Chapter 108 Adeline
Adeline's POV
Forty-eight hours left.
The silence in the penthouse the next morning was deafening. When I woke up, the space beside me in the bed was cold. Percy had already left for the firm. He hadn't woken me with a kiss, and he hadn't left a fresh cup of coffee on the nightstand.
If there was anything Percy was, it was a man of his word. He said he wouldn't ask me again, and he meant it. Percy had completely walled himself off, giving me exactly the emotional distance I had implicitly asked for.
It broke my heart, but I didn't have the luxury of grieving my relationship. I had to survive the next two days.
I dressed in a sharp, tailored pantsuit, relying on my clothing to hold me together. It was as Zara was always telling me I didn't need to look as bad as I was feeling. I didn't go to the firm.
I had emailed Gregory, claiming I needed to burn through some accumulated personal time off to recover from the Miller-Hayes trial. He couldn't deny it because not only did I have a lot of unused time off, but they also couldn't deny the boss' girlfriend.
In reality, I couldn't sit at a desk while Ilya Kozlov was roaming the city; maybe he was not roaming, but he was somewhere around, and he had eyes on me in the office.
Instead, I took a cab to the Upper East Side. Zara had insisted on dragging me to a private viewing at a high-end jewelry boutique to pick out accessories for her charity gala.
The boutique was heavily guarded, but as I stood near the glass display cases with a glass of complimentary champagne that the store offered, my heart rate refused to slow down.
"What do you think of the emeralds?" Zara asked as she held up a glittering necklace against her collarbone. She looked at herself in the mirror, entirely radiant and completely oblivious to the danger circling us. "Too much? Or just enough Whitmore arrogance?"
"They're stunning," I murmured absentmindedly because my eyes weren't on the jewels.
I was looking at the reflection of the street through the boutique's front windows. I observed every single person walking past the glass storefront like they were a threat. Was that man in the trench coat carrying a weapon or just a newspaper? Was that delivery driver lingering a little too long near the curb?
"I see you," the text message echoed in my head as I observed the woman with a stroller. I wondered if it was just a baby in her stroller or a weapon. It could also be a camera...
"Adeline? Earth to Adeline?" Zara waved a hand in front of my face, pulling me back to the present. She frowned as she set the emeralds down on the display tray. "Are you even looking at me? You're a million miles away today."
"Sorry." I blinked, forcing a tight smile. "I'm just trying to map out a contract in my head."
"Right, I forgot you don't know how to turn your brain off." She rolled her eyes even though I could see that she was genuinely worried about me.
"Zara..."
"You know, you look exhausted. You have dark circles under your eyes and you've barely touched your champagne." I wanted to tell her that meant nothing, but she was facing me squarely now. "Are you and Percy fighting?"
My stomach dropped. "What? No. We're fine."
"Don't lie to me," Zara scolded gently, stepping closer to link her arm through mine. "If you weren't, he would have called you about fifty times."
"He's busy with work."
She ignored my excuse. "I can have Alex go break his kneecaps."
Alex let out a grunt of displeasure at the mention of him hurting his boss. I wondered if he would actually do so if she asked...
"Percy didn't do anything," I promised, the guilt rising in my throat. I looked down at Zara's hand looped through my arm. "I'm just dealing with some... personal family issues."
"Oh," Zara’s expression instantly softened into deep empathy. "Your mother?"
"Something like that," I whispered.
Before Zara could ask anything else, movement outside the window caught my eye. A black-tinted sedan rolled slowly past the front of the boutique. It didn't keep driving with the flow of traffic. It hit the brakes and stopped directly in front of the glass doors.
The back window began to roll down, and before I knew it, I screamed. "Get down!"
I didn't stop to think about what I was doing. I grabbed Zara by the shoulders and violently shoved her downward before throwing my own body over hers as we collapsed behind the display counter.
"Adeline! What the hell..." Zara shrieked as her champagne glass shattered against the marble floor.
"Stay down!" I ordered, my heart hammering against my ribs. I reached out, my trembling hands hovering over her head to shield her.
Instantly, the atmosphere in the boutique became tense. Alex moved faster than I thought a man his size could. He drew a black firearm from his shoulder holster and positioned his massive body perfectly between our hiding spot and the front doors while his weapon stayed trained directly on the idling sedan.
The boutique staff screamed as they took cover, too. I waited for the bullets, but the only thing that followed was silence. The gunfire never came.
Instead, a muffled voice shouted from the street. "Hey! Move the car, asshole! You're blocking the crosswalk!"
Through the gap in the display cases, I watched as the back window of the black sedan rolled the rest of the way down. An elderly man in a tweed cap stuck his head out and waved apologetically at the furious taxi driver behind him.
It was just an old man looking for a street sign that had me in a frenzy. I closed my eyes and swore softly under my breath.
Alex slowly lowered his weapon; his dark eyes swept a calculating gaze across the street one final time before he holstered it.
He turned around to look at my shaking figure and crazed eyes. For some reason, I could tell that he knew there was something off about my reaction to a black sedan that had nothing to do with my work as a lawyer. He knew I was expecting to be hit.
"Adeline?" Zara gasped, pushing herself up onto her elbows. She was trembling and staring at me with wide, terrified eyes. "What... what was that? Why did you do that?"
I sat back on my heels among the shattered crystal and spilled champagne. My hands were shaking so violently I had to press them flat against my thighs to calm them.
"I..." I stammered, unable to get any word out. The store manager was already on the phone, likely calling building security. Zara was staring at me like I was a stranger. Alex was analyzing my every breath. I was completely losing my grip on reality.
"I'm sorry," I choked out, scrambling to my feet. I couldn't breathe or look at her. "I thought... I made a mistake. I have to go."
"Adeline, wait!" Zara called out, but I didn't wait. I turned and practically ran out of the boutique.