The elevator door slides open, and I step inside. Thankfully, the door closes before he can respond, before I can see the damage my words have done, before I can change my mind and stay.
I slump against the wall, finally letting myself fall apart where no one can see.
I was right about him from the start. Every instinct I had, every suspicion, every wall I used to keep him out. I was right—and smart—to do that.
Except I failed myself. Somewhere along the way, I let him convince me I was wrong.
CHAPTER 29
ADRIANA
Everything I thoughtI knew about my husband turned out to be a lie.
The toxic thought loops through my head as I drive to my parents’ house, white knuckling the steering wheel as my broken heart hangs heavy in jagged pieces. The streets of Boston blur past the windows, but I don’t see them. All I see is Lochlan’s face when he realized I’d heard everything. The guilt. The desperation. The regret.
And the confirmation that my instincts about him were right all along.
I trusted him. I let him in. I broke my own rules, the rules that kept me safe for twenty years, because he looked at me like I was everything and made me believe I could actually be vulnerable with him—and that he would protect my heart.
But it turns out, he’s a lying sack of shit, just like his father.
I make it to the house on autopilot and blink incredulously when I pull into the familiar driveway in Brookline because I have no freaking idea how I got there. Eyes stinging with tears, I stare up at the house where I grew up. The place I’ve always come when it feels like my world is on the brink of collapse.
Well, I’m definitely over the brink right now.
I sit in my car for a long moment, staring at the front door. My hands shake as they grip the steering wheel. My chest is hollow and aching, like someone has reached inside and crushed everything they found there. A sob fights, rising in my chest, but I choke it back down.
Dammit, I can’t fall apart. I’m Adriana DiMicheli. I don’t fall apart.
But when the front door opens and my mother steps onto the porch, her face creased with concern at the sight of my car in the driveway, the sob manages to escape.
I stumble out of the car and into her arms.
“Adriana.” Her voice is soft against my hair as she strokes my back. “Bella,what happened?”
I can’t answer her. The tears I’ve been holding back since I left the penthouse flow down my cheeks in torrents, and suddenly I’m hysterical against my mother’s shoulder like I’m five years old again, crying over a scraped knee.
Except I’m forty now and this wound is soul-crushingly deep.
“Mom? What’s—Adri?” Luna appears in the doorway, her mouth falling open as she rushes over. Both of them wrap their arms around me, holding me tight, whispering words of comfort. We walk inside together, and they guide me onto the couch in the living room. It was my favorite place to watch movies and do homework when I was young. It felt comfortable and safe, two things I fear I’ll never experience again.
“We were just about to leave for the hospital to see Dad,” Luna says, holding my hand. “What happened?”
I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand and try to find the words. They come out broken and raw.
“Lochlan. He—” The words knot in my throat. I have to stop and breathe before starting again. “He knew about the gala attack before it happened. Eamon warned him that night andtold him something was coming. He never said anything to me after it happened. He didn’t say a word, even after I specifically told him in the hospital never to lie to me.”
My mother’s face pales. “Oh my God,” she whispers.
“What do you mean, heknew?”Luna says, her eyes glittering with murderous rage.
“Eamon came to the penthouse this morning. I overheard them talking.” The memory makes my stomach churn. I shake my head, pressing my fingertips against my temples, the sound of their voices grating against my brain. “He’s been lying to me since the night we met. All those weeks, holding me while I cried about Dad, telling me everything would be okay… it was bullshit. He knew and he said nothing, which kept us all at risk.”
“That son of a bitch,” Luna breathes.
My mother is quiet for a long moment, her hand stroking my hair the way she used to when I was a little girl. I lean into it, needing her more than ever right now.
“I remember when your father first told me what his family did for a living. What he was. I was twenty-two years old, and I thought I understood his world.” She shakes her head slowly. “I didn’t understand anything. It took me years to learn that in this life, the people closest to you can hurt you the most because they’re the ones you let in.”
