Lahat ng Kabanata ng His accidental husband: Kabanata 201 - Kabanata 210

ADRIAN HALE POVI thought I would feel ready.I wasn’t.Not even close.My legs felt too light and too heavy at the same time as Damien led me down the hallway, his hand wrapped firmly around mine. He didn’t speak. He didn’t have to. His thumb stroked the back of my hand in slow, grounding circles, the only thing keeping me from turning around and running again.Like every sound was slicing into my head.We turned the corner toward the living room, and I froze the moment I saw her.My mother.Alive.Sitting quietly on Damien’s couch like a ghost that hadn’t realized she didn’t belong to the living.Her eyes snapped up the second she sensed us.My breath caught in my throat.She stood.And for the first time, I saw everything.Not the woman I remembered through the rose-tinted lens of childhood.Not the perfect mother I’d built in my head to survive the grief.Not the villain in my darkest nightmares.Just… a woman who looked older than she should, thinner than she should, tired in a

DAMIEN CROSS POVI didn’t realize how tightly I was holding Adrian until Leon pulled me aside with one sharp, quiet sentence:“Damien… his mother wants to speak with you. Alone.”I didn’t let go of Adrian immediately.My arms stayed around him, protective, stubborn, terrified he would fall apart again if I released him.He exhaled shakily against my chest.“Go,” he whispered, voice small. “I’m okay. I just… I need a minute.”I didn’t trust that.But I trusted him.So I nodded, brushed a hand down his back, and stood up slowly.“I’ll be in the next room,” I said. “If you need even one second of me, call. I’ll hear you.”He nodded, avoiding my eyes because he knew that if he looked at me, I’d stay.I forced my legs to move to walk into the living room where the woman who turned Adrian’s life upside down waited.His mother.The woman he mourned for years.The woman I had unknowingly stolen from him because of my father’s sins.She stood when I entered.And I hated how she looked at me

DAMIEN CROSS POVAdrian finally fell asleep.Not peacefully.Not fully.His breathing was uneven, the kind that came from crying until his body gave up. His fingers were still curled in the fabric of my shirt like he was afraid I’d vanish if he let go.I didn’t move him.I just lay there with him on my chest, staring at the ceiling while everything inside me boiled.I had never felt rage like this.Not even toward my father.Because this time it wasn’t about me.This time it was Adrian.And there was something about watching someone you love collapse in your arms that changes the way you understand anger.It stops being angry.It becomes a purpose.I slipped one arm out from under him carefully and pulled the blanket higher around his body. He didn’t stir, just made a small sound in his sleep, like his nightmares were waiting just behind his eyelids.I brushed my thumb along his hair.“I’m going to fix this,” I whispered. “I promise.”Quietly, I slid out from under him and stood from

DAMIEN CROSS POVAdrian fell asleep on my chest sometime by 3am.His breathing had finally evened out. His fingers were curled loosely in the fabric of my shirt, like he needed the anchor even in sleep. His legs were tangled with mine, warm, familiar, grounding.I lay there in the dark, holding him, unable to close my eyes.Not after the night he’d had.Not after watching him break apart in front of his mother.Not after seeing the exact moment the weight of his past finally crashed into him.I brushed my thumb along the back of his shoulder. His skin was warm, smooth, and still carrying the tension he’d tried to swallow.God.He looked peaceful now, but it wasn’t real peace. It was exhausting. The kind that comes after your world rips open and you’re too tired to fight the bleeding anymore.I pressed a kiss to his hair light, careful, more reverent than I meant it to be.I didn’t know how long I’d get to keep moments like this.But I knew one thing with terrifying clarity:Whoever wa

DAMIEN CROSS POV Adrian was still in my arms when I made the decision.Not the cautious kind.I wasn’t leaving him in this apartment another second.Not after hearing Leon say his grandfather wanted him dead.Not after seeing the way Adrian had shaken when he said, “So I’m a target again.”It replayed in my head like a knife scraping bone.He was trying to act strong.But when he leaned into me when he let himself breathe against my chest his fingers trembled just enough for me to feel it.He thought I didn’t notice.But I notice everything about him.“Adrian,” I murmured, running a hand down his back. “We need to go.”He stiffened slightly. “Go? Where?”“Somewhere safer.”He lifted his head, meeting my eyes with tired, red-rimmed ones. “Damien, I’m not running.”“I’m not asking you to run.”I cupped his jaw gently. “I’m asking you to let me keep you alive.”His breath hitched.Leon cleared his throat behind us. “He’s right, Adrian. Staying here is no longer an option.”Adrian swal