Page 49 of Culmination
My eyelids flare open, rage coursing through my veins. He has no idea his son is alive, and if I have betrayed Adrian once before, I will not do it this time. I swallow back my fury and turn downcast. “Despite you, Adrian was a good man. I just wish… I wish I hadn’t been too late.”
The unexpected catch in my voice surprises both of us. I tamp it down, not wanting to examine this sudden emotion for Adrian.
Theo? He’s not letting it go. His eyes flash with curiosity. Then he folds one arm across his chest, using it to prop the other up, his index finger tapping away at his chin.
“I almost wish he were still here. Watching the two of them fight over you would be entertaining, to say the least.”
Dropping his hands, he walks towards me, and like a fierce predator, he circles me as if assessing his prey.
“You’re pretty enough, of course, but my god, Ms. Latham. What is it about you that has two men ready and willing to risk their lives for you?”
I don’t respond until he’s back in front of me. When our eyes meet, I’m nearly taken aback. Those steely blue eyes are Rafe’s. There’s no denying it. Why does he even need proof?
I try to force the lump out of my throat. Setting my chin, I gaze up at the man who took everything away from me. The same man who—with no care of his own—gave me two great loves in my life.
“If you can’t even mourn the death of your own son, there is no way I can explain love to you in a way you’d understand.”
Theo’s rigid body remains impassive, unaffected by my words. A large hand lifts in the air, capturing a strand of my hair and twirling it around one finger. I flinch, and the move elicits a perverse twitching of his lips.
“I understand love just fine. I even felt it once before. Long ago.”
My mouth nearly drops open.
He doesn’t miss it. He huffs a small laugh. “Surprising?” He takes a step back, holding his arms out. “What do you think this was all for? Myself?” Shaking his head, he clucks his tongue, his hawk like eyes gazing at me as if I’m a fool. “From the moment I saw her, I knew she was mine. I had to have her.”
“That isn’t love. That’s possession.”
“Are they not one and the same? Two sides of the same coin? After all, she possessed me as much as I did her. It wasn’t until much later that I learned love was not what I thought. Not at all what it seemed.”
“I don’t thin—”
He cuts me off abruptly and I clamp my mouth shut, watching as he paces in front of me.
“Love, Gabriella, is power!” He clenches a fist. “It wasn’t enough to have her in my home. In my bed. I wanted all of her. I wanted to consume her. To be all she saw, as she was to me.” His voice turns to a whisper. “And yet…the more she consumed me, the more power she had over me. Until one day…”
He stops. By now, his rants have his back to me. His shoulders heave, his ragged breathing echoing throughout the cavernous room.
“What happened to you, Theo?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper.
He whirls around, his eyes flashing—not with the love he was reminiscing, but with whatever fury has been consuming him for all these years.
“Love, Ms. Latham.Thatis what happened to me, and precisely why I did not want it happening to my son.”
“I would have never hurt Adrian,” I breathe, and I’m not sure if I’m speaking for his benefit or my own.
“And yet, you already did.”
I’m amazed when Theo’s shoulders sink. For anyone across the room, the move would have been discernible, but at this close proximity, it’s apparent he’s more affected than he lets on.
“I only wish I’d been there to protect him from you.”
“You sent him to me in the first place!” I protest, not entirely sure why I care to plead my case to him.
Theo’s hand brushes the air as he waves me off. He tugs the ends of his suit jacket before rubbing forehead. When he returns his gaze to me, any sign of the father who may have still had an iota of caring for his son has dissipated.
“Gabriella, as enlightening it has been to finally speak with you, I’m afraid this conversation is now trying my patience. I know you’ve uncovered the evidence your father was keeping against me. The only way you’ll ever see your darling Rafe is if you hand it over to me now.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. I can’t believe that, just a moment ago, I felt anything other than revulsion towards this man.
