Chapter 67: Someone very important

Chapter 67: Chapter 67: Someone very important

Garrett stood a few feet from the table, staring at the man properly now.

Brian.

His first thought went straight to Emiliana.

He knew Brian, Emiliana had turned him down to hang out with Garrett.

’Why would he bring me here?’

Another warning, maybe. His mind went immediately to Raymond, to the three men on the sidewalk, to the bruises that had only just finished fading. Maybe this was the same conversation again, just dressed up nicer, delivered somewhere with better lighting and no fists involved this time.

None of that showed on his face.

Brian gestured toward the empty chair across from him, unhurried, like he already expected Garrett to sit without needing to be told twice.

Garrett didn’t move yet.

He let the silence sit there for a moment, studying Brian the way Brian was clearly studying him, neither of them in a rush to be the first to speak.

Brian broke it first, an easy, confident tone to his voice. "I’m sure you must know me."

Garrett knew exactly who he was.

"Nah," he said.

Brian paused slightly, a flicker of surprise crossing his face before he smoothed it over.

Garrett kept his expression flat. "I don’t think know you."

"I’m Brian."

Garrett finally sat, taking his time about it. "Brian from where?"

The question came out almost dismissive, deliberately so.

"The same university you go to."

"University,alright" Garrett said, and left it at that.

Brian’s easy confidence dimmed slightly at the lack of reaction, though he covered it well enough that most people probably wouldn’t have caught it.

Garrett got straight to the point. "So...what is this meeting about?"

"Emiliana."

"And how exactly does that concern me?"

He knew perfectly well why he’d been summoned here. He wanted Brian to actually say it.

"I know you and Emiliana have been spending time together lately."

Garrett didn’t deny it. "Ohh Okay...and?"

Brian studied him for a moment, something calculating behind his eyes now.

"Why does that matter to you?" Garrett asked.

Brian didn’t answer that directly. Instead, his expression shifted into something more serious.

"Emiliana isn’t what you think she is."

Garrett waited.

"Really?...What is she, then?"

"She’s not just another university student." Brian leaned back slightly in his chair. "She’s a Vane. That name carries weight far beyond campus, further than you probably realize."

Garrett already understood exactly how much weight the name carried. He didn’t let that show.

"Her life isn’t as free as you might think it is," Brian continued. "There are expectations, Connections., powerful family interests that go back generations. A future that’s already been carefully arranged for her."

He let that sit for a second before delivering the rest of it.

"She has her life planned out already and You’re obviously part of it."

Garrett didn’t react dramatically. He just looked at Brian, steady, unbothered.

"That’s for her to decide," he said. "Not you."

Brian remained composed, watching him.

"Neither you nor her family gets to decide what she wants," Garrett continued. "If she wants something, she’s the one who gets to say so. Not anyone standing around her."

He wasn’t claiming to understand Emiliana completely. He just wasn’t going to sit here and let someone else speak for her like she wasn’t capable of doing it herself.

Brian’s expression didn’t shift much, though something in his posture straightened slightly.

"There are high stakes involved here, Garrett" Brian said. "More than you understand."

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

"Someone like you wouldn’t understand the consequences."

Something about the phrasing landed wrong, sharp enough that Garrett felt it settle uncomfortably.

"Someone like me?" Garrett repeated, studying him more carefully now. "What do you know about me?"

Brian didn’t hesitate. "A lot."

The word landed harder than a longer explanation would have. Garrett kept his expression even, though internally he was recalculating something. This wasn’t a guess. Brian wasn’t bluffing his way through vague implications.

"Are you not Garrett Rafferty?" Brian asked.

Garrett paused. "Yes. I am Garrett Rafferty."

"Then we can leave it at that."

That answer unsettled him more than it should have. Brian could have gotten his name easily enough, asked around, checked a class roster, pulled it from anywhere. But the way he’d said it, casual, certain, like confirming something he’d already known rather than fishing for confirmation, made it feel like the information had come from somewhere deeper than campus gossip.

Garrett didn’t let any of that show. He filed it away quietly instead, another loose thread he couldn’t do anything about yet.

His patience was thinning regardless.

"Who is Emiliana to you?" he asked.

Brian didn’t answer right away, letting the pause stretch a beat longer than necessary.

"Someone very important to me."

Garrett waited for more. It didn’t come.

"Whatever we have," Brian said, "is none of your business."

That gave Garrett nothing concrete, just enough to confirm Brian had some genuine stake in this beyond simple interference. Whatever the actual shape of it was, Brian clearly had no intention of explaining it tonight.

Garrett decided he was done with this. "I don’t think this conversation’s accomplished much." He held Brian’s gaze evenly. "If Emiliana wants to make a choice, she’ll make it herself. Neither you nor her family gets to tell me who I can spend time with."

Brian watched him for a long moment.

Then, quietly, he accepted it. "All right." No argument behind it, no raised voice. "Do you."

But the calm didn’t soften what came next.

"I gave you a warning."

The stillness in how he said it made it land heavier than shouting would have. Brian wasn’t pleading with him to listen. He seemed entirely confident that whatever came after tonight would make the point for him, whether Garrett listened or not.

Something clicked into place for Garrett then, a comparison he hadn’t fully made until now.

"Are you one of Raymond’s guys?" he asked.

Brian’s brow furrowed, genuine confusion crossing his face. "Raymond?"

"He tried the same thing a few days ago. Sent people to warn me off."

Brian’s expression shifted into something dismissive almost immediately. "Who is Raymond?"

Then, once the name apparently registered, his tone dropped into something quietly condescending.

"That lowlife?"

He said it like the name barely deserved acknowledgment, let alone concern.

Garrett studied him. "So you’re more important than Raymond?"

Brian didn’t directly answer that. He didn’t need to. His entire demeanor answered it for him, unbothered, assured, the kind of confidence that didn’t require boasting because it had never needed to prove itself to anyone before.

They sat there a moment longer, the conversation apparently reaching its natural end.

Eventually, Brian checked the time.

"That’s all I wanted to say," he said, standing.

Garrett didn’t stop him.

Brian gave him one last look, unreadable, before turning and walking away across the courtyard.

Garrett watched him go. No aggression in the way he moved, no lingering threat thrown back over his shoulder. Just calm, measured confidence, the exact opposite of the way Raymond’s men had cornered him on the street a few days ago.

Outside, near the entrance, a sleek car pulled forward, a valet stepping out to hold the door as Brian approached it. He climbed in without a backward glance, and the car pulled smoothly away from the hotel, disappearing into the evening traffic within seconds.

Garrett remained seated for another minute, watching the space where the car had been.

The courtyard carried on around him exactly the way it had before Brian ever sat down. People still talked quietly at their tables. A waiter moved between them, balancing a tray without missing a step. Nothing about the physical space had changed at all.

But something in Garrett’s understanding of Emiliana had shifted considerably.

He looked toward the entrance, exhaling slowly.

"Wow," he muttered, mostly to himself.

Her world was bigger than he’d let himself fully appreciate until tonight. Not just money, not just an impressive family name attached to expensive dinners and quiet weekends. Influence, Expectations and Connections that ran deep enough that people like Brian moved through it with total ease, confident in a way that had nothing to do with bravado and everything to do with actually belonging there.

Garrett didn’t feel afraid, exactly. Just aware, in a way he hadn’t quite been an hour ago, of the actual scale of what he’d gotten himself into.

He stood, pulled out his phone, and booked a ride home.