Chapter 38 ADRIAN'S GAMBIT
POV:
The call connected on the third ring, and my heart started pounding so hard I thought it might drown out his voice.
I wanted Adrian to answer and tell me he had turned around, that he was on his way back, that I was wrong about everything. Instead, I heard the low hum of a room that was not ours and his voice, calm in a way that scared me more than panic ever could.
“I’m here,” he said.
“Where?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Thornton’s office.”
My grip tightened on the phone. “You weren’t supposed to go alone.”
“I know.”
That was all he said, and it felt like a door closing.
I was pacing the living room, barefoot, the early light cutting across the floor in sharp lines. Marcus stood a few feet away, speaking quietly into another phone, his face tight. Bella hovered near the window, arms crossed, watching the street like she expected something to explode.
I wanted to scream at all of them to do something. To stop this. To rewind time by one hour and lock Adrian inside the apartment if I had to.
“Put me on speaker,” I said.
There was a pause. Then I heard movement, the scrape of a chair.
“You might not want to hear this,” Adrian said.
“I already am,” I replied.
Another pause. Then a new voice filled the line, smooth and amused, like a man settling into a game he expected to win.
“Miss Alvarez,” Senator Thornton said. “Listening in now? How efficient.”
My stomach twisted. “You don’t get to say my name like that.”
A soft chuckle. “You’re bolder than I expected.”
“I didn’t come here for her,” Adrian cut in. “Let’s be clear about that.”
“Oh, I’m very clear,” Thornton replied. “That’s why she’s listening.”
I pressed the phone harder to my ear, my pulse loud. I could picture Adrian across from him, spine straight, face unreadable. I could also picture Thornton leaning back, hands folded, enjoying this far too much.
“Say what you want to say,” Adrian said. “Then we’re done.”
Thornton sighed, theatrically. “You De Lucas are always in such a rush. Fine. Let’s talk facts. You think you’ve caught me in something illegal. You think a few documents and a frightened intern amount to leverage.”
“They amount to extortion,” Adrian said. “Forgery. Blackmail. And obstruction.”
“And you have proof?” Thornton asked mildly.
“Yes.”
“Proof that will survive court?” Thornton pressed. “Proof that doesn’t rely on testimony from a woman who has already been painted as manipulative and ambitious?”
My chest tightened. I glanced at Marcus. He met my eyes briefly and looked away.
“We have digital trails,” Adrian said. “Financial records. Witnesses.”
Thornton laughed, a low sound. “Digital trails can be planted. Witnesses can forget. Records can be challenged. You know this.”
Silence stretched, heavy.
“You called me here,” Adrian said. “So stop pretending this is about evidence.”
“Very well,” Thornton said. “It’s about control.”
There it was. The word he never bothered to hide.
“You went too far,” Adrian said. “You targeted someone who doesn’t belong to you.”
Thornton’s voice cooled. “She involved herself.”
“She did her job,” Adrian snapped.
“And that,” Thornton said, “is the problem. People like her are meant to observe, not interfere.”
My hand shook. Bella moved closer, her face pale.
“Careful,” Adrian said. “Every word you say is being recorded.”
A pause. Then Thornton laughed again, softer this time. “Is it?”
My breath caught.
Adrian didn’t answer.
I realized then that he was bluffing. Or at least, not telling the whole truth.
“Let’s be honest,” Thornton continued. “You came here to threaten me. To scare me into backing down. But you know as well as I do that if you release what you have, it will hurt her long before it hurts me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Adrian said. His voice had changed. Gone was the restraint. In its place was something sharp.
“I’m wrong?” Thornton said. “About optics? About power?”
“You underestimate how tired people are of men like you,” Adrian replied. “And how dangerous truth becomes when it’s timed correctly.”
Thornton leaned in. I could hear it in the shift of sound. “You’re gambling.”
“Yes,” Adrian said. “And so are you.”
The room felt too small. I stopped pacing and sank onto the couch, my legs weak.
“What do you want?” Thornton asked.
“I want you to step away,” Adrian said. “Publicly. I want a retraction. An admission that the documents were manipulated without my family’s knowledge. And I want Selena left alone.”
Thornton was quiet for a long moment.
Then he said, “You’re asking me to destroy myself.”
“I’m asking you to stop destroying others,” Adrian replied.
Another pause. When Thornton spoke again, his voice was colder.
“You love that little intern, don’t you?”
I sucked in a breath.
“That’s your weakness, Adrian,” Thornton continued. “Love makes you careless. It makes you stupid.”
The word hit harder than I expected. Not because of what it said about me, but because of how easily he said it.
“Careful,” Adrian warned.
“Why?” Thornton asked. “Because I named it? Because I see it?”
My heart hammered. I wanted to reach through the phone and pull Adrian away.
“You think I haven’t noticed the way you look at her,” Thornton said. “The risks you’ve taken. The lines you’ve crossed. All for someone who will be forgotten the moment this ends.”
Adrian’s voice went very quiet.
“No,” he said. “Love makes me dangerous. Because now I have something worth destroying you for.”
The silence that followed was absolute.
I felt it in my bones.
Thornton broke it with a slow breath. “You would burn everything?”
“I will,” Adrian said. “If you touch her again.”
I realized then that this was not a negotiation. It was a line being drawn.
Thornton exhaled. “You’re bluffing.”
“Test me,” Adrian said.
Another pause. Longer this time.
“You always were your father’s son,” Thornton said finally. “Fine. You want a truce. I’ll consider it.”
“Consider quickly,” Adrian replied.
“But understand this,” Thornton added. “Even if I step back, the damage is done. She will always be marked.”
“I know,” Adrian said.
“And you think she’ll thank you for that?” Thornton asked. “For turning her into a battlefield?”
My throat closed.
“That was your choice,” Adrian said. “Not mine.”
Thornton laughed softly. “We’ll see.”
The line went dead.
For a second, I couldn’t move.
“Selena,” Marcus said gently.
“I’m fine,” I lied.
My phone buzzed again. Adrian.
I answered immediately. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” he said. “Are you?”
“No,” I said. “You scared me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t listen to me,” I said.
“I know.”
There was a pause. I could hear traffic now, footsteps.
“I’m coming back,” he said. “Stay where you are.”
“You don’t get to tell me that,” I replied, my voice shaking. “You don’t get to decide everything.”
“I’m not,” he said. “I’m trying to survive this.”
“So am I,” I said. “And you don’t get to do that without me.”
He sighed. “We’ll talk when I get there.”
The call ended.
I stared at the dark screen, my reflection faint and unfamiliar.
Bella sat beside me. “You held your ground.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I said.
“You stayed,” she replied. “That counts.”
I wasn’t so sure.
Because as much as Adrian’s words had shaken Thornton, I knew something else now.
We had crossed a point of no return.
And whatever Thornton decided next, it wouldn’t be quiet.
It would be personal.