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The words sliced through the charged silence. Wills, inheritances...Carmen was right. This wasn’t a romance of candlelit dinners and stolen kisses. This was the cold, hard reality of our lives. The risks that came with my surname, the responsibilities that came with Adriana carrying it and our children bearing it.
I turned to look at Adriana, her face pale and tight with stress. Her eyes met mine, wide and fearful, echoing the same questions I had. “I can look after myself, Carmen,” Adriana said.
“You’ve done a spectacular job of that so far,” Carmen replied, sarcasm lacing her voice.
“That’s not fair, how was I supposed to know Dad was after me if you decided not to tell me?”
Carmen shook her head. “I had no idea he was going to do that,” she replied stiffly. “Listen. I’m not saying you wouldn’t normally be able to handle this. Right now, you need a little extra help. That’s why I’m here.”
Kieran cleared his throat beside me, drawing my attention away from Carmen’s heated words. “She’s not wrong, lad,” he said, his voice low and cautious. My gaze slid over to him, the betrayal stinging more than it should’ve. “I mean, she’s an asshole. But not wrong.”
My attention was torn and in this moment, I felt a vicious resentment towards Kieran for adding fuel to the fire. But he was right; Carmen was making some valid points. From the corner of my eye, I could see that Liam was trying not to laugh. Little bastard.
“Keeping Adriana and our children safe is my top priority,” I said, tearing my gaze away from Kieran to look at Carmen. “That goes without saying.”
“Oh? Because as of now, nothing’s been said. No one knows anything concrete, Tristan. You haven’t given us anything to hold on to. Just...promises,” Carmen spat the last word out like it was poison.
I glared at her. “Those babies will be Callahans. They will be legally recognized as mine, whether we’re married or not.”
Carmen’s eyes flicked from me to Adriana and back again, a flash of disbelief crossing her face. “And then what? You think that a last name is going to protect them?” she retorted, her voice sharp.
“Enough,” Adriana finally interjected, her voice coming out as little more than a whisper but cutting through the heavy air of the room like a knife. Her chest was heaving slightly as if taking breath was an effort. I immediately turned my attention to her, my anger temporarily forgotten.
“Are you alright?” I asked, shifting closer and taking her hand in mine. It felt cold and clammy under my touch, sending a chill down my spine.
“I just...” she began but trailed off, looking impossibly small sandwiched between Carmen and myself. “I need some air.”
Before anyone could react, she had pushed herself off the sofa and made her way out of the living room, her steps shaky. I rose instantly to follow her, ignoring Carmen and Kieran calling back to me. Maybe the lawyer too. I’d barely noticed him there, sipping on his coffee as he watched us all verbally spar.
I didn’t care if he was judging me.
Adriana’s fragile state sent a wave of protectiveness over me, eclipsing whatever fight Carmen wanted to start. The image of her scared face was burnt into my mind. She looked so frail that it jarred me out of the bitter web of words I had been tangled in mere moments before.
The heavy double doors shut behind us, and the quietness of the hallway felt like a balm on my frayed nerves. I watched as Adriana leaned against the wall, her back towards me, shoulders slumping under an invisible weight.
“When did I lose all of my agency? At which point during being pregnant did people think it was okay to stop talking to me and start talking at me? For me?” she muttered more to herself than to me, but I heard it nonetheless. Her voice broke mid-sentence, and my heart twisted painfully at the sound. “At what point did it become okay to kidnap me?”
“It was never okay to kidnap you,” I replied.
She looked at me, then laughed under her breath. “Tristan,” she said. “Look who’s talking.”
“I...” I began, but whatever I had been about to say died on my lips. I stayed silent and gave her a moment to regain her composure.
“I don’t need Carmen fighting my battles for me,” she continued, her voice growing steadier. “And I don’t need you or Kieran thinking you know what’s best for me without even asking. I mean, this probably started when you took me to your mom’s cabin, right? That was when you took all decision-making out of my hands.”
“But, Ade,” I protested weakly. Her words were like a punch to the gut, knocking the wind out of me. She turned to face me then, the raw pain in her eyes making my heart twist painfully. “You’re carrying our children. I’m just trying to protect you. All three of you.”
“I know,” she sighed, pressing a hand to her forehead. “And I appreciate that, I do. But sometimes...sometimes it feels like you forget that I’m more than just an incubator for the next Callahan heir.” Her words were soft, almost timid, yet they struck me harder than any gunshot ever could.
“I don’t...” I began, my voice barely audible as I scrambled for the right words—the right response. But they eluded me, much like the reassurance Adriana yearned for.
She turned to face me then, her dark eyes both pleading and defiant. “And what about after the baby’s are here? I know the girl might fare better, but are you going to expect the same thing from our son that your dad expected of you? When there are three of us to protect? Will you keep us locked away forever, Tristan? Can’t hide from the world—can’t hide from your world—forever.”
Her words rang through the stillness of the hallway, echoing off the high ceilings and vibrating through the very marrow of my being. I had always known that Adriana was strong. But I had never expected this.
Her voice barely raised above a whisper, but her words crashed into me like thunderous waves, shaking me to my core.
But she wasn’t right. “You earn money from this life, too,” I said. “You act like you don’t, but you do. This life means you get to have the lifestyle you want, doesn’t it? You’re still the actuary for the Orsini op.”
