Chapter 10 - The Price of Arrogance
"Look at me!"
Adrian grabbed Sophia’s wrist the moment she stepped out onto the secluded terrace overlooking Central Park, dragging her into the shadows between the marble pillars.
Sophia did not flinch. She did not cry out. She simply turned her head and looked down at his hand gripping her skin.
"Release me, Adrian," she said quietly. "Or Julian Thorne’s security team will shoot you in the back of the head, and I won't bother asking them to miss your spine."
Adrian’s breath came in ragged gasps. He released her wrist, but stepped closer, trapping her against the stone balustrade. The smell of cold air, rain, and her jasmine perfume overwhelmed his senses, driving him half-mad with a desperate, suffocating longing he had never known he possessed.
"Why?" Adrian choked out, his voice raw. "You had everything. I gave you my name! I gave you this entire world!"
"You gave me a cell, Adrian," she said, looking straight into his tormented eyes without a trace of fear. "You gave me your insults. You stood by while your sister treated me like dirt, and when I dared to speak with dignity, you told me I was the shame of your name."
"I was angry!" Adrian pleaded, his hands reaching out to cup her face, though he didn't dare touch her. "I was an arrogant fool, Sophia! I didn't know... I didn't see what you were doing for me, for the family!"
"No, you didn't," she agreed softly. "You only see value in things that bleed or shout. You never noticed that the tea I brewed kept your migraines away. You never noticed that the ledgers I balanced saved you twelve million in federal penalties. You never noticed that I loved you, Adrian."
The past tense hit him like a physical blow. Adrian staggered back half a step, his chest heaving. "Loved? No. Sophia, please. Come home. We’ll throw Isabella out. I will put your name on every deed in the five boroughs. I will kneel in front of the entire council and beg your forgiveness."
A bittersweet, melancholy smile touched her red lips.
"It's too late, Adrian," she murmured. "A woman only leaves once. And when she does, the house she left behind doesn't exist anymore."
Before Adrian could speak, a red laser dot danced across Sophia’s chest.
Adrian’s instincts took over in a microsecond.
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"Down!" he roared, lunging forward and wrapping his entire body around hers as the glass doors behind them exploded in a hail of suppressed automatic gunfire.
***
