Page 27 of Culmination
“No, Adrian.” I take a step back, losing his touch. “We’re still so different. I did nothing to earn my scars. The one who hurt me most was you. And Rafe? He’s the only one who can heal me now.”
Those green eyes darken with anger before he closes them and takes several deep breaths. The bitterness is gone when they open and he looks at me. “I didn’t want to believe it was true. You fell out of love with me and in it with him in eight weeks’ time?” he scoffs, scorn etched on his features.
The flash of pain on his face nearly unnerves me.
“I fell out of love with you a long time ago,” I whisper softly, but even as I say the words, I wonder if they’re entirely accurate.
“I refuse to believe that.” He steps forward, taking my hand and holding it to his heart. “I am in love with you, Gabriella. I will always be in love with you. I will do anything in my power to keep you.”
I gaze up into his eyes and can see the determination in them. My heart constricts, but not because this is the moment I was waiting for it. No, it’s because, even as he says the words, I am aware I no longer feel the same.
“But the lies. The deception. All of the secrecy. If you’d reflect, you’d know the truth, Adrian. You and me? We were over long before Rafe came into the picture. We both know that. We can’t rewrite history now.”
Adrian’s eyes flash at the mention of his name. “I was protecting you,” he insists.
“By shutting me out? Lying? Coming home at all hours of the night? Sometimes not at all? By sleeping with other women when I was in your home, in your bed waiting for you? Trusting you? Loving you? Lot of good that did me when you were out fucking whoever suited you that night instead of me.”
He reels back on that last bit, almost as if I’d slapped him. “I did no such thing.”
This time, I’m the one reeling. Adrian’s words take me back. I thought… No, I knew there were others. The panties in his suitcase, along with the lipstick on his collar, were the catalyst for my wanting to leave him before I met Rafe. Not even the catalyst. More like the final straw.
“The panties?” I ask, suddenly remembering mentioning them at the cemetery, but he didn’t say a word about them then.
He leans forward, placing his hands on my thighs, squeezing as if to hold me in place. It’s smart because my first instinct is to run. His eyes bore into my own, his nose millimeters from mine, so close that I can feel his hot breath on my skin.
“From the moment I met you, the moment Isawyou, I was never unfaithful to you. Ever.” He shakes his head, not taking his eyes from mine. “You were it for me, Gabriella, and that’s why you made me vulnerable. My devotion to you is precisely why I had to act the way I did. It’s why I had to become cold.”
“I…I don’t understand.”
And I don’t. I came here to get answers, yet I’m more confused than ever.
His thumbs dig into my jeans as if he wants to emphasize his point. “Appearances had to be made. You made me happier than I’d ever believed was possible, and I no longer wanted to be the man my father expected me to be. I never thought I’d be a cliché, but you changed everything for me. You made me want to be a better man. A man you deserved, and I wanted you, us, to have a life away from my father and the business. Everything about him was ugly and I had to shield you from it.”
He takes a deep breath. “But I knew it wouldn’t be simple. You see, to him, you were a liability. It’s like he felt the change in me after you moved in. He decided you made me weak. He was prepared to use you against me, to ensure I’d continue to do his bidding. I had to show him that you weren’t worth the risk.” His left thumb loosens and caresses my thigh. “But you were, Gabriella. You are. I’d risk everything for you. That’s what I was trying to do the night I took you.”
Oh my God. If what Adrian’s saying is true… What have I done?
“I…I don’t know what to say,” I whisper as tears well in my eyes.
“Say nothing. Just listen, please. Listen to me,” he pleads. Lines of tension appear across his forehead, and I can’t miss the way his hopeful eyes dance back and forth between mine in desperation.
How is it possible that I could have misread the situation so poorly back then? I shake the thought out of my head. It doesn’t matter. We’re far too gone now. But if Adrian is telling the truth, my heart tells me I owe it to him to hear him out.
My chest heaves as I release my breath and nod. “Okay, Adrian. I’m listening.”
It’s his turn to nod, and when he rises from the couch to stand near the wall opposite of where I’m sitting, I miss his warmth almost immediately—even though I no longer deserve it.
“The last year of our relationship, it was killing me to act that way with you. I wanted to tell you the truth, but I couldn’t risk him finding out. I was quietly setting aside money, securing things overseas so we could leave and never look back. We were going to get out from under my father’s thumb. I thought I’d been doing a good job, but when Matthews showed up as the new general contractor, I knew my father was still suspect of our relationship.”
“You think he sent Rafe on purpose?” I ask.
He nods, his jaw tightening. “Yes. That’s why I had to leave. He couldn’t see how much I loved you. How much I have always loved you. You had the power to destroy me. To destroy everything I’ve worked for. And yet, I didn’t care. You were worth more than anything I’d ever had in my life. You were everything. Youareeverything.”
When I look away, he stops speaking. It’s painful to hear this, no matter what I have with Rafe.
“It’s true, Gabriella. I have loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you and that’s never changed. I don’t believe it ever will.”
I struggle to wrap my brain around everything Adrian just revealed.
