His business partner, Carter Hayes, wore polished smiles that never reached his eyes—smiles Adrien had once trusted.
The numbers didn’t add up.
Contracts felt wrong.
Betrayal closed in.
Still, Adrien was too exhausted to fight, too defeated to care.
While Leo fought every day to survive on the streets with an open heart, Adrien fought to survive himself, his heart barricaded by pain.
Two lives running in parallel.
One hardened by loss, the other softened by it.
Both moving toward a collision.
That afternoon, as the city pulsed with its usual chaos, fate finally brought their worlds together.
Carter’s careless distraction caused Adrien’s wheelchair to tip forward.
The small front wheel caught on a cracked edge of pavement.
Metal slammed against the ground.
Adrien fell hard.
His head struck the curb with a sickening thud, warm blood spilling down his temple.
His breath caught—not from pain, but from terror he hadn’t felt since the night he lost everything.
People stared.
Some grimaced.
Others circled him as if misfortune were contagious.
Carter froze, panic overtaking him, then ran into the crowd shouting for help—abandoning Adrien like overturned luggage.
“Please… someone…” Adrien rasped.