked what he said.”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t show me the message.”

“Sophie—”

“What did he say?”

Lucian’s eyes harden, not with anger but with the same controlled concentration I’ve seen whenever he believes he needs to manage a situation.

Now he wants to manage me.

“He knew what was in the archive. He wanted to make certain you saw it.”

The answer strikes something familiar.

Technically true.

Carefully incomplete.

Exactly the kind of answer I would warn a client to listen for when someone is controlling the frame of a conversation.

“I’m asking what he actually said.”

Lucian says nothing.

Caleb shifts his weight.

For several seconds, the two men simply look at each other.

There’s history in the silence, years of loyalty I could never hope to understand, but something else is there too. A fracture I didn’t notice this morning because I didn’t know to look for it.

“Lucian.”

Caleb says his name only once.

No challenge.

No threat.

Just a line drawn.

Lucian reaches into his pocket and removes his phone.

He unlocks it, finds the message, then walks toward me.

I hold out my hand.

He hesitates for less than a second before placing the device in my palm.

The text is still there.