Chapter 12 – He’s Downstairs

The car went down into the basement.

I still had the bag on my lap. My phone was face down. I could feel it buzzing against my leg and I didn’t want to look.

Adrian parked and turned off the engine.

“This is it?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I didn’t get out at first.

My body was still back in that driveway. Damien being held. Bella screaming for her phone. That woman outside the gate recording us.

“If I go up there, it’d look like I chose you,” I said.

“You left him. That’s what it looks like. Stop worrying about what people has to say.”

“You know that’s not how people will tell it.”

He opened his door.

“People always talk. Damien is downstairs later if he wants to waste his time. He’s not coming up.”

I got out.

The garage was cold. Two of his men were already there. They didn’t speak to me. One took the bag. I almost told him to leave it, then let it go. My arms were tired.

We went into a private lift.

No music, Just the two of us and my reflection in the metal.

The lift opened.

Adrian unlocked a door and let me in first.

The place was big. Quiet. Dark floors. Wide windows. It didn’t look lived in. It looked like money sitting empty.

“This is not my house,” he said. “No one comes here unless I send them.”

“So I’m hidden.”

“You’re away from that psychopath you call a husband.”

I put my phone on the counter.

A phone call came in immediately. I looked at it and it was Damien.

I didn’t pick up.

Then a text.

“I’m downstairs.”

My stomach dropped.

Another one.

“Open the gate.”

Adrian read it over my shoulder.

He didn’t look surprised.

He took out his own phone.

“He’s here,” he said to someone. “Lobby. Make sure he doesn’t come up.  If he makes a scene, walk him out.”

He ended the call.

I stared at him.

“He’s actually here.”

“I told you he would come.”

“And you’re calm.”

“Yes.”

That calm made my chest tight. Damien used shouting but Adrian used a phone call and it was done.

I walked to the window. I couldn’t see the lobby from here. I could only see the city. Somewhere under all that glass, my husband was trying to get to me.

My phone rang again.

I picked up before I could stop myself.

“Sophia.” Damien’s voice was raw. “Come down.”

“Why should I??”

“You’re in his building. Do you hear yourself? You left our house with him in front of people.”

“You brought Bella into our house in front of me.”

“That’s different.”

“What makes them different?”

“Come down or I will make this worse.”

Adrian held out his hand.

I should have kept the phone.

I gave it to him.

“She’s not coming down,” Adrian said.

There was a pause.

“Put my wife on the phone.”

“I don’t I want to do that.”

“You think because you have money you can take her?”

“You had your chance,” Adrian said. “You used it on someone else. She’s not coming down. If you stay in my lobby, security will walk you out.”

“Fuck you,” Damien cursed.

Adrian ended the call and put the phone back on the counter.

The apartment went quiet.

Too quiet.

I sat on the edge of the sofa because my legs were done.

“I have no clothes,” I said. “The money is in his hands. I have no plans whatsoever and I just walked out like I was brave and now I’m sitting here.”

“You were brave.”

“I was angry.”

He took off his jacket and dropped it on a chair.

“You can be both.”

I looked at him.

Last night came back without me asking it to. His warm mouth. His hands. The way he made me come while Damien was on the phone. The way I rode him. The way I left that room like I could pretend it was nothing.

Now I was in his building.

“You said you wanted me in that bed tonight,” I said.

“I did.”

My heart dropped again.

I knew he was the best I had ever had. That wasn’t what scared me.

What scared me was how easy it would be to walk into that room and forget the picture, the driveway, the fact that I was still wearing a ring.

“I can’t just sleep with you because you got me out.”

“I didn’t ask you to pay me.”

“Then why say it?”

“Because I won’t lie to you.” He stood in front of me. “I want you. That is separate from why I came to your house.”

“It doesn’t feel separate.”

“It is.”

A knock hit the door.

I jumped.

Adrian didn’t.

He walked over and opened it.

One of his men stood there.

“He’s in the lobby. He’s making a scene and we want to remove him.”

“Remove him,” Adrian said.

The man nodded and left.

I stood up.

“They’re going to drag him out?”

“Yes.”

“That’s going to make more noise.”

“He made the noise. Not me.”

I pressed my hands to my face.

This morning I wanted to stop hiding.

Now the whole thing was bigger than I was ready for.

Adrian came back to me.

“Look at me.”

I did.

“You’re not going down there.”

I just kept staring at his eyes.

“Say it.”

“I’m not going down there.”

He nodded once.

Then his eyes dropped to my mouth.

The air changed.

Not like Damien grabbing me.

This was different because I wanted it.

“Don’t,” I whispered.

“Don’t what?”

“Look at me like that.”

“Like I already had you?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t step back.

“I did have you. You came on my fingers while he listened. You rode me. You left money on the table like that made it cheap.”

My face burned.

“I was scared.”

“I know.”

“I’m still scared.”

“I know that too.”

My phone buzzed on the counter.

I walked over.

It was a video.

Damien in the lobby. Security around him. He was shouting my name. People were watching. Someone was recording again.

I felt sick.

Adrian took the phone, watched two seconds, and turned it off.

“That’s enough.”

“It’s everywhere.”

“Yes.”

“So what am I now? The woman who left with you?”

“You’re the woman who decided to walk out in her cheating husband and terrible life.”

I laughed once. It sounded ugly.

“That’s not how they’ll write it.”

He put the phone face down.

“You can shower. There are clothes in the second room. Tonight you stay. Tomorrow you decide the rest.”

“And the bed?”

His eyes didn’t soften.

“That’s your decision. I already told you what I want.”

I stood there with my pulse in my throat.

Downstairs, my husband was being walked out of the building.

Up here, the man I spent one night with was waiting to see if I would go to him again.

I picked up the bag.

“I’m going to shower.”

“Alright.”

I stopped at the hallway.

“Adrian.”

He looked at me.

“If he gets up here—”

“He won’t.”

I went into the bathroom and locked the door.

The water was hot. I stood under it and tried to wash the driveway off my skin. It didn’t work. I could still hear Damien shouting. I could still hear Adrian telling him he had his chance.

When I came out, there was a shirt on the bed in the second room. Plain. Too big. I put it on.

My phone was still on the counter when I went back.

One new message but this time around it wasn’t from Damien. It was an unknown number.

Tell Vale I want a meeting. Tomorrow Or I take this to every board I know.

I turned the screen.

Adrian read it.

For the first time since we left the house, his face changed.

Not fear but Interest.

“He’s scared,” I said.

“Yes.”

“So what happens now?”

Adrian locked his phone.

“Now he learns he doesn’t give me orders.”

He looked at me again,with a slight smile.

“And you decide if you’re sleeping in that room… or mine.”