Adrian
I hadn’t meant to follow her into the building. I’d only meant to watch from the shadows, gather proof, understand what danger she was walking into.
But when I saw her silhouette disappear deeper into the warehouse, my instincts overpowered reason. My legs carried me forward of their own accord, my pulse hammering violently, breath sharp in my throat. Whatever this was—whoever she was meeting—it was not benign. And if she wouldn’t protect herself, then I would do it for her.
The interior swallowed me in cold, stale darkness, lit only by the soft golden lamp flickering somewhere ahead. I moved quickly, silently, heart pounding with a mixture of dread and determination.
Then I heard voices—faint but unmistakable—Serafina’s tremulous whisper and a man’s deeper, anguished tone. Matteo. The shock of recognizing his voice nearly knocked the air out of me. I felt the breath leave my lungs in a brutal, disbelieving rush.
But shock gave way to fire.
I moved toward the sound, every step heavier, sharper, fueled by a sensation I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in years—jealousy. Bitter, searing jealousy. I told myself I was imagining things. That I had misheard. That the dim acoustics of the warehouse were playing tricks on me.
Until I rounded the corner and saw them.
Serafina.
In Matteo’s arms.
Face uncovered.
Tears shimmering on her cheeks.
And Matteo—Matteo fucking Verrelli—cupping her face with trembling reverence, staring at her like he’d just found salvation in human form.
My legs stopped moving.
My heart stopped beating.
The world stopped breathing.
Time fractured.
And then the shattering began.
“No,” I whispered, the sound cracked and barely human, but loud enough that both their heads snapped toward me.
Serafina froze, terror washing through her features so quickly it made my stomach twist. Matteo’s expression shifted from shock to something darker—something protective, something territorial, something infuriating.
I couldn’t move at first. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t even breathe properly. My entire body felt hollow, like my bones had been carved out and filled with ice.
Serafina took one step back from Matteo, her lips parting, voice trembling. “Adrian—”
But the sound of my name on her mouth, in this place, in his presence, made something inside me snap.
“What the hell is this?” I demanded, the words barely controlled. “What am I looking at right now?”
Her breath hitched. “Adrian, please—listen—”
“To what?” I stepped closer, rage rising like a tidal wave threatening to drown everything in its path. “To you and Matteo meeting in abandoned buildings? To you holding him like—like this?” My voice broke in the middle, the betrayal too sharp to hide. “Your face is uncovered. Your face, Serafina. You didn’t hide from him.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I can explain.”
“No,” I said, laughless and hollow. “No, I don’t think you can.”
Matteo stepped forward, placing himself half in front of her, bracing as though I were the threat. “Adrian,” he said carefully, voice steady but charged with caution, “you need to calm down.”
“Calm down?” I repeated, laughter shaking uncontrollably through me. “You want me to calm down while you’re holding my wife?”
Matteo’s jaw tensed. “She’s not in danger.”
“Oh, I can see that,” I spat. “She’s not in danger—she’s in love.”
Serafina flinched violently, a sob catching in her throat. “Adrian—don’t—”
I turned on her, the heartbreak slicing through my anger with ferocity. “How long?” I whispered harshly. “How long have you been meeting him behind my back?”
She shook her head, tears falling. “It’s not what you think.”
“Oh, it’s exactly what I think,” I said, voice rising. “You disappear at night, you jump when your phone buzzes, you lie to my face—and now I find you in the arms of the man who broke you, the man you swore you’d never return to, the man you—”
My throat closed around the words.
Matteo stepped closer, eyes burning. “Enough.”
“Don’t tell me enough,” I snapped, stepping toward him. “Don’t you dare tell me anything.”
Serafina reached between us, palms raised as if trying to hold together two collapsing worlds. “Please, both of you—stop.”
But Matteo didn’t move. “You don’t get to talk to her like that.”
I blinked at him, disbelief giving way to something poisonous. “I don’t get to—? She’s my wife.”
“Then treat her like it,” he growled.
The words hit me like a blow.
My voice turned lethal. “You don’t get to pretend you’re some savior. You don’t get to rewrite history. You don’t get to step into her life again like you didn’t tear it apart the first time.”
He stepped closer, anger radiating from him. “And you don’t get to pretend you haven’t been hurting her now.”
Serafina gasped. “Stop it! This isn’t—this isn’t about—”
“It is,” Matteo said, turning to her with something achingly tender in his eyes. “You deserve someone who sees you. Who hears you. Who doesn’t close you out.”
My jaw clenched so hard it ached. “And you think that’s you?”
He met my gaze without flinching. “I think it used to be. And I think it could be again.”
Serafina shook her head violently, panic suffocating her features. “Stop. Please stop. You’re both wrong. You’re both—”
Then she broke.
Her knees nearly buckled, her hands covering her face. Matteo moved instinctively, reaching to steady her—
And I lost it.
“Don’t touch her!” I shouted, grabbing Matteo’s arm and yanking him back.
He shoved me away. “You don’t give orders here, Adrian.”
“This is my wife,” I snarled. “My life.”
“And yet she came to me,” he shot back.
The words detonated inside me.
Serafina sobbed, voice cracking. “Please… please don’t do this.”
I turned to her slowly, my vision blurring, throat burning.
“When were you going to tell me?” I asked, voice raw. “Were you ever going to tell me? Or did you plan to keep meeting him in the shadows while I—while I—”
While I was destroying myself with other women.
While I was drowning in guilt.
While I was begging for scraps of the woman standing in front of me now, torn apart by a man who wasn’t me.
Her answer came in a whisper so soft it barely existed.
“I don’t know.”
I stared at her.
At Matteo.
At the wreckage around us.
Then I stepped back, the weight of betrayal, heartbreak, and self-loathing collapsing inside me all at once.
My world shifted.
Tilted. Shattered. And the only thing I could think—the only thing that kept repeating like a curse—was:
I lost her. I lost her long before tonight.