“What?”
“I stopped reporting eighteen months ago.”
“Why?”
She looked away.
“Because the reports stopped matching the man I actually saw.”
Vincent frowned.
“I expected a monster.”
Instead…
“I watched you secretly pay for children’s surgeries.”
“I watched you send anonymous scholarships.”
“I watched you keep promises that politicians never kept.”
“You’ve done terrible things.”
She met his eyes again.
“But you’re not the man they described.”
Vincent said nothing.
He had never cared what anyone thought.
Yet hearing those words from someone who had spent three years observing every ordinary moment of his life felt strangely different.
Outside the closet…
Marcus stopped.
“Wait.”
Every muscle in Elena’s body tensed.
“I smell perfume.”
