I didn't want to go. But then I thought about it. I wanted to see how a man who had never once sat behind a racing wheel intended to hold that identity together. So I went.

At the circuit, Adrian Winslow peeled away to find Julian immediately. I was left behind, drifting through the paddock with no direction, no purpose.

Then I heard voices. Low. Strained. Barely contained.

"Are you out of your mind? You tampered with the brakes just to stay close to Adrian Winslow? You're going to get yourself killed."

The name stopped me cold.

I knew the voice, too. One of Julian Moretti's oldest friends. The last time I'd overheard them talking, their conversation had handed me the secret that broke everything apart.

And now, without meaning to, I'd walked into another one.

"I don't know how to drive a race car. If I don't rig something, this cover falls apart sooner or later."

The friend's anger was barely leashed. "Even if you can fool them now, you can't fool them forever. Julian, I know you love Adrian Winslow. But she's your brother's wife. You have your own life. Do you have any idea what Adrian Bellandi has been going through? I just saw her. She looks like she's being torn apart from the inside. She's a good woman. Five years of marriage, and you're telling me there's nothing there? You need to let this go. You need to cherish the person standing in front of you."

Silence settled over the corridor. It lasted a long time.

When he finally spoke again, his voice was low and stubborn.

"Give me three more years. Just three. Let me finish this dream. After that, I'll go back to Adrian Bellandi."

I laughed.

I couldn't help it.

Julian Moretti, you don't need to come back.

I'll leave on my own.

From now on, however long you want to play at being Julian Frost, it has nothing to do with me.

I turned, still smiling, and walked toward the grandstand. I didn't look back.

I'd barely settled into my seat when the roar started. Drivers entered the track one by one, and the crowd surged louder with each name. When Julian appeared, the noise crested, wave after wave of it crashing through the stands.

Adrian Winslow sat down beside me. Her eyes tracked the cars on the circuit, but her mouth was aimed at me.