Framed
Framed
Adrian’s POV
I sat outside the ICU doors, my hands still sticky with Ivy’s blood coupled with the hospital which smelled like metal and fear. I couldn't feel anything, not even my fingers or the throbbing in my ribs. Just the sound of her name ringing over and over in my ears.
Through the glass, I could see the chaos inside—doctors barking orders at the nurses, the faint awful sound of a flatline monitor being silenced then replaced with a desperate rhythm. Her rhythm.
“Please….live for me, Ivy,” I whispered. I pressed my palm against the cold glass. I’d carried her all the way here — through the heavy rain but I didn’t even remember how the hell I got to this hospital so fast.
It was just the sound of her breath getting shallower in my arms. The way her eyes fluttered but never opened as I screamed her name to stay alive until my voice broke.
BANG!
A door slammed behind me. I turned to see a group of police officers walking towards me, rain dripping off their uniforms.“Adrian Veynar?” one of them asked.
My voice came out rough. “Yeah.”
“You’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Ivy Sinclair.”
The words didn’t make sense at first because my brain rejected them; maybe I hadn’t heard them clearly, so I had to ask again. “What?” Then another officer moved closer, pulling cuffs from his belt. “We have witnesses—”
“Witnesses?” A bitter laughter tore out of me—hollow, broken. “Who? Cassian? Damian? those fucking bastards?”
I saw them standing at the end of the corridor side by side. Damian in his dark coat pretending as though he was a caring father who gave a fuck about what happened to Ivy. Cassian beside him, head lowered just enough to feign remorse.
My stomach turned. “You lying son of a—”
“Mr. Veynar,” one of the officers cut me off before I could finish, “put your hands behind your back.”
I didn’t move. My eyes locked on Cassian. “You set me up.”
Cassian met my gaze, his expression unreadable before that cruel smirk tugging at the corner of his lips, just enough for me to see it. To know he was enjoying this.
“Adrian, don’t make this harder,” Damian said, stepping forward. “We all saw what happened. You were out of control. And then you grabbed the gun and shot her.”
“That’s a lie!” My voice cracked. “You know that’s a fucking lie!”
He shook his head slowly, like a man carrying a burden too heavy for truth. “You’ve always had a temper, son.”
The word son made me want to tear the walls apart. Before my brain could think I lunged towards him, but the officers caught me and cuffed that cold metal clamped around my wrists. I struggled uselessly, “You’re protecting him! When you know he almost killed your own daughter!”
“What type of father are you?”
Cassian’s eyes flicked toward the ICU, then back to me before parting his lips to speak in a soft and calculated manner. “You’re the one who brought a gun, Adrian. You’re the one who lost control, so don’t try to accuse anyone.”
I froze. “You had the fucking gun in your hands and I’m the one throwing accusations?”
He didn’t answer. The officers already had their narrative, and the world had already chosen its villain. “I carried her here!” I shouted, my voice thundering through the hospital hallway. “I saved her!”
“Enough of all this!” Damian’s voice cut through the chaos — deep, commanding as he barked at the officers. “Get him out of here before he hurts anyone else.”
“You think I—?” My voice trembled. “You really think I’d hurt her?” He didn’t even look at me like a father, just a man already writing the official version of the story.
“You were unstable,” he shot back, “You’ve always had a temper, Adrian. The thought of Ivy being with Cassian must have finally—”
“Shut up!” I roared. “You know what happened! You saw him pull the trigger!”
Cassian stood just behind him, his expression perfectly arranged with remorse painted across his face like a costume. “He’s lying,” he murmured to one of the officers, and the officer nodded as if that sealed it.
“You shot her because she was trying to stop you from killing me!” I shouted, struggling against their grip. “You both stood there….you let her……”
Damian stepped closer until I could feel the weight of his authority pressing down on me. “You’ve embarrassed this family enough,” he said quietly. “Now you’ve almost destroyed it.” I stared at him in disbelief—twisting into something darker. “Just know that you chose this bastard over your own children.”
I thought that would make him feel even a bit sorry not for me but for Ivy. But it didn’t change, if anything his eyes hardened. “Someone has to protect what’s left of this family’s name.”
“You’re a coward,” I spat. “Both of you.”
Cassian smiled faintly— the kind of smile that said checkmate.
One of the officers started reading me my rights, but the words blurred into static. My pulse roared in my ears as they dragged me backward down the hall. I twisted around, desperate to see Ivy one last time through the small glass pane of the ICU door, I caught a glimpse of her — Ivy — surrounded by doctors.
Her body was still, pale under the harsh lights of the operating theater, blood glistening on the table like a crime I couldn’t undo. “Ivy!” I screamed, my throat tearing with the sound.
“Take him away.” Damian barked, his voice following me down the hallway. They both watched in silence as I was hauled past them. Damian’s face was carved in false disappointment while Cassian’s smirk was gone now —but his eyes, those eyes, gleamed like victory.
I spat at his shoes as they dragged me past him, “You’ll regret this,” I said, my voice shaking but sure. “Both of you.”
Cassian leaned closer as I passed, his whisper barely audible. “You already have.” But before I could respond to him the officers had already pushed me through the hospital doors, the storm outside swallowing us whole.
I looked up at the sky as though it would hear my prayers and do something to help me. “Please,” I muttered, my voice breaking. “Please don’t take her from me.”
They shoved me into the back seat and slammed the door shut. Their sirens wailed, flashing red and blue across the wet street.