Page 87 of Embracing the Dark Side

Jolie licked her lips, and with an anger clouding her thoughts, she bitterly said, “You look like your father.”

Adrik smirked, admiring her attempt to hurt him.

“What are you doing here?” She fisted her hands at her side. The sticky note crumbled in between her fingers.

Adrik stood, buttoning his jacket before tucking in the chair. It was meticulous, these movements—mannerisms that had been absent the last time she saw him. He was different. She could feel it, like the calm in the center of a hurricane.

Jolie dropped her gaze to the ground. She wasn’t going to fall for any charm. She wasn’t going to let him intimidate her or blind her. She knew he was like a siren to her, and listening to him would break all her restraint. She was stupid for coming, but it was too late to back away.

His feet came into view. Just inches from her. His cologne filled her senses, and her eyes fluttered closed as she inhaled.

Adrik leaned into her. He didn’t want to notice the dead look on her face or thedrab way she stood. These were things he could fix. He could bring the light back to her eventually. As someone that’s been raised on how to destroy, it would be interesting to learn how to revive. He didn’t know if his hands were made for anything more than violence. But he did know that when he touched her, he believed he could do amazing things.

“When I told you,” he whispered, “that I wanted to teach you bad things, that was never one of them.”

Jolie’s eyes lifted finally and found him. The admittance was the only kind of apology she would get. But to even come as close as that meant more to her than she realized. Tears ignited in her eyes. “You made me hurt him.” Her lips trembled, and she fought the sob in her throat.

Adrik’s brows knitted at her pain. It was a sound he could have gone his whole life without hearing. He slipped his hands into his pockets. Touching her was a privilege, one he would withhold until she allowed it. If she ever did. From the sound of her voice, a fear began to build up inside him. What if there was no recovery from this? What if she didn’t give him a chance to fix it?

When he came here, that hadn’t been a thought in his head, and now it was a blaring conclusion eating away at his confidence. How could he convince her to come back? What would it take to gain her love again?

Adrik removed an envelope from his coat pocket. He held it out to her.

“What’s this?” Jolie snatched it from him. She was aggravated by his lack of words, but she knew him. She knew how he typically got what he wanted with so little effort. He was the spoiled child of a billionaire family. Was there any common thing he ever struggled with? She didn’t ignore how hard he worked for his company, but a relationship wasdifferent.

Jolie pulled out a bunch of folded papers. There was nothing else for him to pay off. Did he really think money was the way to get through to her? Did he know her at all?

When she opened them, her knees nearly weakened. She fell back against the door, and tears dripped down her face without restraint. It was every drawing Helina had done, every flower they drew, and every letter they had written together. The scribbled letters of ‘BFF’ drawn in almost every picture warmed her after so many days of numbness. Jolie traced Helina in the drawing, sunlight reaching her even from a distance.

“You are the mother my daughter should have had.”

Jolie buried her face in the papers. She could still smell Helina underneath the rancid scent of rice and chicken, and Fabuloso.

“I’m going to get Helina back. But I have to go to Russia.” Adrik stepped toward Jolie, and against his better judgment, he rubbed his thumb against her cheek, wiping the wetness away before forcing Jolie to look at him by hooking a finger under her chin. “Come with me.”

Jolie dropped a fist on his chest, soft, and then harder the second time. There was anger in her still. She wanted to hurt him, yet at the same time, she wanted him to comfort her, to fix what he’d destroyed. “You broke my heart.”

Adrik rested his forehead against hers. “Then take mine.”

She closed her eyes, wishing she could block out his siren call, but it was too late. She was snagged, drowning, breathless. A chaste kiss brushed against her cheek, and then the corner of her lips. She felt him hover over her, his skin a whisper against hers.

Jolie turned her head at the last second. His hold on her not nearly as absolute as she thought. There was something disrupting the sound of his voice, interrupting his hypnotic talents. It was the sound of Vincent’s scream. It broke any connection. It severed whatever hope she had. There was no getting over it. There was no moving on.

“Jolie,” Adrik groaned against her ear, but she shook her head.

“I can’t.”

Adrik stepped back, his hands once more slipping into his pockets, his back straight and his emotions locked behind doors. It made sense that there would be no reconciliation. Happiness in his life was rare, fleeting, and a withering flame. Hers had gone out. There was no reigniting it.

Jolie looked pathetic, tears unashamedly dripping off her chin. She stared beyond him, not at him. It pissed him off, and he ground his teeth, feeling like an idiot for coming here. There was no time to convince her, and he wasn’t about to beg. All of this had been against his pride, and now he stood a fool in front of her.

“I can’t,” she whimpered again.

“Then go.” Every muscle clenched in his body, rebelling against such a statement. The ache in Adrik's gut told him to fight for her. The necklace burned against his skin, telling him he was an asshole for giving up. But he wasn’t going to force someone to be with him when they didn’t want to be. And no matter how much he wanted her; it was better this way. An American girlfriend would only sever alliances, and he was starting a war. Having her at his side would have been detrimental. She wasn’t worth somuch effort.

‘But if you don’t fight for her, I will.’Alexei’s voice repeated, and it almost encouraged Adrik to say something else, something better, something different. But his brother was dead, and there was no point.

“Go,” he said again.

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