Chapter 23
Landen
Landen was in his office, sitting at his desk, staring into nothing instead of working.
He'd been there for hours. The morning had come and gone, the afternoon was slipping away, and he had accomplished exactly nothing.
Manuscripts sat unread on his desk. Emails waited unanswered in his inbox.
Calls went unreturned. Every time he tried to focus, tried to force himself to do something productive, his mind rebelled.
Adriel.
Always Adriel.
Where was he? Was he okay?
The questions circled endlessly, the same ones he'd been asking since Friday night, and still, still, he had no answers.
His phone sat on the desk in front of him. mute. He'd stopped checking it every five minutes. Stopped calling. Stopped leaving messages that went unanswered. There was only so much silence a person could absorb before it became unbearable.
He was startled when he heard the commotion outside his office. At first, it was just raised voices, his secretary, sounding flustered, saying something he couldn't quite make out. Then a woman's voice, sharp and angry, cutting through. Footsteps.
Before he could react, the doors burst open. A woman stormed in. Mid-twenties, pretty, her face flushed with anger. His secretary was right behind her, looking panicked.
"You can't just do this!" his secretary said, reaching for the woman's arm. "Mr. Waters is not expecting you, Miss!"
The woman ignored her completely. Her eyes were fixed on Landen, and they were furious.
"You!" she spat. "You motherfucking asshole! How could you do this to him!? How could you!?"
Landen rose from his chair, shock rippling through him. He had no idea who this woman was, no idea what she was talking about. His mind scrambled to catch up.
"What?" he said. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"
She snorted. Her lips pulled into a sneer as she looked at him like he was the most disgusting thing to ever grace the earth.
"Don't play dumb with me, Waters. You know exactly what I'm talking about!" She took a step closer. His secretary hovered in the doorway, uncertain.
"Adriel," the woman said. "My best friend. How could you hurt him like that?"
Landen's heart stopped.
"He is the kindest, most beautiful, most loving person. Why would you do this? Why would you hurt him? He trusted you!"
The words hit him like blows. He couldn't speak. Couldn't move. Could only stand there, frozen, while this stranger accused him of things he didn't understand. His secretary was still there. Watching, her mouth hanging open.
"Leave us," Landen managed. His voice came out rough, barely there.
She nodded, eyes wide, and pulled the door closed behind her.
The silence that followed was thick. The woman stood in front of his desk, chest heaving, still glaring at him. Landen stepped around the desk, moving toward her, the questions finally finding their way to his mouth.
"Where is he?" he asked. "Have you seen him? He's not answering his phone. Is he okay?"
The woman frowned. Confusion flickered across her face, cutting through the anger.
"Why?" she asked. "Why do you care? Need to report to your buddy Zach that your little plan is going swimmingly? Huh? Want to laugh some more?"
Landen stopped in his tracks.
Zach?
He frowned, staring at her, trying to understand.
What the fuck was she talking about?
"Zach?" he repeated. "What? Who the fuck is Zach?" He stared at her like she'd lost her mind. Maybe she had. Maybe they both had. Nothing was making sense.
The woman frowned harder. For the first time, she seemed to really look at him; not the enemy she'd built up in her head, but the actual man standing in front of her.
Landen knew what she must be seeing. His clothes were rumpled.
His hair was in disarray instead of its usual neat style.
His eyes were bloodshot, the purple bruising beneath them dark and stark against his skin.
He'd barely slept two hours the entire weekend, and he was sure that he looked exactly as he felt.
Like shit.
"Stop playing games," she said, but the fire in her voice had dimmed. She sounded doubtful now. Uncertain. "You know who Zach is. He's your buddy, the one you conspired with to make fun of Adriel. Because the first time wasn't enough for you two, was it?"
Landen shook his head slowly. His mind was working now, scrambling to piece together what she was saying.
The man.
The one he'd been speaking with at the launch. The partner of the author, the one who'd been promoting the book all night. They'd talked for maybe ten minutes, fifteen at most. Just polite conversation, the kind you made at these events. The author had introduced them, had said…
This is Zach, my boyfriend. He's been dying to meet you.
Zach. His name was Zach.
"Zach Martin," Landen said. "Right? That's who you're talking about?"
The woman nodded. "Yes. Your buddy, Zach. Adriel's piece of shit ex."
Adriel's piece of shit ex.
