Chapter 6

"Claire. I was wrong."

Adrian's voice cracked.

"I was out of my mind. Vivienne twisted everything—I was fooled—I treated you like—"

"Come back to me. Please. I can't—"

"I know I owe you. The cellar. The gala. I know."

"Hit me. Scream at me. Whatever you need. Just come back."

"The Blackwood estate. Every share. I'll put all of it in your name—"

"Stop."

I cut in, soft. I got to my feet, slow.

"Adrian. I gave you chances."

"You threw them away. You're the one who kept pushing me back into the dark."

"Three nights before the wedding. I heard every word you said to your friend. You designed what happened three years ago. You did that. For Vivienne."

I pressed a hand to my chest. My eyes stung.

"I thought you were my salvation. You were just the hand that pushed me off."

"That's why it hurts here."

I swallowed the tears back and looked out at the snow.

"Whatever we were—it's done."

Adrian went to his knees. He was shaking so hard he blurred.

"No—no—"

He tried to speak. His mouth opened and nothing came out.

He reached for the hem of my dress. I stepped aside.

The light in his eyes went out.

"No—Claire—you can't do this—"

"I'm a monster. I'm not human—"

"But we—we had something—you said forever—"

I leaned down. I looked into his empty eyes.

"Adrian. No woman alive loves a monster."

It hit him like a slap.

His lips moved. Nothing came out.

Lucian gave his men a small nod. They lifted Adrian to his feet and dragged him out.

He screamed the whole way.

"Claire! Give me one more chance! I'm begging you!"

"Come back and I'll accept any punishment—"

I closed my eyes and turned my back on him.

His voice got smaller. The front door shut. The sound cut off.

I'd expected silence from him after that. Instead he tried everything.

He started doing the small things he used to do when we were in love.

The things that would have made me cry from joy once. Now they made me want to throw up.

A month passed. He didn't stop. Meanwhile Lucian had finished lining up every piece.

I called Adrian to a meeting.

When he saw me his dead eyes flickered.

When he saw Lucian next to me, the flicker died.

He started to speak. Lucian silenced him with a hand.

Lucian slid a divorce agreement across the table. Then a thick file.

"Sign it."

Adrian tried to hold his posture. He pushed the agreement away.

"Why should I?"

"I'll die before I sign that!"

"No one loves Claire more than I do! I'd give her my life!"

Lucian smiled. Not kindly.

"You only offer people your leftovers."

He tapped the file.

"The evidence that you designed the attack on Claire. That you covered for Vivienne. That you kept the original footage."

"And documentation of every line of Blackwood Group business that crossed into fraud."

"Two options. Sign the divorce and take these to the police yourself."

"Or I put Blackwood Group on the evening news. And three generations of Blackwoods walk the earth in shame."

He walked around and leaned down to Adrian. The warmth drained out of his eyes.

"You still have a family, don't you? Happy to watch them live on the street?"

"Take your time. If I hand this to the police, you don't come back from it."

Adrian's eyes moved over the evidence. His blood went cold.

His hand shook. He couldn't make himself pick up the pen. He just looked at me. Red-rimmed.

Right then Blackwood Group's share price collapsed.

Inside the company, it was chaos.

Then a call came. His father had collapsed and been rushed to the hospital.

Lucian looked at him, flat.

"Well? Still holding out?"

Adrian hesitated a long time. Then, finally, he signed.

"Lucian. You're ruthless. But I'm not giving Claire up."

His phone started ringing frantically.

He fumbled it up. On the other end Vivienne was screeching and a man was roaring over her.

"Adrian! You got this bitch pregnant! You come get her!"

It was Marcus Whitmore. Vivienne's husband.

After he'd heard she was pregnant, he'd bitten his tongue for a few days—for the Blackwood name.

But now that Blackwood was falling? Now that she was damaged goods?

He'd beaten her, packed her up, and thrown her out into the street.

Adrian ended the call. He tried again.

"Claire. Me and Vivienne—it wasn't—"

"Out."

I cut him off. My voice was cold. Disgust bled into it.

"I don't want the ugliness in your life anywhere near my ears."

He tried to say something. The security team hauled him out of the house.

The rest of it came back to me through Lucian.

Vivienne found Adrian. She was in tatters. Her face was bruised.

She grabbed onto him like he was the last boat in a storm and cried, demanding he take responsibility.

He looked at her and he thought about Claire in that cellar.

Three years of buried fury rose up. He lost control. He hit her.

In the scuffle, she fell. Blood poured between her legs.

The baby was gone.

And with it, Adrian's last way out.

They turned on each other like dogs. Every disgusting thing came out.

She called him spineless. He called her poison.

The police arrived and took them both.

Adrian didn't struggle this time.

He picked up the file Lucian had thrown at him and handed it to the officers himself.

I walked to the window. Snow fell thick across the garden.

All that old darkness seemed to be disappearing under the white.

I didn't know what Lucian and I would become.

Maybe I'd learn to let someone in again.

Maybe I'd take my grandmother somewhere small and quiet and live a plain life.

It didn't matter.

What mattered was that the nightmare was over. Three years of it.

I had a long road ahead of me. I was going to walk it.

I was going to bury the rest of it under this snow and never say its name again.

— END —