Before Adrian could get another word out, Vyan's voice cut in.
"I have a pretty good idea of what might've come up when you looked my character up." He sounded pretty calm but with an undertone of restraint.
He didn't look at Adrian. Just kept his eyes on the rim of his glass, as if the condensation on it suddenly required all his attention. "But I want you to know… whatever's in that novel. It's not what happened in my timeline." I'm not the atrocious villain from the novel. "Things… they changed. A lot."
There was a heaviness to his words, not defensive, but weary. Like someone who had rehearsed this explanation a hundred times in his head but still wasn't sure how much of it would be believed.
Vyan knew the man he used to be. The cruelty wasn't a lie. Not entirely. But context was probably the missing piece. Something that would help them understand him… his reasonings… even if he was still that man.
