5. Bella #2
“What I mean is that this is a goddamn shakedown,” Marcus says, his voice tight with anger.
He shoots out of his chair, hurling the paper across the table and jabbing one accusing finger right at me and Adrian.
That finger shakes slightly and I do my best to remain composed.
“And of all the things I’ve called you, or thought of you, Sterling, I never pegged you for a goddamn shakedown artist.”
“This is justice,” Adrian corrects. “You’ve been operating outside the law for years, Marcus. It’s time to pay the price.”
Marcus’s eyes flick to me, and I see something dangerous flash in them. “This is about her, isn’t it? Just like it always has been.”
Adrian stiffens. The other people in this meeting all look to him but to me they disappear. To me, the only people in this room are me, Marcus and Adrian.
Marcus’s grin is near manic. “You wanted her and I got her. That’s why you’re angry. You didn’t care about my activities before any of that.” He shakes his head.
Adrian smiles slowly. “I didn’t know about your illegal activities when we were friends,” he says. I suck in, holding my breath. “But I suspected. You can’t go before a court of law with a feeling. Now, I have proof. Cold hard proof.”
“Bullshit,” Marcus spews, throwing his hands up. “This is about the wedding. You’re doing this because of some misguided sense of chivalry.”
“I’m doing this because you are a goddamn criminal,” Adrian says, his voice hard, his fist slamming into the table.
Then he and Marcus are both there, in each other’s faces, leaning across the table like they’re about to both jump over it to get to each other.
“And because you deserve to lose everything, just like you made Bella lose everything.”
“So you admit it is about her! I didn’t make her lose anything,” Marcus snaps. “She was never going to be happy with me anyway. I did her a goddamn favor.”
I feel like I’ve been slapped. “A favor?” I repeat, my voice shaking with anger. “You humiliated me in front of everyone we know. You slept with my sister. You destroyed my life.”
But I already know the real reason. Marcus wanted to humiliate me publicly, he wanted to because it was my name on all those heinous crimes he did and he wanted to publicly distance himself from me so he was not affiliated. The only problem is, it’s not going to work.
“Your life was already destroyed,” Marcus says cruelly. “You were just too naive to see it. You were never good enough for me, Bella. You were never smart enough, never sophisticated enough. You were just… convenient.”
The words hit me like physical blows, each one designed to wound. I feel tears prick my eyes, feel my throat tighten with emotion.
“Maybe you did do me a favor, Marcus,” I whisper, something dawning on me. Something new.
But then Adrian’s hand finds mine under the table, squeezing gently. I look at him, and the fury in his eyes is directed entirely at Marcus. I squeeze his fingers and keep my eyes on him when I speak, on Adrian and not Marcus.
Adrian is my lifeline, and Marcus is nothing but a sinking ship that threatens to drown me along with him.
“Because I never actually became your wife,” I say coyly, “there’s no spousal privilege for you to hide behind. I can testify against you in open court. Which means, you can get the hell out of our offices if you’re not going to take Adrian’s more than generous deal, and we’ll see you in court.”
Marcus blinks like someone slapped him. He stutters but gets no real words out.
“You heard her. Get the hell out,” Adrian says, his voice low and dangerous. Marcus doesn’t move. Adrian growls and raises his voice. “Get out of my building before I have security throw you out.”
“We’re not done here,” Marcus says, standing. “You think you can threaten me? You think you can take away everything I’ve built? I’ll destroy you, Sterling. I’ll destroy both of you.”
“You can try,” Adrian says, standing as well. “But we both know how this ends. You’re going down, Marcus. It’s just a matter of time.”
Marcus glares at us both, then turns and storms out of the conference room. The door slams behind him, and the room falls silent.
Adrian turns to his legal team. “Make sure he doesn’t leave the building without an escort.
And get those documents to the DA’s office by the goddamn end of the day.
” He watches the door Marcus left through, his jaw tight.
“I wanted him to know it’s coming,” he says quietly, for me alone.
“A cornered man makes mistakes. Every move he makes now - scared, sloppy - is one more thing they’ll nail him with.
It’s a risk. But it’s one I’ll take to end this faster. ”
The team nods and files out, leaving Adrian and me alone in the conference room. The tension in here is thick still.
