Chapter 17 The Name Spoken
The night wind slapped Adrian's face as he was barely able to stand. His steps were unsteady, with the aroma of alcohol clinging to his every movement. The city lights felt like blurry lines dancing in the corner of his eyes.
"Adrian... hey, look at me. You can't go home like this."
The voice sounded gentle. Too gentle for a situation like this.
Joanna. His office colleague, who had always given him glances that were too long, smiles that were too warm, and attention that was too intimate. Adrian squinted, trying to focus on her face, but the world was spinning too fast.
Adrian's vision blurred further. His memory was fading. The last time he remembered, he was having dinner with colleagues at a club. He drank because he felt it was the only escape from all his problems. But it seemed he drank too much and was heavily intoxicated.
"Come on... come with me. You can rest at my place," Joanna said.
Adrian didn't answer. He just let his body fall toward whoever caught him. Joanna held his arm, supporting his weight with a faint tension in her jaw, implying a mixture of satisfaction and urgency.
The apartment elevator felt narrow and spinning. Joanna pressed the floor button while looking at Adrian out of the corner of her eye.
"You're always stubborn," she muttered. "But tonight... You finally fell into my arms."
Adrian only groaned softly. His head felt heavy. His eyelids were hot. The world felt distant, as if he were behind a thick pane of glass.
When Joanna's apartment door opened, the scent of sweet perfume greeted them. Warm lights illuminated the room with a dim glow, creating an atmosphere that seemed deliberately intimate.
Joanna pulled Adrian inside.
"I've been waiting too long for this," she said quietly.
That voice made Adrian lift his face. There was something in that intonation that should have been an alarm. But his body was too exhausted to differentiate between warning and calm.
Joanna led Adrian to her room, then laid him down. Slowly, she approached him. She touched Adrian's face carefully and stared at his lips as if they were something she had claimed long before this night.
She took off all of Adrian's clothes and then stripped off her own clothes. A sly smile played at the corner of her lips, implying satisfaction and victory because Adrian had finally fallen into her embrace.
Slowly, Joanna crawled onto Adrian and gently caressed the man's body. As if studying, enjoying, and marking it all as hers.
Adrian felt that strange touch... his body shivered and tensed. But his head was too heavy to realize what was happening.
Afterward, everything became blurred in Adrian's memory. Touches he didn't want but couldn't prevent. Passion and desire that he shouldn't feel but emerged and swelled in his chest.
Joanna's voice calling his name in a tone different from usual. Not professional or friendly, but something that made the apartment air feel hotter.
And Adrian... The man was too lost in the fog of alcohol, losing his grip on reality. His head was filled with something between a nightmare and the past.
Then, unknowingly... That name was spoken. The name that had long been buried in his heart.
"Selina..."
Adrian's voice was hoarse, broken, almost like a prayer.
Joanna froze for a moment. Then her gaze changed. Not disappointment, but more like someone who found a puzzle that had been incomplete all this time.
"Selina, huh?" she whispered faintly. "So... she's the one you can't forget."
Adrian didn't hear her because he was still unconscious. He didn't even know where he was or what he was doing.
Joanna looked at Adrian for a long time, her breath rising and falling, but not from exhaustion. There were complex emotions there. A mixture of long-held desire, envy, and a kind of petty revenge had been clinging behind her smile.
When it was all over, Adrian lay still. Unconscious and unaware of anything.
Joanna sat on the edge of the bed, still watching him.
She touched the collar of Adrian's shirt lying on the floor. She remembered the faint lipstick stain she intentionally left when Adrian was last drunk at an office event, and now she smiled slightly.
"I suspected it," she whispered. "So there's another woman? Not your wife?"
She tidied Adrian's hair, as if she had the right to do so.
"But it's alright. Tonight... you were with me. You became mine."
Then she looked into the darkness, her lips curving thinly.
"And I won't let anyone take that chance away from me."
Outside, the rain fell slowly, as if understanding that neither of them would return home without new wounds.
That night, Aveline slept with an exhausted body and a heavy heart. She kept trying to push away the image of Adrian with another woman, as well as Ezra's passionate kiss, but her mind was never truly calm. And amidst that restlessness, she finally drifted off.
In her dream, Aveline stood in a vast garden filled with golden afternoon light. The grass was soft, the wind blew warmly, and the sound of soft laughter broke the silence.
Aveline turned and saw Liam running toward her.
Her son was smiling widely, wearing his favorite clothes. His small face was beaming, his eyes sparkling innocently as usual. Aveline squatted down and opened her arms wide, welcoming Liam into her embrace.
"Liam..." she whispered with relief, feeling the small body hugging her tightly.
They played together. Chasing each other among the flowers, throwing a small ball, and laughing without a care. For a moment, the dream felt so real and comforting. As if the chaotic world outside never existed.
But suddenly, the twilight faded. The wind stopped. Liam's laughter also disappeared.
Aveline looked around, confused. "Sweetie? Liam?"
Liam stopped running. His small body was turned away from Aveline. His shoulders looked tense.
Aveline felt her chest tighten. "Liam? What's wrong?"
Liam slowly turned his head. His smile was gone. His eyes now showed something Aveline had never seen before. It was fear.
Liam's voice was faint, like a whisper from afar, but piercing directly into Aveline's chest.
"Dad did something to me, Mom..."
Aveline froze.
"Liam, what do you mean? What about your father?"
Liam looked at her, full of fear that was illogical for a child his age.
He gripped Aveline's hand tightly, too tightly, as if asking to be saved.
"Don't trust anyone... Mom... don't trust..."
The wind suddenly blew hard. The garden collapsed like torn paper. Aveline tried to hug Liam, but the boy's body started to blur, like fog swept away by the wind.
"LIAM!" Aveline screamed, trying to reach her son, but her hands only caught empty air.
Aveline woke up suddenly, gasping for breath, her body drenched in cold sweat. Her eyes were teary without her knowing why. Her chest felt tight, as if the dream was more than just a fleeting thought.
She held her chest, trying to regulate her breathing.
"Liam..." she whispered faintly, trembling.
Somehow, that bad feeling intensified. As if the dream was not just a dream. But a warning.