Adrien #2
“I didn’t—” she mumbles, but it’s too quiet for us to understand.
“No, no, no, no, no…” she keeps whispering, shaking her head, pleading.
I take another step toward her. I need to prove I’m here. I need her to see me. But the second I flinch, she grabs the sheets like an anchor and—
Starts screaming.
The sound is so high it stops me mid-movement and turns my vision into slow motion. It’s not a scream. It’s more of a shriek. Raw and animal. Like something trapped and cornered, shrieking for its life.
Like a banshee.
My eyes burn, watering instantly, but I grab her anyway. I pull her into me. And the second I do, she starts fighting me, screaming with everything she has left.
“Nat, I’m here,” I sob out.
“Let her go,” Kiara yells at me.
But I can’t. They can’t seriously want that from me right now.
“Adrien, let go!” She grabs my hand and tears me away, and then bigger hands close around me, ripping me from the bed entirely.
Natalya keeps screaming, trying to push all of us away with the sheer force of it, like sound alone could keep us out.
Then she stops, just for a fraction of a second to draw a breath.
And then she screams more. But this time it’s not just a high, glass-breaking sound.
It’s his name.
Lucien.
She keeps screaming that fucking name over and over, breaking it only with sobs, like it’s the only thing that still makes sense to her.
“You need to go away,” Kiara urges, pushing us toward the door.
Kas clamps both my wrists behind my back when I try to fight him, and before I can even register what’s happening, the door slams shut in front of my face, the sound of the lock clicking into place sealing us away from her.
My back hits the door as I sink to the floor, Kas collapsing down beside me. My fingers are trembling so badly I press my palms flat against the cold floor, like the chill might anchor me to reality.
She screamed his name.
I did this.
Not the years. Not Lucien.
This is my fault.
Behind the door, she stops screaming after a while. And the silence is significantly worse. It feels like the whole house is holding its breath for her.
When she was screaming, at least I could hear her or simply know she was there. Now I’m locked out, shut away, and I have no idea what’s happening to her.
And then I hear it, behind the door, there’s just exhausted, broken sobs. The kind that scrapes raw from the inside.
My head drops forward onto my knees.
This is a nightmare.
We sit there for what feels like hours, listening desperately for anything—a sound, a word, or another scream. Then Kiara steps out of the room and closes the door behind her straightaway.
She comes to stand in front of us, watching us with that hesitant look, the one people get when they’re carefully choosing how much truth to hand without completely destroying the person.
“I thought,” she starts quietly, “that it would get better when she really saw you.” She swallows. “But it hasn’t.”
We stare at her in silence.
“She needs a psychiatrist. As soon as possible,” Kiara says.
Kas is already on his feet before the sentence fully lands, pulling his phone out and leaving without a word, already arranging it.
Kiara stays behind, watching me like she’s waiting for something, probably denial or collapse.
“Can I come back there?” I ask quietly.
Her answer is obvious without even looking. She’s shaking her head.
Of course I can’t. I triggered it.
“I made sure she drank the whole nutrition drink and took the vitamins you prepared,” she adds, her voice threaded with remorse.
My hands rake over my face, fast and rough, trying to shake the haze clinging to me. I can’t keep drowning in this fucking well of sorrow. This has to stop. Now. I need to focus.
I draw in a deep breath and exhale slowly, making a decision that lands with startling clarity. From this moment on, I’m getting it all back.
Myself. Her. Everything we had.
I’m so fucking tired of this depression. I’m not like this. That’s not me. I’m not going to get her back like this.
I push myself up from the floor like a new man, towering over Kiara as words start spilling out of me, because apparently I can’t be the one taking care of her right now, but I can at least make sure she’s cared for the right way.
“She likes to sleep in big T-shirts,” I say quickly. “Mine preferably.” Kiara nods.
“She likes to leave the balcony door open. If it gets too cold, just turn up the heating, but leave the door open. She likes fresh air. All the time.”
I keep going, rubbing the back of my neck, impatient with myself.
“Don’t turn on the big light. She hates big light. Use the green reading lamp, that one’s perfect,” I continue, thinking what else.
“I’ll make all the food for her, I know what she likes,” I add.
And then it hits me.
“We need a doctor,” I blurt out. “Why the fuck didn’t I call a doctor yet? We need a normal doctor right now, and also—”
My throat tightens when the realization crashes in.
“We need a gynecologist. Immediately. She needs her pills. Her routine. And—” I stop, panic flooding in. “We didn’t take any of her stuff!”
We just pulled her out of that place.
Fuck.
“She needs her music, her notes, and her favorite clothes. What the fuck was I thinking?” I whip out. “Jesus, we—” I try to keep going, but the trembling cuts me off.
“Adrien, calm down,” Kiara cuts in gently, grounding me. “We’ll get her everything.”
“She likes to scribble,” I murmur, more to myself now. “All the time. I need to get her sketchbooks. Or notebooks. Or canvas.”
Deep breath.
“Okay,” I say finally, forcing steadiness into my voice. “I’ll arrange the doctors and everything else. You make sure she sleeps and drinks enough until then, okay?”
“Okay,” Kiara nods, and somehow, she’s wearing a half-smile.
“How can you smile right now?” I ask flatly.
She raises a brow. “Was Kasien also panicking like this when you idiots kidnapped me?”
My gaze drifts behind her, finding him standing there in the distance, on his phone, watching us but not really paying attention.
I let out a quiet huff. “You should’ve seen him.”
She smiles weakly.
“You can bring her back,” she says, nodding once.
I don’t know what to say anymore. My eyes water when I nod back.
“I will,” I croak out.
Even if I have to make her fall in love with me all over again.
I did it once. I can do it again.
“I’ll make sure she sleeps,” Kiara says quietly and then she slips back through the door, disappearing into the room behind it.
I stare at the door for a moment before I flip my phone out of my pocket and start on everything I have to arrange.