Chapter 21 I Understand You
ADRIANA
God, I'm so stupid. Why couldn’t I keep my big mouth shut? I’d wanted to confirm whether she really was as forbidden a topic as Betty had said.
Well, judging by the extremely deep scowl on Elijah’s face, I had my answer.
“I’m so sorry—”
“He’s not my son.”
My mouth hung open. “What?”
He relaxed his shoulders slightly.
“Leo is Liam’s son. When Liam was killed, Leo couldn’t handle the loss. He got sick and his mother abandoned him because she didn’t want to deal with caring for him anymore. So I took him in. I couldn’t just send him away. Liam was like a brother to me.”
I could hear the pain threading through his voice and it absolutely broke my heart. He really wasn’t the man I’d initially thought he was at all.
He’d taken me in when I had nowhere to go. Then he’d taken in Hannah because she was Liam’s sister. And now Leo—Elijah had basically claimed responsibility for this child for the rest of his life.
I was certain he and Liam must have been incredibly close friends. For Elijah to do all of this for him, there had to have been an extraordinarily deep bond between them.
“You must have really loved Liam.”
He laughed, but the sound was filled with pain.
“A part of me died the day he died. No one could ever replace him. He was my best friend and the brother I never had growing up. We literally grew up together.”
I couldn’t relate to having close friends like that. My father had never allowed us to socialize with anyone outside the family.
I was about to ask about Leo’s condition when Elijah continued.
“Leo stopped talking completely when his mother left. I’ve tried absolutely everything I can think of to help him speak again. We’ve seen countless doctors and specialists, but nothing’s working.”
“It might just take some time—”
“How long?” His voice rose slightly, revealing his frustration. “How much longer before I can heal him, Adriana? I feel like I’ve failed Liam completely. Like I’m not doing what he would have done. He was a real father. I can’t even properly take care of one kid. What a pathetic joke.” His laugh was cold.
The way he looked, his expression. It broke my heart because I understood how he was feeling.
I didn’t want him being so harsh on himself. When my mother had fallen ill, I’d called every single doctor in the pack to come examine her, but none of them could figure out what was wrong.
Her condition had deteriorated more and more each day until finally she died.
So I completely understood the frustration and helplessness he was experiencing.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. Anyone can see you’re doing your absolute best.”
My hand seemed to have a mind of its own because before I even realized what I was doing, my fingers were already in his hair, stroking it gently and patting his head softly.
“Leo is going to be okay, I’m certain of it. You’re an amazing father and I’m sure Liam knows that too and he’s proud of you. Just be patient with yourself.”
Maybe it was because he hadn’t lifted his head yet that I didn’t realize just how close we were actually sitting. But as soon as he did look up, our faces were right there in front of each other.
For some inexplicable reason, Landon’s face flashed through my mind, but I immediately pushed the thought away as Elijah’s lips touched mine.
They were exactly as soft as I’d imagined they would be.
He cupped my cheek, pulling my head closer and deepening the kiss. It had been so long since I’d kissed anyone that I was beginning to think I’d completely forgotten how.
But this felt natural. My lips just moved on their own and I suddenly felt so incredibly light, like I was floating.
His hand slid down to my waist and just when I was about to climb onto his lap, the door burst open.
“Adriana, I have your—”
We’d already pulled apart quickly, but Hazel knew exactly what she’d seen. There was no hiding it.
“Oh god, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to interrupt. Please, by all means, continue what you were doing.”
She started to leave and Elijah didn’t seem inclined to stop her, so I did.
“No, wait! Why did you come here? You needed something?”
Hazel was clearly trying to suppress the huge smile threatening to break across her face, but she wasn’t succeeding very well.
“Did I? Oh right, yes! I came to give you some medication and to apologize for what happened today at training. I should have been there to protect you from Hannah.”
“Why is everyone apologizing for Hannah’s behavior? She’s an adult. She should take responsibility for her own actions. I don’t blame any of you. I accidentally went to the wrong gym and Hannah chose to attack me.”
She set the tray down on the bed.
“Who else has been apologizing?”
I glanced at Elijah, who seemed completely unbothered by the fact that Hazel had caught us. He was already on his phone, typing away at something.
“Elijah apologized earlier. And really, it’s completely fine.”
“He apologized, did he?” I could hear the teasing undertone in her voice, and Elijah must have heard it too because he looked up at her sharply and shot her a glare. She kept on smiling, like he wasn’t shooting death stares at her.
“Anyway, it’s getting pretty late. You should probably get some sleep.”
I was actually directing that comment at Elijah, but Hazel was the one who moved toward the door.
“Very well then. I’ll leave you two to continue whatever you were doing before I so rudely interrupted.”
“We weren’t—” I stopped myself. There was absolutely no point in denying what she’d clearly seen.
“The same goes for you too, Elijah. It’s late. Get some rest.”
He rolled his eyes dramatically and set down his phone, glancing briefly at the medicine tray with a slight frown before looking away.
“Goodnight!” Hazel practically ran out of the room and slammed the door shut behind her.
I was definitely going to have to explain things to her tomorrow. Though I wasn’t even sure what I’d explain, since she’d seen exactly what had been happening.
“So… I’ll see you tomorrow?”
He was standing now, so I stood up too, though I still only came up to about his chest. He was incredibly tall and I definitely was not.
“Yeah. See you tomorrow.”
Part of me was actually scared he might try to kiss me again. Not scared exactly—more like desperately hoping he would kiss me goodnight.
But he didn’t. He just turned around and walked toward the door.
Thinking about everything that had happened today made me smile uncontrollably. I really hoped tomorrow would be just as wonderful as this.
But I had no idea the day wasn’t quite over yet.
“What’s wrong?” I noticed Elijah struggling with the door handle.
“Fuck.” he groaned. “Hazel locked the door from the outside.”