Chapter Text
"Let's break off our engagement."
Adin looked up from the documents he was reviewing.
He sat in his top-floor office, framed by floor-to-ceiling windows that offered a sweeping skyscraper view of the city. Outside, the night sky was punctuated by the glow of distant streetlights and towering office blocks.
Adin looked at the person who had just spoken, with an unreadable face, indifferent to what he had heard. His fiancé, Valentino, stood before him with a calm face.
"What are you saying now?" Adin asked.
Without waiting for an answer, he looked back down at the documents spread across his desk. "I am busy. I do not have time for this nonsense."
Valentino remained unmoved. His voice continued in the same steady tone.
"Precisely because you are so busy, I am cutting to the chase," Valentino said. "You heard me right. I want our engagement off."
Adin put down his pen and looked at the man across the room again. His expression was solemn this time.
"Do you realise what you have just said?"
"Yes, I do," Valentino replied. "I am fully aware of it. And I assure you, I am in my right mind."
Adin remained seated at his desk, his gaze fixed on his fiancé. "Do you think it is that easy to break off an engagement?"
Valentino said nothing.
"This engagement was decided by both of our families," Adin continued. "It is not up to you to break it."
Both Adin and Valentino came from noble families with long histories, their ancestors having ruled empires and kingdoms in centuries past. Their engagement had been arranged long before either of them was born, betrothed while Valentino was still in his mother's womb.
Even without affection between them, a cancellation was out of the question. The alliance between their families depended on this marriage, leaving them with no choice but to go through with it.
"And why is that?" Adin asked. "What could possibly be the reason that makes you dare to even entertain the idea?"
Valentino looked at him for a few seconds before he replied.
"Just because," Valentino said. "I simply want this dead-end relationship to end."
From behind his desk, Adin stared at his fiancé with an expression that told him to try harder. He did not believe for a moment that such a reason was the only motivation for breaking the engagement.
"I want to be with someone who is actually with me for who I am," Valentino continued. His voice dropped to a soft, low tone, yet every word still reached Adin clearly across the room. "Someone who sincerely loves me. And we both know our relationship is not heading in that direction, and never can be."
There was silence for a moment.
"Love is a fickle thing," Adin said suddenly. "What you should be looking for is stability."
"You would not understand this sort of thing," Valentino replied.
"I do not," Adin said. "And I will not. It is all unnecessary."
Adin picked up his pen again.
"I do not care what view on life you hold, but you cannot walk away from this engagement," he said. "That is the reality."
He returned to his work, flipping through the documents.
"If we are not meant to be, then so be it," Valentino said. "If there is no fate between us, the Heavens will break it."
Without looking up from his documents, Adin replied, "Then you had better pray really hard for that heavens to help you, because otherwise, the engagement stays. Nobody can help you out of it."
Another silence fell over the room.
Then—
"If we are not destined for each other, we will never be together," Valentino said. "If it is the will of the Heavens that we never meet again... You will never see me again."
With that, Valentino turned on his heel and walked out of the office.
Adin did not stop him.
Not long after Valentino had left the building, Adin's personal aide, Bernard, entered the room carrying a fresh cup of coffee for his master.
"Young Master, is it wise to let Young Master Valentino leave like that?" Bernard asked.
Adin's expression remained unreadable. "Let him go."
He picked up his pen and continued reviewing the important documents in his hand.
Adin did not know how long he remained in the office that night after Valentino came and left. He only realised what time it was when his personal mobile phone vibrated on the desk. The screen lit up, signaling an incoming call.
Adin reached out and picked up the phone.
The digital clock on the screen displayed 4:44 AM.
Flashing across the caller ID was the name: VALENTINO.
Adin stared at the screen for a moment.
This fiancé of his. Just a few hours ago, he had walked into his office demanding to break off their engagement. Now, he was calling him in the dead of night.
He certainly knew how to play a petty game. But Adin knew how to play one, too.
The phone continued to buzz. The person on the other end refused to hang up. Adin slid the screen to accept the call and brought it to his ear.
"What?" Adin said. "Have you changed your mind?"
But the voice that greeted him from the other end of the line did not belong to Valentino.
"Hello, sir," the voice said. "I apologise for calling at this hour, but—"
"Who is this? Why do you have Valentino's phone?" Adin interrupted. His voice came out sharp and cold.
Another man was calling from Valentino's phone in the early hours of the morning. Adin did not know why, but he felt his blood begin to boil.
"Where is Valentino?" Adin demanded.
"Calm down, sir," the person on the line replied. "I am Detective Rex with the City M Police Department. Your number was the last one dialled in this phone's call log."
A knot of unease tightened in Adin's chest the moment he learnt it was a police officer calling him.
"May I know whom I am speaking with, sir?" Detective Rex asked. "Are you a relative or close associate of Mr. Valentino?"
"Adin, from Mogoru Technologies Corp," Adin said. "Valentino's fiancé."
There was a brief pause on the line before the detective continued.
"Mr. Adin," Detective Rex said, his tone grim. "Sir, I need you to stay calm and listen carefully."
Adin's grip tightened on the phone.
"I am calling to inform you that the owner of this phone, Mr. Valentino, was involved in a serious car accident."
Adin froze. A sudden coldness swept through his veins as the words hung in the air.
"Paramedics attempted to save his life," Detective Rex continued. "But he succumbed to his injuries in the ambulance before arriving at the hospital."
Adin felt his stomach drop, and a sickening numbness settled over him.
"He was pronounced dead on arrival," the detective said sombrely. "Mr. Valentino... did not make it."
The voice on the phone went on. "Could you please come down to the mortuary to perform a formal identification—"
Adin did not hear the rest of the sentence. The phone slipped from his grasp, clattering onto the desk.
"If it is the will of the Heavens that we never meet again...
You will never see me again."
Valentino's last words echoed at the forefront of Adin's mind.
They settled over him like a curse.
One that would never leave him.