Chapter 7 - The Unmasking
The heavy wooden door creaked open.
Adrian stood on the threshold, soaked to the bone. Rain dripped from his dark hair into his eyes. His clothes were torn, his hands were covered in cuts and dried blood from his frantic journey, and his face was pale, hollow, and streaked with a mixture of rain and tears.
He looked completely stripped of his armor. No Don. No mob boss. No king of Chicago.
Just a broken man standing in the rain.
His eyes locked onto mine, and for a long, agonizing second, the storm around us disappeared into utter silence.
Then, his gaze drifted down to my waist.
He saw the small, distinct curve beneath my sweater.
Adrian dropped to his knees right there on the wet wooden porch floor. A ragged, agonizing sob tore out of his chest, and he covered his face with his blood-stained hands, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
"I'm sorry..." he wept, his voice choked with pure, unadulterated agony. "I'm so sorry, El... I'm so sorry..."
I stood inside the doorway, holding my blanket tight around my shoulders, looking down at the man who had once been my entire world.
"Get up, Adrian," I said softly.
He slowly pulled his hands away from his face, looking up at me with red, desperate eyes. "I didn't forget... I swear to God, El, I didn't forget the promise. I was lost... I was so damn lost in the blood and the money... I let the darkness take me."
"You didn't just let it take you, Adrian," I said, stepping back into the warm living room, allowing him to crawl inside out of the storm. "You built a home in it. You invited another woman into our life while I sat alone at home, waiting for a husband who didn't exist anymore."
Adrian pushed himself off the floor, stumbling into the cabin. He stopped ten feet away from me, afraid to step any closer, his hands hovering in the air as if reaching for a ghost.
"Vanessa meant nothing to me," Adrian pleaded, tears streaming down his wet cheeks. "It was noise, El! It was empty, meaningless garbage to drown out the monster I was becoming! The moment I realized you were gone... the moment I saw that empty closet... I realized I had traded the only real thing in my life for dirt!"
"It wasn't just Vanessa, Adrian," I said, my voice steady, filled with a deep, quiet sadness. "Vanessa was just the final nail in the coffin. I left because you stopped looking at me. I left because I realized that if our child grew up in that mansion in Chicago, they would learn to become a monster just like you."
Adrian flinched as if I had shot him in the chest. He looked at my stomach again, his chest heaving.
"A baby..." he whispered, his voice cracking. "Our baby..."
May you like
"My baby," I corrected gently. "I divorced you three weeks ago, Adrian. Legally, financially, and emotionally... I am free of you."
"Please," Adrian fell to his knees again, reaching across the hardwood floor, his fingers barely touching the hem of my blanket. "Don't take them away from me, El. Take everything else. Take the money, take the estate, burn Chicago to the ground... but don't leave me in the dark without you. Give me one chance to be a father. Give me one chance to be your husband again."
