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Adrian stares at me and I stare back. When I was Winter, his eyes started making me uncomfortable at some point, because I didn’t recognize that I knew them, intimately so, and he can get scary whenever he directs his impenetrable intense gaze at me. However, I refuse to cower.
I meet him stare for stare, tipping my chin up for good measure.
Jer clutches his sleeve, gazing up at him with those huge eyes that neither of us can resist. “Papa,please.”
Adrian releases a sigh. “Fine.”
“Yay, Papa!”
“Next week? The one after?” I push.
“We will see.”
“In two weeks, then. Hear that, Jer? The three of us will go on a trip.”
My son’s eyes widen as he looks between us. “What type of trip?”
“We’ll let your father surprise us.”
“Yay!” Jeremy kisses me and then his father.
Adrian tightens his hold on the phone and I can tell he doesn’t like the fact that I indirectly forced him, but I need more time with him outside his work and the house. I need to rebuild our relationship before it’s too late.
That is, if there’s anything left to build.
The thought sends a shiver through me and cripples me to my bones.
As soon as we reach the house, Adrian gets out first, followed by Boris.
Kolya lingers a bit behind for the first time ever, not eager to be on his boss’s heels.
“What?” I ask when he keeps staring.
“You…shouldn’t have done that.”
“Done what?”
“Used Jeremy to force his hand. That’s what his mother did. She used Boss so his father would do things her way. Needless to say, he hates it.”
Shit.
Just when I think I’m making things better, they end up being way worse.
8
Lia
Adrian spends the rest of the day cooped up in his office with Kolya.
No surprise there.
Unlike before, however, I don’t sit around and wait. I don’t have a pity party for myself, bottling up the pain of being neglected or moping around because he doesn’t come for me.
That Lia was killed at the bottom of that cliff.
I might not have come out normal after the fall, but now I’m well aware of who I am.
Something changed in me after that night and I’ll embrace that change. It might not be the best, but it’s better than how I was before.
