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She rounded the corner into the side street and stopped.

Adrian caught up.

"Eliana — I know you're angry. I know I don't deserve a hearing. But I found out what Serena did. All of it. Every lie. I know the truth now, and I know what I cost you, and I —"

"I know." She looked at him. Her expression was quiet and entirely unmoved. "Good for you."

She held up her left hand. The ring caught the grey Edinburgh light.

"I'm married. You're aware of that. I respect marriage — I take it seriously — and I'm not the kind of person who walks away from it to go back to someone who's already shown me exactly who he is."

Adrian's face went a particular shade that she'd never seen on him before.

"I understand. I deserved that. I deserve every word." He swallowed. "But you didn't know him three months ago. You couldn't have. That's not —"

"That's not what?" Her voice was very calm. "A real marriage? A real choice?"

He reached for her hand and used it to hit his own face — hard, twice.

"Hit me. I mean it. Use every ounce of anger you have, and then just —"

She snatched her hand back. Her eyes were bright.

"That child is gone, Adrian." Her voice cracked, just once, on the word gone, and then it was steady again. "It doesn't matter how sorry you are. That's permanent. You can't buy back permanent."

He went still.

The full weight of it landed on him the way it never had before — not in all the weeks since he'd found out. He couldn't speak. His hands shook slightly at his sides.