Part 58
(Adrian's POV)
He woke to the phone buzzing on the nightstand.
At first it was just noise—notifications layered over one another until it sounded like rain.
Then he saw the messages.
"We support you, but please be careful."
"Don't let her ruin everything."
"You deserve someone honest."
He scrolled, trying to make sense of the words.
They all blurred into one long thread of concern and speculation.
Every post had a different story, a different villain.
Leah's name appeared again and again.
His chest tightened.
Nothing specific, nothing provable, just impressions—little shadows cast by sentences that didn't quite accuse but didn't defend either.
He opened a fan forum out of habit, the one that used to make him feel connected.
Now it was full of debates about who really cared for him, who was "good for him."
Half of them mentioned things that had never happened.
Half sounded like they knew him personally.
The phone buzzed again. Leah's voice came from the kitchen, asking if he wanted coffee.
He set the phone face down and stared at the wall.
This is how it starts again, he thought. The noise.
He remembered the months before the hospital—the whispering crowd, the false stories, the way every word twisted until he couldn't tell which ones were his.
He pressed a hand to his forehead, breathing through the static in his mind.
Leah was humming softly, unaware.
The melody almost drowned out the phone, almost.
It's happening again.
But this time the lies were cleaner, gentler, harder to fight.
And somewhere, hidden behind all that noise, he felt a pulse of familiarity—
like someone was guiding it, someone who knew exactly where to press.