Fuck.
Landen lowered himself into a chair. His legs wouldn't hold him anymore. He sat there, staring at nothing, while the pieces rearranged themselves into a picture he couldn't bear to look at.
"He's not my friend," Landen said. His voice was hollow. "I met him that night. Friday, at the promotion. He was there with our author; he was his date. The author introduced us. That's why I was talking to him."
He looked up at her.
"I never saw him before. I didn't know who he was. I didn't know…"
He couldn't finish. He pulled out his phone instead, fingers shaking as he navigated to his email. Found the mail from the author, sent Saturday morning, thanking him for the event and mentioning what a good time they'd had.
He handed the phone to Jenna.
She read it. Her eyes moved across the screen, taking it in. When she finished, she looked up at him, and something in her expression shifted.
"Shit," she said quietly. She lowered herself into the chair opposite him. Handed the phone back. Sat there for a moment, staring at nothing.
"Sorry, man," she mumbled. "I... I am sorry for what I said. I..."
Landen shook his head. "It's fine. You were defending your friend."
They sat in silence for a moment. The office hummed around them; the distant sound of phones ringing, people moving, the ordinary machinery of a workplace. It felt like it was happening in another world.
"He really thought I would do that?" Landen asked. His voice cracked on the words.
"He really thought I was capable of something so vile? So..." He trailed off, unable to find the word. "I thought he knew me."
Jenna shifted in her chair. When she spoke, her voice was gentler than before.
"No," she said. "No, look, Landen, it's not about you. Okay? It's..."
She paused. Seemed to be searching for the right words.
"Zach, he... he hurt him. A lot. He jerked him around for more than a year. He hid him, made him feel like he should be grateful for the scraps of affection he got. And Adriel just took it, just let him do it, because he loved him."
Landen's hands curled into fists in his lap.
"And then, at the end, he humiliated him. In front of a bar full of people. Pretended he didn't know him, insulted him, laughed at him. It broke Adriel. It took him years to recover."
The image formed in Landen's mind. The cruelty of it made his chest burn.
"And then he met you," Jenna continued. "And he was so scared, because he liked you. Because you made him feel wanted and cherished and... but Zach had convinced him he was unlovable. That he was undeserving. So when he saw you two together, it all came back. All that shit."
She leaned forward, willing him to understand.
"But it wasn't because of you, okay? It was because of what that asshole did to him. You were just... in the wrong place, with the wrong person. And Adriel's brain did what it always does; assumed the worst."
Landen nodded. He understood. He did. But understanding didn't stop the ache in his chest, didn't stop the images from forming, didn't stop the rage that was building there.
Zach Martin.
He wanted to find him. Wanted to hurt him. Wanted to make him feel even a fraction of what Adriel had felt.
"I… I love him," he said. The words came out before he could stop them. "I never said it. But I do. I would never hurt him like that. I would never…"
He stopped. His throat was too tight. His eyes were burning.
Jenna's hand covered one of his fists. "Let's go, then," she said quietly.
He looked up at her.
"Because you should. You should tell him."
∞∞∞
Adriel
Early afternoon light had spilled through the window, warm and golden, but Adriel barely noticed it.
The light shifted across the floor, the shadows moved and lengthened, the world continued on without him.
He sat in the same position he'd been in for hours, knees pulled up, arms wrapped around them, staring at the dark TV like it held answers he couldn't find anywhere else.
His phone sat on the coffee table. Silent. Still. The notifications had stopped hours ago. Everything had blurred together into a gray numbness that felt almost peaceful, if peace could feel like drowning.
He heard the front door open.
The sound registered dimly, somewhere in the background of his consciousness. Jenna, back from the store.
Footsteps approached. Soft at first, then closer.
Multiple sets. That registered too, somewhere beneath the fog.
Jenna must have brought someone. A friend.
Chris. He didn't care. Didn't want to see anyone, didn't want to talk, didn't want to do anything except keep existing in this gray space where nothing could reach him.
The footsteps stopped.
He should look up. He knew he should look up. It was rude to ignore people, even when you felt like this, even when the effort of moving your head felt like climbing a mountain. But he couldn't make himself do it. Couldn't make himself care.
Then Jenna's voice: "Adriel."
Something in her tone made him look. She was standing a few feet away, her expression careful, worried. And right behind her…
Landen.
Adriel shot off the sofa.