Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Bianca
Back to Dante and his control and those skimpy clothes he thinks I'm going to wear.
A knock on the door makes me look up.
"Come in," I call, expecting Mrs. Chen or maybe the janitor asking if I'm done so he can lock up.
The door opens.
Adrian steps inside.
My entire body goes rigid.
He looks worse than he did two days ago—unshaven, eyes hollow, clothes rumpled like he slept in them. There's a bandage wrapped around his left hand.
"Bianca." His voice is rough. "Please, just hear me out—"
"Get out." I'm already moving toward the door, toward the phone on my desk where I can call security. "Get out of my classroom right now."
"I just need five minutes—"
"You don't get five seconds." My hand closes around the desk phone. "Leave, or I'm calling security and telling them there's a man harassing me."
"I'm not harassing you, I'm trying to explain—"
"Explain what?" The words come out sharp enough to cut. "How you sold me to pay off your gambling debts? How you used me as collateral like I was a car you couldn't afford anymore? Please, Adrian, enlighten me."
He flinches but doesn't leave. Instead, he closes the door behind him.
My heart starts hammering.
"Don't." I lift the phone. "I swear to God, Adrian, if you take one step closer—"
"I'm not going to hurt you." He holds up his hands like I'm a spooked animal. "I just need you to understand. It wasn't supposed to be like this."
"What was it supposed to be like, then? You offering me up to Dante Vitale was part of what? Your master plan?"
"I didn't have a choice!" His voice cracks. "You don't understand the kind of pressure I was under. The things they were going to do to me—"
"So you did them to me instead."
"It's not permanent!" He's talking faster now, moving closer despite my warning. "I've been working on a plan. I can get you out of this. I can fix it—"
"You can't fix anything. You're a coward and a liar and you destroyed my life because you couldn't stop gambling." I'm shaking now, rage and fear mixing into something toxic. "And now you show up here? At my job? Where my students could see you?"
"I needed to talk to you somewhere he isn't watching—"
"He's always watching, you idiot! You think he doesn't have people following me? You think showing up here isn't going to get back to him?"
Adrian's face pales. "I didn't think—"
"You never do. That's the problem."
He runs a hand through his greasy hair, and I catch a whiff of alcohol. Of course. Day drinking. That's his solution.
"I'm going to get you back," he says, and there's something manic in his eyes now. Something unhinged. "I'm working on a plan. I have connections, people who can help—"
"I don't want your help. I don't want anything from you except for you to leave me alone."
"You don't mean that."
"I absolutely mean that." I set the phone down but keep my hand on it. "We're done, Adrian. We were done the second you signed those papers. Actually, we were done long before that. I just didn't see it."
His expression crumples and for a second, I almost feel sorry for him. Almost.
"I love you," he says quietly.
"No, you don't. You loved what I represented. Stability. Someone to take care of you while you pissed away money we didn't have." My voice is steady now, cold. "If you loved me, you never would've done what you did."
"I made a mistake—"
"You made a choice."
"Bianca, please—" He takes another step forward, and I grab the phone.
"I said don't."
He stops, but his jaw tightens. I can see the shift happening—desperation giving way to anger. The same anger I saw flashes of during our relationship, usually when he was drunk and I'd question him about money or his late nights.
"You think you're better off with him?" Adrian's voice takes on an edge. "With Dante Vitale? You think he actually cares about you?"
"I think he's honest about what he wants. Which is more than I can say for you."
"Honest?" He laughs, looking even more unhinged. "He bought you, Bianca. For the love of God, you're property to him. A transaction. At least with me, you were—"
"What? Lied to? Used? Treated like a backup plan?" I shake my head. "You're right. Being with you was so much better."
His face flushes at my sarcasm. "You're acting like you're some kind of victim, but you're not exactly innocent, are you?"
My blood runs cold.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means Dante doesn't know the real you." His smile is cruel now, all pretense of regret gone. "Maybe I should tell him what he bought."
The room tilts.
No.
No, no, no—
"I don't know what you're talking about." My voice sounds distant, like it's coming from underwater.
"Yes, you do." He moves closer, emboldened by my fear. "Did you tell him? About what you did before we met? About how you really survived?"
My grip on the phone is so tight my knuckles are white.
"That was different. I did what I had to do."
"Did you? Because from where I'm standing, you have no room to judge me." He leans against a desk, casual now. "What if I tell him the truth? Think he'd still want you representing him to his family?"
Terror claws up my throat.
This is what I've been terrified of since the moment I started teaching. That someone would find out. That my past would catch up to me and destroy everything I've built.
I did what I had to do to keep Mom alive. To keep us fed. To survive.
But no one cares about context. They just see what you did. Not why.
And if this gets out—if the school board finds out, if the parents find out—I'll lose my job. I'll lose the one good thing I have left.
And Mom... God, if Mom ever found out what I did to pay for her treatment, it would kill her faster than the cancer.
"You wouldn't," I say, but my voice shakes.
"Wouldn't I?" Adrian straightens. "Maybe Dante Vitale would be interested to know the truth about his new girlfriend. Maybe he'd even pay me for the information."
"He'll kill you." The words come out flat, certain. "If you go near him with this, he'll kill you."
"Maybe. But at least I'd take you down with me." He heads for the door, pauses with his hand on the knob. "Think about that. You want me gone? You want me to keep my mouth shut? Then help me. Otherwise, everyone finds out who you really are."
Then he’s gone and the door clicks shut.
And I'm alone in my classroom, surrounded by alphabet posters and children's artwork, with the weight of my past pressing down on my chest like concrete.
My hands are shaking so badly I can barely hold the phone.
Adrian knows. He's always known. I told him years ago, back when I thought we had trust, when I thought he was someone I could be honest with.
And now he's going to use it against me.
Against Dante.
Against everything.
I sink into my desk chair, press my palms against my eyes.
What I did—what I had to do to survive, to keep Mom alive—it haunts me every single day. I thought I'd left that life behind. Buried it so deep no one would ever find it.
I thought I was safe.
But the past doesn't stay buried. It never does.
And now Dante—who bought me because Adrian offered me, who controls where I sleep and what I wear and every second of my day—is going to find out that the woman he's using to avoid scandal has a history that could create the exact scandal he's trying to avoid.
He'll get rid of me. He'll have to.
And Mom will lose her treatment.
I pull out my phone with shaking hands, pull up Tony's number.
I'm coming in a minute.
The response comes immediately: Parked out front.
I gather my things mechanically, turn off the lights, lock the door and try to figure out how I'm going to survive what's coming.
Because Adrian just armed a bomb.
And when it goes off, it's going to destroy everything.