Chapter 10 - THE PROTECTIVE EMBRACE
The heavy oak door at the end of the long corridor began to creak as the desert wind blew through an open transom window down the hall.
Footsteps—heavy, rhythmic, and professional—began to echo from the distant main staircase. Two high-level security guards, having finally realized the internal alarms on the east wing had been breached, were rushing up the marble steps to investigate the intrusion.
"Sir!" a guard's voice shouted from down the hall. "Mr. Kane! Is everything alright?!"
Adrian didn't turn his head toward the hallway. He didn't care about his security team. He didn't care about his guards, his estate, his billions, or the empire he had built to distract himself from his grief.
He remained seated on the edge of the bed, a shirtless titan holding a sleeping child in a delicate floral dress.
He looked down at Nora one last time. He touched her soft, curly light-brown hair with his lips, pressing a slow, trembling kiss against her pale-blue silk bow.
Then he raised his dark, fiercely protective eyes back to Emma standing in the center of his room.
"Lock the door," Adrian commanded.
His voice was no longer cold, bitter, or detached. It was the voice of a man who had just stepped out of a three-year grave—a man who would burn the entire world to the ground before he let anyone take the child on his lap or the truth standing in front of him away ever again.
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Emma stood frozen for one second. Then, with trembling hands, she stepped backward, reached for the massive, carved oak door, and pulled it shut—clicking the heavy iron lock into place just as the guards reached the top of the stairs outside.
Inside the quiet, sunlit bedroom, surrounded by turned-down photographs and antique blue velvet, Adrian Kane held Nora tight against his bare chest, staring at the woman who held his soul, as the unopened silver locket glistened in his hand.