I stand on shaking legs, my mind reeling. “You knew,” I say quietly. “You knew he was coming today.”
Adrian turns to face me, his expression guarded. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you warn me then?” I demand. “And last night-” My voice breaks. “Was that just a strategy? Was that just you making sure I was on your side before the fight started?”
“Bella-”
“Tell me the truth,” I demand, tears streaming down my face now. “Did you sleep with me because you wanted me, or because you needed to secure my loyalty?”
Adrian crosses the room in two strides, his hands cupping my face, forcing me to look at him. “I slept with you because I’ve been in love with you since the moment I saw you,” he says fiercely. “Everything I told you last night was true. Every word, every touch, every moment - it was all real.”
“But you knew Marcus was coming,” I say, my voice breaking. “You knew, and you didn’t tell me.”
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to think that’s why I was making my move,” Adrian says. “I didn’t want you to doubt my feelings. But I can see now that was a mistake.”
I pull away from him, wrapping my arms around myself. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“Believe this,” Adrian says, his voice raw with emotion. “I love you, Isabella Hayes. I love you, and I’m going to destroy Marcus Webb for what he did to you. Not because it’s good business, not because it’s strategic, but because he hurt you. And I will never let anyone hurt you again.”
I look at him, see the sincerity in his eyes, the vulnerability in his expression. I want to believe him. God, I want to believe him so badly.
But the doubt is there now, a seed that has taken root and is growing.
“I need time,” I say quietly. “I need time to think.”
Adrian’s face falls, but he nods. “Take all the time you need. But Bella, please know - my feelings for you have nothing to do with Marcus. They never did. But what he’s doing is wrong, and I have a duty to stop it.”
I nod, not trusting myself to speak. I turn and walk out of the conference room, my vision blurred with tears.
I thought last night was the beginning of something beautiful. Now I’m not sure what it was.
All I know is that my world has been turned upside down once again, and I have no idea which way is up.
I don’t remember the elevator ride down to the lobby. I don’t remember walking out of Sterling Industries or hailing a cab. My mind is a whirlwind of emotions - anger, hurt, confusion, and underneath it all, a desperate longing that I can’t quite suppress.
I love him.
The realization hits me as the cab pulls away from the curb, and it makes everything so much worse. I’ve fallen in love with Adrian Sterling, and now I don’t know if any of it is real.
Has he orchestrated everything? Has he planned our connection from the beginning, knowing that Marcus would be there today, knowing that I would need to be firmly on his side when the confrontation happened?
Or was last night genuine? Was the tenderness in his touch, the vulnerability in his eyes, the whispered confessions - was any of that real?
Or could… could everything he’s been telling me actually be true? Could he have loved me first and Marcus took me just out of spite?
One thing that’s not hard to believe is that Marcus has done some downright bad things. And he does need to be stopped. Me and Adrian just might be the only two people who can make that happen.
I press my palms against my eyes, trying to hold back the tears that threaten to spill over. I’ve been such a fool. Again. First with Marcus, and now with Adrian.
When will I learn?
My apartment feels too quiet when I let myself in. I kick off my heels and pad barefoot to the kitchen, pouring myself a glass of wine with shaking hands. I take a long sip, then another, trying to calm the storm of emotions raging inside me.
The sun is setting outside my window, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink. It’s beautiful, but I can’t appreciate it. All I can think about is Adrian’s face when I walked away, the pain in his eyes, the way his hand reached for me before falling back to his side.
I want to call him. I want to run back to his office and tell him that I believe him, that I trust him, that I love him.
But I can’t. Not yet. Not until I’ve sorted through the tangled mess of my thoughts and feelings.
I carry my wine to the living room and sink onto the couch, pulling a throw blanket around my shoulders. My laptop sits on the coffee table, and after a moment’s hesitation, I reach for it.
Adrian gave me access to all the files on Marcus - the investigation, the evidence, the testimony from former employees. I’ve reviewed them before, of course, but I was focused on the business aspects, on understanding the case we’re building.
Now, I open the files with a different purpose. I need to understand the timeline. I need to know when Adrian started investigating Marcus, and why.
The first document is dated five months ago - two months before my wedding. It’s a preliminary report from a private investigator, detailing suspicious financial transactions at Webb Industries.