Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
And for some reason, that realization melted away some of my fury.
“You don’t have to do this, you know?” I told him.
He sighed, a troublesome look sliding over his face. “I was told you barely ate anything today.”
It was just past midnight and I hadn’t been able to sleep.
Adrian had just arrived in my bedroom for his nightly visit, and had seen me still awake. I had been feeling hungry but didn’t want to eat, scared I wouldn’t be able to keep it down.
God, I hated throwing up.
And it was all I could do since I found out I was pregnant.
Morning sickness hadn’t been easy on me.
My husband didn’t like that I hadn’t been eating properly, so he brought me to the kitchen. Silently, he had put together a fruit plate for me before moving to the stove to make some eggs. He said I needed protein.
I looked down at the plate in front of me. All fresh fruits—apricots, grapes, and some red cherries. They did look tempting and maybe fruits wouldn’t make me throw up.
Something tightened in my chest, a dull pain shooting in my stomach before it was quickly gone. I didn’t even have the time to understand what it was.
I munched on a slice of apricot as the smell of warm eggs filled the kitchen. My nose wrinkled at the smell. I was sensitive to everything these days.
Adrian slid the eggs onto a plate before placing it in front of me, but I wrinkled my nose again. “I don’t think I can eat this.”
He doesn’t look disappointed. Instead, he leans against the counter, studying me with those piercing blue eyes. “Ask me anything you want.”
“What?”
“Ask me anything you want to know about me and I promise you, I won’t tell a single lie.”
That was very random.
And despite it, I was more curious than suspicious.
Was he finally opening up?
The walls around him had been too high, too solid, too icy to make my way through.
And if he was giving me a chance to peek past those walls, I wasn’t going to let the opportunity slide.
I rested my elbow on the counter, thoughtful.
What could I possibly ask a man like Adrian?
“Tell me something about you that no one knows,” I finally said after a moment of silence. “A secret. Something you’ve kept hidden in your heart for a long time.”
Adrian’s expression changed, the mask slipping for just a moment. A small glimpse of vulnerability clouded his eyes, looking almost wounded before it was gone.
“My father killed my mother,” he admitted quietly, his voice steady despite the weight of his words. “I watched it all happen. I watched how he suffocated her with a pillow and then tucked her in bed as if she wasn’t dead, as if she was just sleeping.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. My lips parted with a shocked gasp. “Adrian...”
He fed me a small piece of toast and eggs. I chewed instinctively.
“He didn’t know that I had seen him,” he continued, his voice devoid of any emotions. Almost like he was just recounting a stranger’s tale and not his own childhood. “After my father had left, I went into her room. I knew she was dead, but she was still warm when I touched her. I remembered she still smelled flowery and I almost convinced myself that she was still alive. I wanted to hold my mother, to sleep by her side. One last time.”
Shock hollowed me out from the inside, leaving behind a crushing wave of remorse so heavy it hurt to breathe.
I was still angry at Adrian, utterly furious, wounded, conflicted beyond reason—but suddenly, beneath all of that rage, something far more painful began to take root. Sympathy.
No… not sympathy.
Grief for the boy he had once been.
I couldn’t imagine young Adrian, only eight, small and helpless, standing there…watching his father steal the life from his mother with his own hands. Watching her struggle as she suffocated.
No child should ever witness something like that.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, my voice shaking.
“Don’t be.” His voice hardened slightly. “It made me who I am today. Life never promised us it would be pure and beautiful. We’re forced to make choices. And we become what we need to be to survive.”
I looked at him, truly seeing him for the first time. Not as the monster who has tormented me, but as a young boy shaped by unimaginable cruelty.
“It showed me what I needed to be in this world of ours. We weren’t normal people, Serafina. We lived in a world full of darkness and blood. Men doing unimaginable things for power and control.” I opened my mouth when he brought another piece of eggs to me and I chewed without really realizing what I was doing. “And with that power came obsession. And for every obsession, there were countless dead bodies in its path. At some point, we all become monsters.”