Chapter 10
I stared at him.
Lily looked at me.
“Did Daddy make you sad?”
My throat closed.
Adrian answered before I could.
“Yes.”
“How sad?”
He looked directly at me.
“Very.”
Lily frowned at him with all the judgment a six-year-old could summon.
“That wasn’t nice.”
“No.”
“Did you say sorry?”
His eyes did not leave mine.
“Not well enough.”
Something dangerous moved inside my chest.
I stood.
“Bedtime.”
“It’s seven,” Noah protested.
“Travel bedtime.”
“That’s not a real thing.”
“It is today.”
After an extended negotiation involving cartoons, toothbrushes, and Lily insisting she was not tired while yawning four times, I finally got them settled.
When I returned to the sitting room, Adrian was standing by the window.
Chicago glittered behind him.
For years I had imagined this city as his.
Now I remembered why.
He fit into its sharp lines and cold lights as if someone had designed the skyline around him.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
He turned.
“About Vanessa?”
“About everything.”
He remained silent.
I walked closer.
“You left me in the rain for her.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
“You served me divorce papers the next morning.”
“I know.”
“You called our marriage a mistake.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying you know.”
His voice became quieter.
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.”
I laughed once without humor.
“Apparently Vanessa thinks I deserve it.”
Pain flickered across his face.
“You did deserve it.”
“Then give it to me.”
He looked toward the hallway where the twins were sleeping.
“When Vanessa called that night, she told me she thought she was dying.”
I said nothing.
“She had collapsed earlier that evening, and the doctors had found complications they hadn’t expected.”
“I knew she was sick.”
“I know.”
“You still left me on the ground.”
His eyes closed briefly.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I panicked.”
The answer was so simple that it enraged me.
“You panicked?”
“She had almost died once before when we were younger.”
“So you abandoned your wife?”
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
He did not defend himself.
That somehow made my anger worse.
“What happened at the hospital?”
“She survived.”
“And then?”
“I stayed until morning.”
I felt old humiliation burning under my skin.
“And she asked you to divorce me?”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“No.”
I blinked.
“What?”
“She never asked me to leave you.”
I stared at him.
“She told me to go home.”