Chapter 12 - Adrian

It was a quiet night when I first found out. Too quiet. The kind of silence that gnaws at you, fills you with an uneasy feeling that something isn't right, but you can't put your finger on it. The betrayal was a whisper at first, a vague feeling that lingered in the air. But then the evidence, like a cold, hard slap to the face, arrived.

I had been so focused on controlling the empire my uncle and I had built, so obsessed with consolidating power, that I missed the signs—the small cracks forming in the people I trusted. And I trusted her. Seraphina.

My heart had been a fool. I had thought, no—believed—that what we had was real. That she had been mine, just as I had been hers. I had poured everything into her, body and soul. I had convinced myself that she was the one who could walk beside me in this twisted world I lived in. But when the truth hit me, it shattered everything.

The gold trade was my empire's lifeblood, and my uncle—ever the manipulator—had started to notice anomalies. Accounts were off. Transactions had gone wrong. There was a leak, and it wasn't just a simple mistake. This was someone feeding information, sabotaging everything I had worked for.

But when I found out who the betrayer was—when the truth finally hit me—it was like the ground shifted beneath me, and I couldn't breathe.

Seraphina.

She was the one who had leaked the information to her father. The very woman I had trusted, the one I had given everything to, had played me like a fool. She had taken what I confided in her, what I shared with her in good faith, and turned it into a weapon against me.

I stood there in the darkness, my mind spiraling. How could she? How could she do this to me? The woman I had loved, the one I had believed was my ally in a world full of enemies, had sold me out. She knew what the consequences would be. She knew how much I depended on those transactions.

It didn't make sense. None of it did. And yet, there it was. She was the traitor. My heart twisted with anger, with betrayal so deep it felt like a physical wound. The love I thought we had—everything I thought we shared—was a lie. She had played me from the very beginning, using her beauty, her charm, to worm her way into my world, into my heart, only to tear it all down for her father's gain.

The truth hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn't want to believe it. I couldn't—she was the betrayer? The woman I had trusted with everything, the one I thought was mine, had been working against me all along?

But when I found out, it wasn't just a suspicion anymore. The evidence was too real to ignore, too solid. She had betrayed me. Her—Seraphina. The woman I had loved.

I had to confront her. I couldn't let her go without an explanation, without hearing her side. I wanted to understand. I wanted to look her in the eyes, ask her why, and hear what she had to say. I wanted to believe there was some other reason for this, something that would make it all make sense.

But when I arrived, everything shifted. My uncle was there, waiting.

He leaned in close and whispered in my ear, words that made my blood run cold: "There's a sniper already lined up. If you don't deal with her now, he'll put a bullet in her head. Your choice, Adrian."

My world shifted in an instant.

I couldn't let her die—not like this, not because of some mistake I had made. I couldn't bear the thought of her being taken from me, especially not by someone else's hand. But I knew what I had to do. If I didn't act, someone else would, and she would be gone for good.

I wanted to scream, to fight against it, but I had no choice. The sniper's crosshairs were already set on her, and if I didn't stop it, if I didn't take control of the situation, she would be gone.

I turned to her. The woman I had loved, the woman who had once been mine, stood there in front of me. But she wasn't the same. She wasn't the girl I had fallen for. I could see the betrayal in her eyes, but still, a part of me wanted to understand. I wanted to hear her side.

But there was no time. My uncle's words were still ringing in my ears. The decision was made for me.

I had no intention of killing her. I couldn't. So, I aimed for her right shoulder, the least fatal spot I could manage. A way to stop her without taking her life, without killing her outright.

I shot her.

Her body jerked with the impact, and her face twisted in pain and shock. She didn't even have a chance to speak before I turned away, feeling a gnawing emptiness inside me.

I signaled to Nick, silently telling him to take care of her. I couldn't stay—not like this. Not when I had just shattered everything between us.

As I walked away, guilt seeped into my veins like poison. She had been my everything, and now I had taken that from her. All because of a decision that wasn't mine alone.

But it didn't matter now. I had made my choice, and in doing so, I had lost her forever.

The past was never far from me, no matter how hard I tried to push it away. Every time I looked at Seraphina, I saw it. I saw the pain I had caused her, the scar I had left on her soul, and I couldn't escape it.

The weight of that day—seven years ago—still hung over me like a shadow, threatening to swallow me whole. The decision I made haunted me every damn day. I had shot her. I had hurt the woman I loved more than anyone else, and I had done it because I was too weak to listen to her, too consumed by my uncle's threats to see the truth. I never gave her a chance to explain. I just did it.

And now here I was, standing in front of her once again, a ghost of what could have been.

She didn't know I had found out. She didn't know that I had learned the truth—that she was the one who had betrayed me. She didn't know that every ounce of rage I had for her was also laced with sorrow, with regret, and with the ever-present sting of the past.

I watched her now, every movement of hers like a pull on my chest, like I was being dragged back into the same damn storm I couldn't escape. Her beauty, her strength, her goddamn stubbornness—it was all still there. And every time she looked at me, it was as if the world collapsed on itself.

She didn't want me anymore. I knew that. But I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop chasing her. Even after everything. Even after I had pushed her away with that bullet, I was still here—still trying to find a way back to her.

I wasn't sure if I even deserved to be.

"Why now?" I muttered under my breath. It was a question I had no answer to. I had pushed her into this world, forced her into a life she didn't want, and now, I had to face the consequences of my choices.

But looking at her, even after all this time, I knew one thing for sure: I couldn't let go.

And no matter how much I hated myself for it, I wasn't going to walk away again. Not this time.

I stood at the doorway, watching her as she slept. The soft rise and fall of her chest, the peaceful expression on her face—she looked so vulnerable, so unlike the fierce woman I had known. She had always been a force to be reckoned with, a woman who had never let anyone see her weakness.

But now, in the quiet of the night, she was just Seraphina. My Seraphina.

The guilt gnawed at me. I had caused this—her distance, her walls. I had shot her without giving her a chance to explain. I had shattered her trust in me, and for what? A choice I didn't even want to make, but was forced into by my uncle. If I could turn back time, if I could go back to that moment and choose differently, I would have. I would have listened to her. I would have saved us both from the heartache we'd endured for so long.

But I couldn't change the past.

I stepped closer, careful not to disturb her. Her face was calm, relaxed, as if she didn't have a care in the world. I envied that. I wished I could forget everything that had happened between us, but I knew I couldn't. I wasn't sure she ever would either.

I reached out, my fingers brushing a lock of hair from her face. The touch was soft, tentative, as if I was afraid she would wake up and see the man I had become—the man who had hurt her, the man who couldn't undo his mistakes.

I longed to take away her pain, to make her see that I had never stopped loving her. But I knew the distance between us was more than just physical. It was emotional, it was deep, and it was my fault.

For a moment, I just stood there, silently watching her. I didn't know if I would ever get the chance to make things right. But as I looked at her sleeping so peacefully, I knew one thing: I wasn't giving up. Not this time.

"I'll make this right, Seraphina," I whispered softly, my voice barely audible. "I swear I will."

And with that, I turned away, leaving her to sleep, knowing that this was just the beginning of a long, uncertain road ahead. But for the first time in a long time, I felt the faintest glimmer of hope that I could fix what I had broken.