Chapter 2
Chapter Two
EMILIA
“You’re a trending topic.”
Alexander’s voice was flat. Formal. Like he wasn’t my brother, just the heir delivering a ruling.
He didn’t knock. Didn’t hug me. Didn’t step in like someone who used to call me Em .
He just shut the dorm door behind him and stood there. Arms crossed. Face carved from dynasty stone.
Alexander Adams.
Not the boy who used to sneak into my room and build pillow forts. Not the teenager who once punched our father for calling me a disappointment when I was seven. Not the one who swore he’d always protect me, no matter how heavy the name got.
That version of him was dead.
What stood in front of me now was the man who replaced him.
The head of the Adams family.
The strategist of Villain.
And tonight, my judge and executioner.
“You embarrassed the Caplans,” he said. “You humiliated your boyfriend. You insulted a blood alliance three generations deep.”
“I broke up with him,” I said. “Cleanly. Quietly.”
“You kissed two Crows ,” he snapped. “In front of his entire bloodline. In front of every dynasty child watching.”
“I didn’t sleep with them.”
“You didn’t have to.”
He stepped further into the room — slow and sharp.
“I’ve spent three days managing your fallout. Closed-door council talks. Apologies to the Caplans. Silence clauses. Do you know what a kiss from an Adams daughter implies?”
“It was mine to give.”
“No,” he said. “It wasn’t .”
He looked me dead in the eye.
“In our world, every choice is read as allegiance. Every touch is strategy. Every public move is a message.”
My chest tightened.
“You kissed both of them, Emilia. In front of cameras. In front of dynasty sons and daughters who’ve been trained since birth to read between the lines.”
He didn’t shout. He didn’t need to. Alexander had perfected the art of quiet fury — the kind that slid between ribs and set fire from the inside out.
“I know what the Crow name means,” I said.
“No,” he replied. “You know the rumors . Let me remind you of the facts .”
He took another step closer.
“The Crow family doesn’t merge. They don’t negotiate. They don’t align.”
He looked like he could feel it under his skin, the weight of what they were.
“They conquer. They burn alliances. They tattoo their women. And when they want something — they take it. ”
I looked away.
“Adams blood survives by strategy ,” he said. “By building moats around ourselves. By merging with old families. By playing the game better than anyone else.”
“And the Crows?”
“They don’t play the game,” he said. “They flip the board.”
He shook his head.
“They aren’t like us, Emilia. They don’t wait for opportunity. They make it bleed .”
I swallowed hard.
“They’ve erased entire alliances,” he continued. “Tore through half the Cabello trade network in two years just to prove a point. And you think kissing them sends no message?”
“It wasn’t a message,” I said. “It was a reaction.”
“Do you think the dynasty families see it that way?” His voice was ice. “Do you think the Caplans see it as anything but betrayal?”
“I didn’t promise Griffin anything.”
“You didn’t have to,” he said. “You were the Adams daughter.”
He took a breath.
“You were our jewel .”
Silence.
Suffocating.
Loaded.
“And now they think we’re handing you off to the Crows like some kind of truce flag.”
“I kissed them once ,” I said quietly.
“No,” he said. “You chose them. In front of the world. And you don’t just walk away from that.”
“I kissed them once,” I repeated. “That doesn’t define me.”
“No. But it exposed you. ”
He didn’t speak for a long time after that. Just stood there. Watching me like I was a weapon someone else had fired.
“Are you okay?” he asked, finally—soft, like it costed him something.
I nodded.
He turned toward the door.
“When the test comes,” he said, “for what side you’re on…” He paused. Looked back once. “…I expect you to hold the line .”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Rumors say a few families want to test exactly how far this goes.”
“Are you going to stop them?”
“Maybe I need to know too,” he said.
That landed harder than anything else.
But I didn’t chase him.
Didn’t beg him to understand.
Didn’t tell him why I had done it.
Didn’t make him see my side.
Because my brother wouldn’t defend me . He would defend the family . The hardest part was accepting he was right. I’d given up the right to my own choice a long time ago.