16. Eliana
Eliana
When I opened my eyes again, the first thing I saw was Adrian.
He was sitting beside my bed, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees.
His tie was gone, his sleeves were rolled up, and several strands of his hair had fallen out of place.
He looked nothing like the controlled, untouchable man the world knew.
His eyes were fixed on me, red-rimmed with exhaustion, and there was a tension in his jaw that told me he had been fighting with himself long before I woke.
The moment our eyes met, something in his expression softened.
“You fainted,” he said quietly.
I swallowed and turned my face away. The tears gathering in my eyes felt humiliating. Everything I'd heard at the clinic came rushing back, each unanswered question pressing against the next until I could barely breathe.
Adrian reached for me, slowly brushing a strand of hair away from my face.
I waited for the anger.
For the questions.
Why did you follow me? Why didn't you trust me? What were you doing at the clinic?
None came.
His fingertips paused against my temple.
“You've been carrying too much.”
The words broke something inside me.
I covered my face, but Adrian immediately moved closer. His arms came around me, and I buried my face against his chest, the tears finally escaping.
He said nothing.
His hand moved slowly over my back, steady and patient, while I cried into his shirt.
Eventually, my breathing began to settle.
I pulled away and wiped my cheeks with trembling fingers. Adrian looked at me, his eyes searching my face, but he still didn't speak.
“I think you're hiding too many secrets from me.”
A trace of pain crossed his features.
“I don't know what's happening anymore,” I whispered. “Every time I think I understand something, there's something else. Another phone call. Another warning. Another person who seems to know something about you that I don't.”
His gaze dropped briefly to our hands.
“And today I followed you because I was worried.” My voice trembled. “I heard things I wasn't supposed to hear, and now I can't stop thinking about them.”
Adrian's fingers tightened around mine.
I looked at him.
“Please tell me everything.”
His eyes lifted to mine.
For several seconds, he simply stared at me. There was so much in his expression that I almost wished he would look away. Regret. Fear. Something deeper that I couldn't name.
“I need to know, Adrian.” My voice cracked. “All of this is making me anxious. I want to trust you. I really do. But every secret you keep from me makes it harder. Day by day, I feel like I'm losing my faith in you, and I don't want that to happen.”
His jaw tightened.
He looked toward the window, as though the answer might be waiting somewhere beyond the glass.
When he finally looked back at me, his eyes were darker.
“You think I don't know that?”
I went still.
He swallowed.
“Every time I keep something from you, I see it in your eyes.” His voice was barely above a whisper. “That little piece of trust disappears, and I have no right to ask you to keep giving it to me.”
My chest tightened.
“Then why do you keep doing it?”
His expression faltered.
“Because some truths don't come alone, Eliana. They bring everything behind them. Every mistake. Every loss. Every person who was hurt along the way.”
He paused, his thumb moving slowly across the back of my hand.
“And I'm terrified that if I open that door before I'm ready, I won't be able to protect you from what comes through it.”
“Protect me from the truth?”
His eyes met mine.
“From everything attached to it.”
I stared at him, my heart aching with frustration.
“You keep saying you want me to trust you, but you won't give me anything to trust.”
A shadow crossed his face.
“I know.”
The words were quiet, but this time they carried the weight of an admission.
“I know I'm asking you to believe in a man who won't show you the whole picture.” His voice roughened. “And I know how unfair that is.”
He lowered his head for a moment before looking at me again.
“But believe me when I tell you this. Whatever you think you've discovered about me, whatever you think I've done, there are things you don't know. Things I have spent years trying to keep buried.”
My heart thudded.
“Are you saying you're dangerous?”
His eyes held mine.
“No.”
A pause.
“I'm saying that the things surrounding me can be.”
Neither of us spoke.
I could hear the faint ticking of the clock across the room.
I wanted to push harder. I wanted to ask about Doctor Lara, the accident, the woman whose existence seemed to have been erased. I wanted to demand every answer he had refused to give me.
