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“You’re worried,” he says. “There has been something on your mind. Something you aren’t telling me.”
I press my lips together. Am I really that transparent?
Adrik snaps his fingers and points at me. “There it is again. By your own definition, you’re the one lying to me, Emery. Omission, remember?”
“If what I’ve heard is true, you don’t have a leg to stand on. You lied first.” I narrow my eyes, studying him, scouring his face for clues as I continue. “You told me Yasha escaped. The other day, at the eagle’s nest? You said he escaped. But that’s not what happened, is it, Adrik? You let him go.”
I wait for a reaction, but Adrik gives me nothing. His expression is flat, unchanging. It’s like I haven’t said anything at all.
Finally, he nods. “I told you he ran off and that I would be more prepared next time. That was and remains true.”
“Yasha told me you could have killed him. He told me you shot at the ground instead of his head. He said—”
“You listen to my brother now? Are the two of you mending fences?” Adrik asks bitterly. “I wish I’d known before this war began. Would’ve saved me a lot of fucking headache.”
I shake my head. “Don’t do that! Don’t spin this around on me. Yasha came to me and told me something you wouldn’t even tell me yourself. At least he’s telling me the truth.”
“Convenient that Yasha’s truth makes you doubt mine, don’t you think?”
There are so many things I doubt,I want to say. Do you love me? Are you going to stay with me? How long before this marriage is over and I’m alone and afraid again?
All of those questions sit unasked on the tip of my tongue.
“You made me doubt you when you lied,” I mumble. “I don’t want to trust Yasha, but when you don’t talk to me, I don’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice,” he growls.
“And so did you, Adrik! You had the choice to kill your brother and end this war or let him live, and you let him live. And then you lied to me about it. What choice did I have? What am I supposed to think about that?”
He fists the brown paper bag in his hand even tighter. “I don’t give a fuck what you think. I just need you to listen. To obey. But you don’t. You’re reckless and disobedient.”
“Oh, are you casting stones now?” I snap. “Says the man who sneaks off to buy drugs before the sun is even up. Say the man who… who can’t kill his brother for raping and attacking me, but can kill his fiancée for spying—”
I don’t even get the sentence out before Adrik has closed the distance between us.
He shoves me back against the wall, his hand wrapped around my jaw. I’m on my toes, barely even touching the floor anymore. I cling to his wrists, trying in vain to break his hold on me. But it’s clear I’m not going anywhere.
His breath is hot on my face when he leans forward. “If you want to leave, Emery, then leave. I’m not holding you hostage.”
My eyes are watering. “But you said that I couldn’t run.”
“You won’t have to run. You’re free to go,” he says. “My father is dead. I’m the don. Our deal is done, and I’m a man of my word.”
Maybe it’s a good thing Adrik is holding me up. Because it feels like the world just slipped out from under my feet.
I blink back tears. “If you don’t want us around, then we will—”
“You can go,” he clarifies, placing special emphasis. “But Isabella is staying with me.”
Silence comes, hot and thick.
“What?” I breathe at last.
“I’m the one who can take care of her,” he says. “She’s better off with me and we both know it. Both of the kids are. So you can leave, but Isabella is staying. And I’ll be around to collect my child when the time comes.”
The fear and sadness inside of me crystallizes to rage. “You… you can’t do that!”
His eyes flash. “I can do whatever the fuck I want.”
“You’re psychotic if you think—”
“I don’t think—I know,” he says. “They’re both staying with me.”
Adrik has a claim to the child I’m carrying. I know that. It’s one of the reasons I hesitated to even tell him in the first place.
But Isabella? She’s mine. All mine.
“What makes you think you have any right to keep Isabella? How can you take care of her better than I can?”
Adrik releases my jaw all at once, and I stumble forward. As I’m trying to regain my balance, he holds up the paper bag.
“Because of this.”
He tosses it to me. I catch it in trembling hands and peek inside.
It takes me a second to process what I’m seeing. Instead of the loose baggy of pills or powder that I expected, there’s a manufactured white box with a prescription label on the side. Isabella’s name is printed neatly across the top.
“Waters had Isabella removed from the clinical trial before he died,” he snarls. He plucks the bag out of my hands once again, and this time, I make no effort to fight him. “I made sure she didn’t lose access to the medication.”
My mouth opens and closes, failing me. Finally, I shake my head. “Adrik, I—”
“I do whatever it takes to achieve what I need to achieve, Emery. Even if I have to sneak out of bed and drive across town to an abandoned building. And I don’t have to explain a single goddamn bit of it to you.”
He turns away and marches to the door, leaving me behind.
For a second, I’m absolutely frozen. Then Adrik turns back. “Time to make your choice, kiska. Are you staying or going?”
My head is a confusing tangle of anger and gratitude and confusion, but I know I’m not leaving my baby girl behind. I’ll be there for her. I’ll be there with her.
No matter what happens.
