Page 97 of Sapphire Tears

He nods. “Yes, I found her. A few years ago.”

“But you kept coming and going. Why didn’t you just break her out of the place the moment you knew where she was?”

His eyes betray some surprise. Clearly, I know more than he anticipated. “Because it’s not so easy to steal a prostitute from right under the nose of her owners, June. I had to be smart. I had to make them think that I was… well, using her. Then, when they least expected it, I got her out of there.”

So far at least, his story hasn’t diverged from Kolya’s reports.

“Okay. And then what?”

Even I’m surprised by the vitriol in my voice. With Kolya, wasn’t I the one begging to give Adrian the benefit of the doubt? And now, he’s here in front of me, asking for it, and I can’t bring myself to hand it over. I can’t bring myself to be led astray again.

“I set her up in a nice, quiet apartment far from the city,” he explains, his eyes dimming out a little. It’s the first time he looks truly sincere to me. “I wanted her last few months to be… peaceful.”

“She was sick,” I breathe out, feeling the sadness settle in my gut.

“Breast cancer,” Adrian confirms, looking down at his feet. “By the time I found her, it had already spread so far that there was no way treatment would have made a difference. All I could do was make the end of her life as comfortable as possible.”

“And what did you tell her when she asked about Kolya?”

He stiffens. The grief in his eyes dulls, to be replaced with anger. “Jesus Christ, June. It sounds like you’re saying—”

“Yeah, I am. Answer the question, Adrian.”

His eyes go wide. Then they narrow slowly. “I told her the truth,” he hisses. It’s the first time he sounds like the Adrian I knew. The one the alcohol always revealed him to be. The one whose ring cut my face open the night he died. “She’d heard that Kolya was don now, and she wanted to know what kind of man he’d become.”

“Adrian—”

“So I told her that her son was responsible for funding the very same ring she was sold into. That he was in the business of buying and selling young women. That he was our father reincarnated.”

“That’s—”

He cuts me off before I can even get to the second word. “Just because you don’t want to accept the truth doesn’t change the fact that it is the truth. My mother believed me, so why the fuck can’t you?”

My jaw feels tight, my body numb. “Why couldn’t you have just told her what she wanted to hear?” I whisper. “Why couldn’t you have just let her die in peace, with a clear mind?”

His eyelid twitches with hidden tension. “She needed to know the truth about her son.”

“Did she?” I challenge. “Or did you, for once in your life, want to feel like the superior brother?”

“Is that really what you think of me?” he asks quietly. Geneva is still as a statue and every bit as silent. We’re in so far over her head.

“My opinion of you is based on what you showed me throughout our relationship. Except that I was too damn stupid to see it. Because back then, I thought love meant looking the other way. I thought love meant making excuses for the other person.”

“It does, baby,” he says, moving forward and grabbing my hands. “It does. You made excuses for me, and I made excuses for you.” Then he lets them drop. “You weren’t always easy, you know. The months after The Accident were hard.”

“I had just lost my career and my child!”

“So had I,” he fires back. “I was hurting, too.”

I turn away from both of them. Geneva drops down on the arm of her sofa and looks between the two of us with obvious regret. I have no idea what she’s thinking, and to be honest, I don’t really care.

“June,” Adrian says, his voice rippling with need, “please. We’ve been through a lot, but that’s expected for a couple who’ve been together as long as we have. That’s what love is. It’s messy. And painful. And hard.” I feel his presence behind me, but I don’t turn. “I’ve always loved you and I’ll never stop. We’re going to have a little girl. Don’t you want her to have two parents?”

“I want her to be happy,” I say softly. “And that means making the hard choices.”

Then I head towards the door.

“June, wait!” Geneva says, jerking upright to her feet.

---