Page 140 of Shattered By Grace

Her chest tightened, her voice shaking with fury. “You… You betrayed me. Why? All this fucking time, how long were you in on it?”

Adams’ face remained stoic, but his silence was deafening. It only made her blood boil harder. She had trusted him, relied on him. He had been her lifeline. Now, she saw him for what he really was. A tool. Another piece in the machine she’d been trying to destroy.

Her fists tightened, nails biting into her palms. “I can’t believe this… I can’t believe you. I’ve been fighting, hiding, running for my fucking life, and you’ve been playing me this whole time.”

“I never wanted this to happen, Victoria.” His words felt rehearsed, the weight of them not matching the softness of his tone. “You don’t understand what it’s like on the other side.”

Her voice faltered as the anger that had burned bright began to dim, replaced by a cold emptiness. Betrayal. The bitter realization sank in like a stone in her chest.

“What the hell did they promise you?” she whispered, the weight of the question almost too much to bear. “What did they offer you in exchange for your soul?”

Adams’ jaw tightened, his eyes flicking away. But his silence was louder than anything he could have said. He took a step back, distancing himself from her.

The heat in Victoria’s chest roared back to life, an inferno of rage. “The silence is absolutely fucking loud, Adams,” she hissed, her voice dripping with venom. “You can’t even look me in the eye anymore.” Her head spun, anger and confusion twisting like a knife. She had trusted him, had let her guard down, and now everything felt like a lie. “You wanted me here, didn’t you?” she spat. “You wanted me to walk right into their trap. All this time, you wanted me to get close, to trust you, to fail.”

Adams didn’t move. His eyes flitted to the side, guilt flickering briefly before it was masked by indifference.

Victoria’s eyes narrowed with renewed fury. “How long, Adams?” Her voice was low but dangerous, each syllable carrying the weight of a verdict. “How long have you been working with them? How many lives have you ruined for your own gain?”

The six-foot-tall detective looked more like a reprimanded juvenile than a man of the law, and the irony was almost comical. His gaze flickered away, unable to meet her eyes.

Victoria stood firm, letting the silence stretch between them, unrelenting and suffocating. Her heart pounded, but she didn’t falter. No more games. No more lies.

Her voice came quiet, each word deliberate. “How many people did you let die just to protect your fucking position?”

Adams flinched. He looked wrecked, like a man cornered with no way out.

“I never wanted to hurt anyone but I had to protect myself,” his voice wavered. “Cassian found me. Showed up at my house. He didn’t offer money. He offered to not kill my son if I made sure you would show up at the Reaping.”

Victoria’s stomach twisted, rage and disbelief colliding in her chest.

Adams started pacing, his movements frantic. “Cassian held a gun to my three-year-old son’s head, Victoria. A fucking gun.” He dragged a hand down his face, fingers pressing against his temple as if trying to hold himself together. “That fucks a man up. I will do anything to protect my family. They will always come first.”

The confession sat between them like a ticking bomb. Victoria exhaled, her breath shaky.

“So, you told Cassian about Taylor,” she said, her voice deadly calm. “You knew I would come if she was in danger.”

Adams hesitated. “Yes. Justin offered to be her date and bring her.”

The fury in her was too much. She grabbed his jacket and shoved him against the nearest wall, her breathing ragged. She looked him dead in the eyes, and all she saw was a weak man, albeit one who understood what it meant to protect family.

“FUCK!” she screamed, her fist slamming into the wall beside his head.

The confirmation felt like a bullet to her ribs.

Fuck. She ripped the mask from her face, the weight of the truth suffocating.

“I tried to tell you how dangerous they were,” Adams muttered, shoulders sagging. “They have a reach that even I underestimated.”

Victoria clenched her jaw, swallowing the bitterness rising in her throat as she turned away from him. “You didn’t just underestimate them,” she said, voice shaking with barely contained fury. “You handed me to them on a silver fucking platter.”

Adams swallowed hard, his face drawn. “I thought I could control it.”

Victoria let out a humorless laugh. “Well, congratulations, Detective. You just became the very thing you swore to fight against.”

She turned away, her mind spinning. Taylor was still out there, and she had wasted too much time already.

“I’m going after her,” she said, steel in her voice.

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