Chapter 14 Letting pride go
Adeline didn’t know when her eyes had closed. One minute she was sitting on the couch, knees pulled up, staring at the plain white wall across the room. The next, everything went soft and dark.
When she woke, the light had changed. The windows were black, and there was no more afternoon sun. It was just a deep night outside, the kind that made the house feel smaller and quieter. She blinked a few times, her neck stiff from the awkward angle against the cushion, and her mouth felt dry. A thin blanket had slipped off her lap sometime while she slept.
She sat up slowly, and when she checked, the clock on the wall said almost eight, which meant she had slept most of the afternoon away.
For a second she didn’t know how to feel. Part of her felt guilty, like she had wasted time, like she should have been doing something useful, but another part felt strangely proud. She definitely needed the rest, so her body had taken it without asking permission. Maybe that was a win.
She rubbed her eyes and reached for her phone on the coffee table. It had been off since she arrived. She hadn’t wanted the noise and hadn’t wanted the world crashing back in. Now, with darkness pressing against the windows, she felt ready, or close enough.
Her thumb hovered over the power button. Her stomach twisted a little. She could already picture the flood, angry voicemails from her father, smug texts from her brothers, and reporters somehow finding her number again. She braced herself.
She pressed the button, watching as the screen lit up and the logo appeared. Then notifications started rolling in.
She stared, and to her surprise, there were not as many as she expected.
Missed calls: three. One from her father, two from Nathan, and that was it.
Messages: four in total. One was from Lucas, her second older brother, and he had simply said, “Clean up your mess already.” There was nothing else, no long rants, and no threats.
She scrolled again, double-checking. There were also no calls from the twins, not like she expected to hear from them anyway, no angry essay from her father about family honor, and no nothing from Patrick or his lawyers.
She let out a slow breath.
Relief came first, quiet and small. They weren’t hunting her down like she expected, which she thought might be a good thing. Maybe they were too busy fighting among themselves. Maybe her father was still too angry to speak to her again. Maybe Nathan really was in some bar right now, drunk and laughing about her fall, surrounded by his useless friends and whatever woman he had picked up that night. She could see it clear as day, his wedding ring forgotten on the bar top, his laugh too loud.
The thought made her mouth twist. She kept scrolling, and that was when she realized that there were no messages from Julian. She paused on that and stared at his name in the contacts for a long second.
He had said he would give her space, and he had kept his word, but she didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse.
Better, maybe. It meant he wasn’t hovering, wasn’t pushing, and wasn’t treating her like she couldn’t handle being alone.
Worse, maybe. Because part of her, small and stubborn, had half-expected him to check in. To send one line, something cocky, and something that said he was thinking about her.
She set the phone down, face up, and the screen was dark again.
She stood and walked to the window, pressing her palm against the cool glass. Outside, trees moved in the dark wind. No streetlights, no neighbors. Just black shapes and stars.
She felt the boredom creep back and the restlessness. The house was too still. She wasn’t used to this much quiet. At home, at the mansion she had shared with Patrick, at the Carter estate, and at the office, there was always something. A meeting, a call, or a fight. Noise to fill the empty spaces.
Here, the empty spaces were loud.
She was tired of it, tired of the quiet house, tired of her own thoughts circling the same few things over and over, and tired of pretending she could handle being alone like this.
She let out a long breath and walked back to the living room. The blanket was still bunched on the couch where she had slept earlier, and the coffee mug sat cold on the table. She ignored both.
She picked up her phone and stared at it for a second, her thumb hovering. Pride screamed at her to put it down, to tough it out, and to prove she didn’t need anyone, but she was done listening to pride tonight.
She unlocked the phone, opened Julian’s contact, and thought about calling. Her finger stayed over the button for a long moment. No, calling felt too big a step and too needy. Texting was much safer.
She typed fast before she could change her mind.
“Are you busy?”
She hit send, and her heart gave one hard thud.
The reply came almost right away, like he had been waiting.
“Not at all. You okay? Need something?”
Adeline stared at the words. She didn’t know what to say next. Her thumb moved, then stopped. She couldn’t type “Come over.” Not straight out, and not at almost nine at night. It sounded desperate and weak, and she had spent the last two days proving she wasn’t weak. She had walked out on her husband, kissed her enemy in front of cameras, and taken hits from her father and still stood tall.
Asking Julian to drive all the way here would undo some of that, or at least it felt like it would.
She kept staring at the screen, and seconds stretched.
Another text popped up.
“Can I call you?”
She swallowed, and her mouth felt dry. She thought about ignoring it, thought about turning the phone off again, and thought about spending the rest of the night in silence, going slowly crazy.
Her fingers moved before her mind caught up.
“Yes.”
The phone rang almost instantly. She watched it vibrate once, twice. Then she answered.
Julian’s voice came through warm and low. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
A short pause. Then he asked the question she had been dreading and wanting at the same time.
“You want me to come over?”
Adeline closed her eyes. She pictured him, probably still in his office, sleeves rolled up, tie loose after whatever he had been through today, or maybe he was already home, sitting in that big living room with the city lights behind him. Either way, he was asking like it was nothing, like driving over an hour in the dark was no trouble at all.
She opened her mouth and closed it. Pride clawed at her throat, but the house was too quiet. The walls were too close, and she didn’t want to be alone tonight.
She took one slow breath.
“Yes.”
The word came out small, but it came out.
Julian didn’t laugh or try to tease her. He just said, “Okay, I’m on my way.”