"I heard Ethan dropped out."
Cleo's voice hit me mid-step, slicing through the late afternoon haze. I blinked, almost stumbling on the stairs outside the library.
"What?"
She barely looked up, thumbing through her phone like she was scrolling past a weather update. "Gone. Packed his stuff. Dorm's empty. Just… vanished."
My breath caught. "Seriously?"
"You didn't know?" Her eyes flicked to me, curious. A little too curious.
"No," I said, too fast. "Why would I?"
She studied me for a second. I forced a neutral expression. A shrug.
"Looked like hell last week," she muttered. "Didn't think he'd bail just 'cause of a breakup."
I swallowed hard, trying to hold the indifference in my voice. "Not my fault he ghosted me first."
"Mmm." She tapped something on her screen, gaze drifting. "Some people just can't handle watching their ex glow up."
I smiled, tight-lipped. "Guess not."
But my stomach coiled. Because I had known.
I was halfway to class when the hallway turned arctic. I didn't even have to look.
"You did that." Dr. Vaughn. Because apparently my day wasn't fucked enough already.
I turned. Her heels clicked against the linoleum like a countdown to my academic execution, arms folded, jaw sharp enough to cut glass.
"He's gone because of you."
I lifted my chin. "You don't know what happened."
Her laugh was bitter enough to strip paint. "I do, I know Lewis very well. I know his patterns. You think you're in control, Sophie? Well that's adorable."
"I didn't force Ethan to leave."
"You didn't have to." She stepped closer. "You let that man get inside your head. Let him convince you that surrendering your agency was empowerment. Classic manipulation 101. That has to end."
My breath caught. "You're going to report him?"
"Not just to the board. I'm going public. Everything he did to me. The pattern of predatory behavior. The way he targets vulnerable students and calls it mentorship."
My pulse hammered against my ribs. "Don't."
"He's not going to ruin one more girl," she said, voice shaking with conviction. "Not on my watch."
But it wasn't the words that made my blood run cold. It was her eyes.
There was something different in them this time. Not just bitterness or jealousy or wounded pride. This was resolve. The kind that didn't waver. The kind that had already made peace with the consequences.
She wasn't bluffing. She wasn't trying to scare me into walking away. She was going to burn it all down.
I didn't answer her. I couldn't. Instead, I turned on my heel and walked away without looking back, pushing through the afternoon crowd like my skin was on fire.
I stormed across the quad, past the gaping students, through the southern corridor with the walls pressing in around me. Up the stairs two at a time, urgency building with each step like static under my skin.
I didn't knock and didn't pause. I threw the door open hard enough for it to crash against the wall.
Lewis looked up from the whiteboard, all calm edges and ice-cold poise, as if he hadn't been part of the chaos erupting beneath my skin.
Students froze, a few flinched, most stared—because of course they did.
He raised a single hand, smooth and unbothered, and dismissed the entire room with the authority of a god grown tired of worship.
They scattered, whispering, glancing back at me like I was an open wound.
"Close the door," he said, his voice a low command that wrapped around my spine.
"Vaughn is going to the board," I said, breathless. "She's going public. Everything—what happened between you two, the pattern she claims to see. She's not just threatening anymore, Adrian. She means it."
He set down the chalk with deliberate calm, brushing the dust from his fingers like I'd just told him about a minor scheduling conflict.
"And?"
"And?" I stared at him, incredulous. "Did you hear what I just said? She's going to destroy your career. Your reputation. Everything you've built."
"Lisette has been threatening to expose me for years." His voice was flat, unbothered. "She's never followed through because she knows it would expose her just as much."
"This time is different."
"Is it?" He tilted his head, studying me with that infuriating composure. "Or are you just believing what she wants you to believe?"
"I saw her face, Adrian." I stepped closer, frustration bleeding into my voice. "This isn't jealousy talking. This isn't some wounded ex trying to scare me off. She's made up her mind. She's going to do it."
"Then let her."
The words hung in the air like a slap.
"Let her?" I repeated, disbelief sharpening my tone. "You're willing to lose everything just to prove you're not afraid of her?"
"I'm not afraid of her," he said simply. "I never have been. Lisette's anger comes from a place of rejection, not justice. The moment she goes public, her own choices come under scrutiny. That's not a story that ends well for either party."
"So you're just going to… what? Call her bluff?"
"I'm going to continue living my life without letting a bitter woman dictate my choices." His eyes locked onto mine, dark and unreadable. "The question is whether you're going to do the same."
My throat tightened. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means if you believe her, if you think I'm the monster she's painting me as, then you should leave." He said it without emotion, without pleading, without any attempt to keep me. "Walk out that door and don't come back. I won't stop you."
The words cut deeper than they should have. Not because they were cruel, but because they were honest. He wasn't going to beg. Wasn't going to defend himself or promise to change. He was giving me the choice, the same way he always had.
"You really don't care, do you?"
"I care about very few things, Sophie." His gaze didn't waver. "But the ones I do care about, I protect. Everything else is noise."
I wanted to scream at him. Wanted to shake him until that mask of indifference cracked and something real spilled out.
But I knew better by now. Adrian Lewis didn't crack. He didn't bend. He simply existed in his own orbit and expected the world to adjust around him.
"I know you don't want to hear it, but whatever’s coming—it's not going to be just threats and whispers.” I said quietly.
"I've survived worse than Lisette Vaughn," he said finally.
"Maybe."
I stepped closer, close enough to see the silver threading through his temples, the tension in his jaw he was trying so hard to hide.
"But for once in your life, Adrian—set aside your pride. Actually think about the consequences. Not just for you. For both of us."
He didn't respond. Just watched me with those storm-gray eyes that had seen me at my most vulnerable, my most desperate, my most undone.
I reached up and touched his face. The gesture surprised us both—tender in a way we'd never been. His jaw was rough beneath my palm, his skin warm.
"Take care," I whispered. Still nothing. But his hand came up to cover mine, just for a moment. A pressure that said more than words ever could. "I really hope you know what you're doing.”
Then I leaned in and pressed my lips to his. Soft. Brief. A goodbye disguised as a kiss. When I pulled back, his expression was unreadable again. The mask is firmly in place.
I turned and walked toward the door, my chest aching with something I couldn't name. My hand was on the handle when his voice stopped me.
"Sophie."
I paused but didn't turn around.
Silence stretched between us. I waited for him to say something, anything, that might make this easier. That might give me a reason to stay or a reason to run.
But all he said was: "Close the door on your way out."
So I did. And I didn't look back.