Absolutely. Here's Chapter 14 of After
Chapter 14: Ghosts in the Glass
Elliot sat alone in his office, the city skyline glowing behind him like a false promise.
Julian hadn't looked at him all morning.
Not once.
Not in the elevator. Not in the meeting with the London client. Not even when their hands brushed accidentally during a case review.
He was ice.
Polite. Professional.
Distant.
And Elliot?
He couldn't breathe.
---
The last time he felt this hollow, it was five years ago.
That night came back in jagged flashes.
Another apartment. Another bed. Another man: Daniel.
He was softer than Elliot. Artistic, with hands that smelled like charcoal and ink. He made Elliot laugh when work made him hard. He made him feel safe, when nothing else ever did.
Elliot had loved him. Wildly. Terrifyingly.
And then, like now, he'd ruined it.
Daniel had asked for more. For openness. For trust. For honesty.
Elliot had given him control instead. Rules. Limits. Fear disguised as dominance.
Until the night Daniel looked at him — shaking, tearful, broken — and whispered the words Elliot still heard in his sleep:
"You don't love me. You love owning me."
And then he was gone.
No contact. No goodbye. Just silence.
---
And now, Julian.
Same silence. Same shame.
Different man. Same Elliot.
---
Julian passed his office again that afternoon.
Their eyes met for just a second through the glass wall.
Julian didn't pause. Didn't soften.
Just walked on.
Elliot stared at the door long after it shut.
His hands clenched. The same way they had when Daniel left. The same way they had when his own father told him, at seventeen, that needing someone was weakness.
He thought power would protect him.
But all it had ever done was isolate him.
And now, the only man who ever saw him — the one who'd knelt for him, trusted him, cried for him — was walking away.
Because Elliot hadn't protected him.
He'd repeated history.
And he didn't know if Julian would ever give him another chance to break down