14. Adriana #3
The door opens. I look up, expecting another officer, maybe someone from protective services. But it's not.
It's Lachlan.
He's standing in the doorway, his hands in his pockets, his expression calm and controlled. And behind him, I can see two uniformed officers, their faces carefully neutral.
My stomach drops.
"Adriana." His voice is soft, almost gentle, but there's an edge to it that makes my skin crawl. "What are you doing?"
"I—" I can't speak. My breath is caught in my lungs, my heart beating so fast I think it's going to come out of my chest. I look at Detective Addams, and suddenly the sympathy on her face makes perfect, horrible sense.
Lachlan steps into the room, and the officers don't stop him.
They just stand there, watching, and I realize with a sickening clarity that they're not going to help me.
They work for him. He's paid them off. With all that I know about this life, I don't know how I didn't expect that—except that some part of me still thinks of him as the boy I knew, who wouldn't have dirty cops in his pocket.
I thought I'd realized what kind of man he is now, but clearly I hadn't… not all the way.
"Adriana," Lachlan says again. His blue eyes are cold and hard, but underneath, I can see that hurt that I knew would be there. "We need to talk."
"No." The word comes out as a whisper, and I pull Matteo closer, my arms wrapping around him. "No. You can't—they're supposed to protect us. They're supposed to—"
"They work for me." His voice is matter-of-fact. "Most of them do. The ones who don't know better than to get involved."
I look at Detective Addams, and I can see the resignation in her face, the way her shoulders slump.
She's not going to help me. She can't. "I'm sorry," she says quietly, and then she gathers up the documents, the evidence I brought, and hands them to Lachlan.
He takes them without looking at them, his gaze still fixed on me.
"Let's go," he says calmly. "We're going home."
"No." I shake my head, pushing myself up from the chair as I start to back away. "No, I'm not going with you. You can't make me—"
"Yes, I can." He moves closer, and I can see the effort it's taking for him to remain calm, to not release the anger and hurt I can see building in him.
"You're my wife, Adriana. You belong to me.
And you just tried to destroy me. You just tried to take everything I've built and burn it to the ground.
What the fuck were you thinking? How is this going to help you? "
"I was trying to protect my son!" My voice rises, and Matteo starts to cry, his face buried in my shoulder. "I was trying to get us away from you, from this life, from all of this violence and death and—"
"By going to the cops?" His voice is incredulous, disbelieving. "By turning me in? By trying to put me in prison?"
"Yes!" Tears burn in my eyes. "Yes, because I don't know what else to do! I don't know how to keep him safe when you're the one putting him in danger!"
"I'm trying to protect you." He's right in front of me now, his hands reaching for me, and I flinch back. "I'm trying to keep you safe, and you—"
"You're not keeping us safe! You're keeping us prisoner! You're dragging us into your war with Gio, and my son got hurt today because of you! Because you couldn't just let us go! Because you had to have us, no matter what it cost!"
"I love you." His voice breaks on the words, and I can see the pain in his face, the desperation.
"I've loved you for ten years. I came back for you.
I saved you from Gio. And this is how you repay me?
By trying to destroy me? You keep talking about how I'm not what you remember, Adriana, but this isn't who I remember, either?
The girl I love would never have betrayed me! "
"I don't want your love!" The words are a scream, and I see the way he flinches back, like I've struck him. "I want my son to be safe! I want him to grow up away from men like you! Away from this world! And you won't let me have that! You won't let me go!"
"Because I can't." He reaches for me, gripping tight, and I can feel him shaking. "Because if I let you go, Gio will find you. He'll take you back. He'll hurt you. He'll hurt Matteo. And I can't—I can't let that happen. I can't lose you again."
"Then what do you want from me?" I can feel myself trembling all over. "What do you want, Lachlan? Because I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to trust you when you're just like him. When you're just another man who thinks he owns me."
"I'm not like him. I'm nothing like him. I would never hurt you. I would never—"
"You already have," I whisper. "You've already hurt me. You've hurt my son. And I don't know if I can forgive you for that."
The silence that follows is deafening.
Lachlan stares at me, and I can see the devastation in his face that my words have shattered something inside him. His hands fall away from my shoulders, and he takes a step back, his jaw tight.
"Why won't you trust me?" His voice is raw. "What do I have to do to make you trust me?"
I stare at him, and I don't have an answer. I don't know if trust is even possible anymore. Not after everything that's happened.
Not after everything we've become.