- - - - 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

This Chapter contains dark themes

- - - -

Adrian’s finger traced slowly down her spine, as cold as ice. His other hand stayed tight in her hair, forcing her to keep looking at her own reflection. He was stripping away more than just her clothes... he was stripping away the idea that she was untouchable. He was making her watch herself fall apart in the mirror.

As his grip tightened in her hair, Elara stopped seeing the room. Instead, she heard Relanie’s voice whispering in her head.

"Do you even know he had a sister? And if you do... do you know how she died?"

Elara’s eyes shifted in the mirror. She stopped looking at herself and locked onto Adrian’s reflection. She saw the sharp, cold lines of his face and those silver eyes that looked like frozen metal. She didn’t have to search for the monster Relanie had warned her about anymore. It was right there, holding her, its reflection mocking her from the glass.

"If you knew the truth, you would disappear from his life even if he offered you the whole city of Starfall."

A single tear slipped down her cheek. Before Adrian could say anything, she quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand. She didn’t sniffle or sob. She just erased the tear and clenched her jaw until it turned white.

Adrian didn’t speak. The silence grew heavier, broken only by their uneven breathing. He stared at the spot where the tear had been, his face changing into something dark and unreadable.

"Is this the part where you play the victim?" he rasped, his voice vibrating against her spine. "The part where you cry so I’ll be gentle?"

Elara let out a short, cold breath that was almost a laugh. She leaned her head back against his shoulder, exposing her throat even more, but her eyes burned with a sharp, mocking light.

"I’m not crying for me... Mr," she whispered, her voice stern enough to cut. "I was just wondering... if your sister looked like this before she died. Did she have to pay her debts to you too? Or was she the only one you didn’t know how to break?"

The atmosphere didn’t just change... It shattered completely.

Adrian’s face went completely pale. For a second, he looked less like a man and more like a predator that had been wounded. Then something inside him snapped.

He didn’t yell or argue. He moved with terrifying speed. He spun her around and pinned both of her wrists against the cold obsidian wall above her head. He pressed his body into hers so hard it knocked the air from her lungs.

"Don’t you ever," he said, his face inches from hers, his silver eyes burning with raw hatred, "speak of her with that mouth. You know nothing about her. You know nothing about me."

"I know enough to see you for what you are," Elara shot back, her heart pounding wildly even as she kept her mocking smile. "Relanie was right. You really don’t have a heart, do you?. You’re just a black hole. People go into your life and they never come back out."

Adrian’s expression turned truly monstrous... and completely without mercy.

"You want to know what happened to her?" he whispered, his hand sliding down her body. "Fine. If you’re so determined to walk into the dark, I’ll make sure you never find your way back out."

He lowered his head and bit her lower lip... not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to claim her completely.

"Since you want to talk about ghosts," he said against her mouth, "let’s see how long it takes for you to become one."

He didn’t give her time to breathe. He claimed her with a cold, desperate hunger that felt more like war than passion. Every touch felt like a brutal reminder that in this dark room, he was the only one in control.

When it was over, he didn’t pull away gently. He grabbed her arm with a grip like steel and dragged her toward the large bathtub. He reached out and twisted the handle.

Cold water roared into the tub.

"I heard you have thalassophobia," he whispered as he forced her to the edge of the rising water. "That’s good. It means this will be much faster."

He then pushed her in.

The shock of the ice cold water hit Elara like a slap. Her mind broke. The black tiles turned into a bottomless ocean. Her lungs seized and her throat closed. She was no longer in the villa... she was sinking into a dark, endless void where no light could reach.

She struggled wildly, her hands clawing at the slick stone, but Adrian leaned over her, his shadow blocking the dim ceiling lights.

"Lia was the only thing that belonged in that house," he said, staring at her through the water. His silver eyes looked haunted, filled with a self hatred so thick it was almost visible. "She was the only thing the Vales ever grew that wasn’t poisoned. And look at me... the rot that choked her out."

With a sudden burst of strength, Elara reached out of the water and clawed at his neck, her nails digging into his skin.

"Is this all you have?" she snarled, coughing out the water but refusing to look away.

Adrian didn’t flinch. He did not even pull away from her nails.

"I didn’t want her life," he continued, as if he couldn’t even feel her fingers tightening around his throat. "I just wanted to destroy the only beautiful thing in that house. But she fell... A long drop down a staircase. And do you want to know the best part?" He snorted coldly. "I was the one who gave her the push. That was all it took to prove that darkness always wins."

He grabbed the handheld sprayer, turned it on full blast, and aimed it directly at her face. Elara choked, her eyes wide with panic as she looked up at him hatefully through the water.

Suddenly, he dropped the sprayer which hit the floor with a dull thud. Without another word or a single look back, he stood up. His wet shirt clung to his frame as he walked out of the bathroom.

The front door of the villa slammed shut a moment later. Then came the sound of his car fading into the night.

Elara was left alone, shivering in the rising water, barely able to control her breathing.