But there was something in his face that stopped me.
He looked exhausted.
Not tired from work.
Tired from carrying something alone for far too long.
He reached for my hand again.
“I don't expect you to forgive me tonight.”
His thumb brushed over my knuckles.
“I don't even expect you to understand.”
His gaze softened.
“But I need you to believe one thing.”
“What?”
“I have never lied to you about what you mean to me.”
My eyes filled again.
He looked at the tears gathering there and carefully wiped one away.
“I can live with you being angry with me,” he whispered. “I can live with you questioning me. What I can't live with is watching you look at me like I'm a stranger.”
My lips parted, but no words came.
For a moment, Adrian simply held my gaze.
Then he leaned forward and pressed his forehead against mine.
“I think it's time I take you somewhere.”
I closed my eyes briefly before pulling back. “Where?”
“The place I've wanted to show you from the beginning.”
“Where is that?”
“A few days away from the city.” His fingers closed gently around mine. “No reporters. No work. Just us.”
I studied his face.
“You need to breathe again,” he said softly.
I wanted to ask him about Doctor Lara.
I wanted to ask what was getting worse.
I wanted to know whose life had been erased and why Adrian had looked like a man carrying a secret heavy enough to break him.
Instead, I nodded.
“Okay.”
He squeezed my hand.
“Okay.”
We didn't speak about Doctor Lara again that night. I didn't ask about the words I'd overheard, and Adrian didn't ask me to explain exactly what I'd heard. The questions remained between us, unwelcome but impossible to ignore.
He stayed beside me until I fell asleep, his hand wrapped around mine.
And even after my eyes closed, I could still feel the weight of everything he hadn't told me.
* * *
We left Richmond early, the city gradually disappearing behind us as the roads carried us into quieter parts of Virginia.
Adrian drove westward, taking us deeper into the countryside, where the traffic thinned and the landscape gave way to rolling hills and dense woodland.
Nearly three hours later, we passed through the outskirts of Hot Springs, where his grandmother's estate was located, but Adrian didn't turn toward the Ashford property.
Instead, we continued for another hour along quieter roads, leaving the larger towns behind.
The farther we went, the more secluded the landscape became.
Eventually, Adrian turned onto a narrow road surrounded by thick trees.
“Where are we?” I asked, looking around.
“You'll see.”
The road wound through the forest for several miles before suddenly opening onto a secluded shoreline.
I stared through the windshield. A quiet beach curved along the edge of a beautiful ocean, completely untouched and hidden from the outside world.
Dense trees surrounded the shoreline, and an old wooden cottage stood alone near the water.
I turned toward Adrian in surprise. “This is it?”
He smiled faintly. “This is the place I told you about.”
I looked back at the cottage. “How far are we from your grandmother's estate?”
“About an hour,” he said. “Maybe a little more, depending on the road.”
I smiled as I looked at the secluded beach again. “And you kept this place a secret?”
“From almost everyone.”
He parked near the cottage and came around to open my door. When I stepped out, the cool breeze from the ocean brushed against my face. Adrian reached for my hand, but his attention remained fixed on the cottage.
“This place has always been mine,” he said quietly. “No family meetings. No reporters. No expectations.”
His gaze softened as he looked toward the old wooden house.
“Just peace.”
I followed his gaze, but something about his expression caught my attention. There was a sadness in his eyes that hadn't been there a moment ago, as though the cottage had opened a door to memories he had spent years keeping closed.
“What happened here?” I asked softly.
Adrian looked at me.
For several seconds, he said nothing. Then he turned toward the cottage and gave my hand a gentle squeeze.
“A lot of things,” he finally said.
His voice was quiet.
“Some of the best memories of my life are here.”
He paused, his eyes returning to the cottage.
“And some of the hardest.”
My smile faded.
Adrian looked back at me, his expression almost vulnerable.
“I've never brought anyone here before, Eliana.”
He tightened his fingers around mine. “Because this place holds too much of who I used to be.”