Chapter 11 - THE WOMAN HE COULD NOT BUY|
Adrian moved Elena to a secure apartment above one of his legitimate businesses.
She hated the arrangement immediately.
The apartment had floor-to-ceiling windows, a kitchen larger than her entire clinic break room, and a security guard positioned outside the elevator. Everything was expensive. Everything was controlled.
“This is a cage,” she told Adrian.
“It's a safe location.”
“Those are not the same thing.”
He stood near the window, his expression tired.
“Vincent knows you have the ledger. He knows you can identify the people connected to the payments.”
“Then let me go back to work.”
“I can't protect you if you're exposed.”
“You couldn't protect me ten years ago, either.”
The words struck him.
Elena regretted them almost immediately, but she refused to take them back.
Adrian looked down at his hands.
“I know.”
The quiet admission left her with nowhere to direct her anger.
She walked to the kitchen and filled a glass of water.
“Tell me about the last night you remember before you returned to your family.”
He was silent for a long time.
“I remember leaving your father's clinic. I was supposed to meet a contact who could help me expose Vincent. I didn't want you involved, so I told you I had to go.”
“You promised to return.”
“I believed I would.”
“What happened on the road?”
“A car blocked the bridge. My uncle's men came out. There was a gunshot. Then nothing.”
“And after that?”
“I woke in a private hospital. My mother told me I had been attacked by men working for a rival family. She said you had given them information.”
Elena leaned against the counter.
“Did you believe her?”
“I wanted to believe her. It was easier than accepting that I had failed to protect you.”
She looked at him sharply.
“That's not the same as believing her.”
“No. It isn't.”
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Adrian reached into his jacket and placed a small velvet box on the counter.
Elena's body went rigid.
“What is that?”
“A replacement ring.”
She stared at him.
“You think you can replace ten years with jewelry?”
“No.”
“Then why bring it?”
“Because I found it in my father's safe. It was meant for you.”
Elena did not touch the box.
Inside lay a simple gold band with a tiny engraved inscription.
Always find your way home.
Her throat tightened.
“That was your father's handwriting.”
Adrian nodded.
“He met you once, briefly, before I left the clinic. He told me that if I ever found someone who made me want to become a better man, I should stop running.”
Elena closed the box.
“I can't be the reason you become better.”
“You won't be.”
“Good.”
“You can be the reason I remember what I wanted to become.”
She looked at him, searching for manipulation.
There was none she could see.
“I am not ready to forgive you,” she said.
“I won't ask you to.”
“And if you ever lie to me again, I will walk away, even if it destroys you.”
Adrian nodded.
“That's fair.”
Elena returned the velvet box.
“Keep it for now.”
He accepted it without argument.
For the first time since their reunion, they stood in the same room without the past demanding an immediate answer.
It was not reconciliation.
May you like
It was a beginning neither of them trusted.
And somewhere beyond the apartment's guarded doors, Vincent Moretti was preparing to make sure it never became anything more.
