Chapter 4: The Truth Behind the Marriage
That afternoon, my father called.
“I gave you three years,” he said.
“I know.”
“You wanted to believe he loved you.”
I closed my eyes briefly.
“I needed to know for sure.”
“And now?”
I looked across the room at Adrian—disheveled, desperate, unrecognizable.
“Now I do.”
There was a pause.
“Then finish it,” my father said.
I returned to the hall where everything began.
Adrian stood there, waiting.
“Why?” he asked, his voice breaking. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”
I looked at him steadily.
“Because I wanted someone to love me without needing my name.”
He let out a hollow laugh.
“And if I had?”
I stepped closer.
May you like
“You wouldn’t have raised your hand against me.”
That was the truth he couldn’t escape.
