Chapter 33 Elena
ELENA
"Collateral damage."
The words hang in the air, and something inside me fractures.
Not breaks, but fractures. Like glass splintering into a thousand pieces.
My baby. The life that grew inside me for those brief, beautiful months before it was stolen. Before Nicolae Ionescu decided my child, Adrian's child, was nothing more than an acceptable loss in his sick game of control.
Collateral damage.
My vision tunnels. The edges of the room seem to blur as Nicolae's face sharpens into crystal clarity. He stands there, indifferent and unbothered. Like he didn't just dismiss the most devastating loss of my life as if it were a minor inconvenience.
Like he didn't put me through 18 months of fucking hell, where I was drugged, raped, and held captive. Or allow my family to knowingly grieve the loss of their daughter and sister.
I feel Adrian's body tense, and I look up at him. His face is stone cold, his breathing coming in short, fast bursts. Harder than I've seen before.
And then his lip twitches. That tiny, almost invisible warning that violence is coming.
My gaze drops without thinking, drawn to the dark grip of Adrian's gun peeking out from the back of his waistband, and suddenly I know exactly what he's about to do.
He's going to kill his father.
He's going to pull that gun and put a bullet in Nicolae's skull, and it won't matter that Nicolae deserves it. It won't matter that the man is a monster who orchestrated my kidnapping, my torture, and the loss of our baby.
What will matter is that Adrian will have to live with it for the rest of his life.
The guilt. The weight. The knowledge that he murdered his own father with his own hands.
I can't let that happen.
I won't.
My hand moves before my brain fully catches up. My fingers wrap around the textured grip of the gun.
It's heavier than I expected and cold against my palm.
Adrian doesn't notice. He's too focused on Nicolae, too consumed by the rage radiating off him in waves.
I slip the gun free smoothly as I step out from behind Adrian's protective shadow.
The room shifts. Faces turn toward me. Lucian's eyes widen slightly, Victor's jaw tightens, Matei's expression hardens.
But I don't linger on them.
I only look at Nicolae.
He notices me now, his dark eyes flicking down to the weapon in my hands. For a split second, it's as if he doesn't realize what I'm holding.
I raise the gun, both hands gripping it tightly the way I've seen in movies, the way I've seen Adrian hold it when he's tried to teach me. My arms tremble slightly, but I lock my elbows, steadying myself.
I don't know how well I can aim, so I aim for the widest part of him and point the barrel directly at Nicolae's chest.
His mouth opens, maybe to speak, maybe to laugh at me, but I don't give him the chance.
I pull the trigger.
BANG.
The sound is so loud I feel it vibrate through my body as the recoil jerks my arms upward.
In slow motion, I feel as if I can actually see the bullet hit Nicolae square in the chest.
His body jerks backward, his eyes going wide for the first time since he walked into this room.
His shock is real and unfiltered.
His knees buckle, and he stumbles backward, his hand clutching at his chest where dark blood starts spreading across his expensive shirt.
He hits the edge of the mahogany desk, his weight toppling him backward. He slides down the wood, leaving a smear of red, and falls to the floor.
The office goes silent, and I stand there, the gun still raised, my chest heaving. Smoke curls up from the barrel, twisting upward into the air.
My ears ring, a high-pitched whine that drowns out everything else.
I just shot Nicolae Ionescu. The head of the Romanian Mafia.
Adrian's father.
Oh God. What have—
The silence shatters.
"NO!"
One of Nicolae's bodyguards yells as all three of them explode into motion, their hands flying to their holsters and bringing up their weapons.
They're going to kill me.
Time slows, and I see the closest guard's finger tightening on the trigger, his face twisted in rage. I see the barrel of his gun swinging toward me.
Adrian moves.
He throws himself in front of me, his body slamming into mine and driving me backward. He roars something unintelligible.
And then the world explodes.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
The gunfire seems never-ending. I squeeze my eyes shut, burying my face against Adrian's back, my hands still clutching the gun.
I hear shouting from Lucian, and then I hear bodies hitting the floor.
Finally, the gunfire stops.
The ringing in my ears returns, louder now, accompanied by the smell of gunpowder.
I force my eyes open, blinking through the haze of smoke that fills the office. It burns my throat, makes my eyes water, but I can't stop staring.
Four bodies lie on the floor.
Nicolae, slumped against the desk, and the three bodyguards sprawled across the floor at unnatural angles, weapons still clutched in their lifeless hands.
I glance up to see Lucian, Victor, and Matei gripping their pistols.
They didn't hesitate.
They chose Adrian and me over their father's men.
"Elena."
Adrian's voice breaks through the ringing, and he turns, reaching for me, his dark eyes searching my face.
"Elena, give me the gun."
I look down. It's still in my hands, my fingers locked around the grip.
"Elena," Adrian says again. "Let go. Give it to me."
Slowly, shakily, I release my grip. Adrian takes the gun, his fingers brushing mine as he gently pries it from my hands. He sets it on the desk behind him, then turns back to me.
And suddenly, the full weight of what I just did crashes into me.
I killed him. I murdered Nicolae Ionescu in front of his four sons.
