Page 88 of Blind Devotion
He rushed away from me.
“Adrien, where are you going? Really? Come on. It’s not like I’m asking for much.”
I tried to follow after him, but he had already started up the rocky trail back toward his parents’ estate, where our two families barbecued. I slipped on one sandal, then started on the next.
“He left you all alone.”
I gasped, spinning around with only one sandal on. Yannick towered over me. Although I loved when Adrien did that, his older brother just gave me the creeps. He had this way of tightening his jaw and teeth while smirking that gave his glares a cruel edge.
“Must not care for you that much.”
“What do you want, Yannick?” My gaze flitted over the darkened shadows of trees in the hope someone else was around. Up on the trail back to the house, Adrien’s darkened outline grew smaller.
“I want him to suffer.”
I frowned. “He’s your brother.”
“And you’re his little toy.” His head contorted to the side like a bird and crept closer. “I’ve been watching you. You make him laugh. You make him happy. He doesn’t deserve that. What happens if I break you? Will it break him?”
I backed away slowly, hissing when my bare foot landed on a sharp rock. I schooled my face and straightened my back just like my brother Renzo taught me. Never show a predator your fear, he always said.
“Why would you want that?”
“I’m owed his pain. I think Alizé is right. With you gone, he’ll finally understand what he caused.”
He lunged. I screamed, whacking him across the face with my shoe. He didn’t slow. I barely pivoted around, reaching for the wooden trail rail, when he grabbed me from behind and shoved me to the ground.
When Babbo slapped me or when he punched Mammina, I always knew he wouldn’t take it too far. Yannick, though, was unhinged. He liked to brag about how long he kept traitors and thieves alive and how loudly they screamed.
I yelled and begged as Yannick stabbed me. Once, twice, three times. Until finally he stopped.
The bloody knife clanged to the stones beside my head. I heard grunting and yelling. I recognized Adrien’s voice, begging Yannick to calm down. I tried to reach for him, but he was too far away. Why wasn’t he with me? Why wasn’t he knocking his brother unconscious to come to me? Did I really mean so little to him? Was I really just a kid he was stuck with because of a contract? Didn’t he love me like I loved him?
My brother charged in on a roar. His poor French made him stand out as much as the hate resounding in his voice. So much yelling and shouting. I was so tired and weak, my body completely sapped. I tried to stay awake just so I could reassure them I was okay, but neither reached me before the world went dark.
Four Days Later
I woke up in the hospital with my mother, father, and Renzo at my bedside. Mammina was crying on Renzo’s shoulder while Babbo paced the room. The one person missing was the person I wanted there the most, but Adrien never came. Mammina said he showed up the first day, stayed an hour, and left. That was three days ago. Three days without seeing me. Mamminatried to excuse his behavior away, but she, too, was distraught. Babbo was spitting and fuming about all the bribes and money paid to get Renzo out of police custody. He kept cursing the “crazy” French for their ridiculous two-year provisional pretrial incarceration period that the De Villiers were trying to get a judge to sign off on. Renzo had just been released from police observation that morning.
Everything hurt. Everywhere ached, my heart most of all. Yannick was dead. Killed by Renzo as he came upon the scene—me, stabbed and bloodied—Adrien, barely restraining his brother. It tore at me to remember what happened.
Adrien walked away from me. He left me unprotected, and now he wasn’t here with me. I needed him. He’d promised I’d always be safe with him. He’d promised he’d always be with me in one way or another. It felt like he’d broken two promises all at once. As hurt as I was, I didn’t realize back then how that marked the beginning of our unraveling.
Chapter 35
Icaughtmyselfagainstthe cabinet as I slumped into a mental collapse. I remembered everything. Beginning to end, no details spared.
Slowly, I straightened and made my way out of his office and down the hall, clinging to the walls for support.
So this was what Adrien hid from me. He abandoned me. He chose to protect the memory of his brother, who attacked me, over visiting me in the hospital. Not once did he come back, and I never saw him again after that. He let his father null the contract without a word of protest. He took my calls less and less, even as my father’s punishments for ruining a profitable business venture for him grew worse and worse. He stopped responding to my texts, then my emails, before blocking those entirely. He missed my sixteenth birthday, didn’t even remember it until three days later. By then, my heart was already in shreds. During the few calls we exchanged, he was harsh and to the point, borderline cruel, almost as if I were wasting his time. It felt like he was beating me up on the inside. I felt thatway right now, just remembering our last conversation over the phone a few months before I turned seventeen.
“Then get it through your head. The contract is void.”
“No.”
“You and I are done.”
“Stop saying that.”
