EPILOGUE
HENDRICK
Watching Adora play is my newest obsession.
Her grace and elegance is beyond anything I’ve ever seen and I understand with every show why she draws such a crowd and why they pay hundreds and thousands of dollars to see her.
Tonight her backing group is a Viennese orchestra I can't pronounce who we’ve travelled for her to perform with.
And tonight has a new piece that lasts nearly twenty-four minutes, a quiet piece that has one minute for every year of Milo’s life.
Her respect for the younger man still blows me away but her heart is huge.
Twin scars decorate the open back of her dress.
She doesn’t hide any more. Adora talks more now that her team isn’t run by a tyrant with several agendas on the go at any one point.
She does, however, wear a collar that we picked together.
It’s an eternal band that doesn’t easily come off, and latches into itself so that the platinum circlet she picked for herself doesn’t look as though it has an open or closing space.
She loves it and so do I. Because Adora agreed to let me put a tracker in the damn thing.
It’s consensual and all above board and the closest thing she let me buy her as an engagement gift.
I’m happy. She’s happy.
Right now, I’m waiting for her to finish the concert. Her dress doesn't quite cancel the tiny bump over her belly. We never talked about protection that first night together and like all things, that night has consequences. But I’m not going anywhere as long as she'll have me, and neither is she.
Calhoun doesn't mind that I stay on his books with Adora as his permanent asset under my name. If it works, it works, Drake didn't end up staying, for now. He shifts on the railing beside me.
“Where are you taking her? Your pop star.”
Drake laughs and turns his back to the convert. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret, big boy."
“And if you tell me, I'll be able to back you up."
“I’ve got plenty of back up.” He smiles faintly.
“So, pop star. What’s she like?”
“On paper? Because you've never met her. But I don't think a K-pop star is quite the same as a rock star."
I stretch my shoulders, and the old scar where I was shot that first night protecting Adora twinges. “Man, I’m well out of date. I’ll stick with the one celebrity I have, thanks.”
Drake smiles. “You do that. You think mine’s a brat or a quiet girl?”
A laugh breaks from me. “Only time will tell.”
My own quiet girl finishes her piece. Silence falls, the entire hall still and then the applause starts. Slow at first, it builds to a rolling thunder that seems endless. And through it all, Adora stares up at me where I stand at the railing, the faintest smile on her lips.
We broke all the rules. We both bear scars.
And she’s as obsessed with me as I am with her, thank fuck.
From the first moment this woman started talking to me what feels like forever ago now.
And gave me her trust, I’ll never forget how removed she was from the world.
Looking at her now, I know she’s so much more alive and stronger than ever.
I love her so much for being who she is, and trusting me the day I told her to saddle up and ride with me. I pray that never stops.