I'm a monster. They're going to hate me.
"I'm sorry," I say, my voice cracking as tears form. "I'm sorry. I knew you were going to do it. You were going to do it, Adrian. I couldn't let you live with that. I couldn't let you kill your own father. I just couldn't."
The tears spill over, streaming down my cheeks. My whole body shakes, trembling so hard I can barely stand.
"I'm sorry," I sob again. "I'm so sorry."
Adrian doesn't say anything.
He just steps forward and pulls me tightly against his chest.
His grip is firm as he holds me together when I feel like I'm about to fall apart. He buries his face in my hair, his breath warm against my scalp.
"It's okay," he says, his voice low. "Shhh. It's okay."
I shake my head against his chest, my tears soaking into his shirt.
I just cling to him, crying, and he doesn't let go. He doesn't pull away.
He just holds me.
And regardless of what happens next, Adrian won't have to live with the guilt of killing his own father.
I took that burden from him.
It's the least I could do after everything he's done for me.
Behind us, I hear movement, and I look over.
Lucian steps forward and approaches Nicolae's body. He crouches down beside his father, his movements slow.
He presses two fingers to Nicolae's neck, and seconds stretch out.
Finally, Lucian lifts his head and looks back at us. He shakes his head once.
"He's dead," he says.
The words are flat, emotionless, but they knock the wind out of me, and I gasp.
Adrian's grip on me tightens slightly, and I feel his chest rise with a deep breath.
Lucian stands, rubbing his forehead, and stays completely still for a moment, thinking.
His dark eyes find mine, and for a millisecond, I'm terrified he's going to yell at me. Tell me I've destroyed everything. That they need to eliminate me.
But he doesn't.
"There isn't a doubt in my mind," Lucian says, his voice steady, "that our father had this coming."
I blink, fresh tears threatening to spill.
"I'm sorry it had to be you who did it," he continues, his gaze unwavering. "But if it wasn't you, Elena, it would have been an enemy." He pauses. "Or God forbid, one of us."
Victor steps forward too now, his jaw tight, but his eyes are relaxed.
"We're sorry," Victor says, and I can hear the sincerity in his voice.
"About what he did. About the baby. About everything.
" He glances at his brothers, then back to me.
"This family is not what it used to be, and it's because of him.
What he did to you is not what we stand for.
And it won't be run like that. Not anymore. "
Adrian shifts beside me, his hand sliding down to grip mine.
"Agreed," Adrian says, his voice rough but firm. "And I wasn't going to let him leave this room alive anyway."
"And if Adrian didn't do it," Matei says, "I would have done it for him. What he did was unthinkable. Unforgivable."
The brothers just look at one another, something unspoken passing between the four of them.
"Thank you," Adrian says. "For your support. For choosing us."
"We're brothers," Lucian says. "Until the end. Ride or die."
Victor nods as well. "Ride or die."
The room falls silent again, everything sitting heavy over all of us.
Then Victor turns and looks at Lucian.
"So you're the boss now," Victor says. "What do we do now?"
Lucian doesn't answer immediately. He stands there, staring down at his father's body, his jaw muscles working as he thinks.
Finally, he looks up.
"We'll tell the world he had a heart attack," Lucian says, his tone cold. "A tragic end to a powerful man."
He looks around the room, his gaze landing on each of us in turn.
"But first, we clean this up," he continues, his voice low and authoritative.
"Victor, get the cleaners. Matei, secure the perimeter. Make sure no one heard anything."
"On it," Victor says, already pulling out his phone.
"Done," Matei replies, his footsteps retreating toward the door.
I pull back slightly, just enough to look up at Adrian's face. His jaw is tight, his dark eyes scanning me like he's checking for injuries.
"Are you hurt?" he asks, his voice rough.
I shake my head.
"No. I'm okay."
He exhales, a long, shaky breath, and then cups my cheek.
"You shouldn't have done that," he says. "You could have been killed."
Adrian stares at me for a long moment, and then he kisses me.
It's gentle and full of everything we can't say out loud.
I brace myself as someone comes into the room, but it's Matei.
"All clear out there," he says, and looks at me, then at Lucian.
Victor gets off the phone and comes over to us, and we all look down at Nicolae.
"Once we bury them, then what?" Victor asks.
Adrian steps forward. "Continue with the plan. Kill Cornel Lupu. Go after the Volkovs, and then put all this behind us, and run this family the way it was meant to be. Make the Ionescu name as strong as it can be. That's what we do."
The brothers all look at one another and nod.
"Okay," Lucian says. "Elena, you can never tell anyone, not a soul, about what happened here."
I nod, wiping my eyes.
"Adrian, take her. We'll deal with this," Victor says.
Adrian looks at me and then nods toward the door. "Let's go."
We leave, and as I do, I take one last look at Nicolae. And even though I have a ton of emotions running through me, seeing the man responsible for the hell I've had to endure dead does bring some twisted peace to my heart. Like waking from a nightmare and pushing away those who caused it.
I'm not sure how I'll process this, but right now, I feel free. I feel justice has been granted, at least what I can hope to get from it.