Chapter 12
The second Elena saw Adrian show up, hope exploded in her eyes.
She dragged her beaten–to–hell body and limped toward him, tears streaming down her face, her voice totally wrecked: “Adrian… she… she was gonna KILL me! Ivy’s lost her fucking mind! She can’t stand seeing me happy…”
Adrian pulled her into his arms and glared at Ivy with pure rage. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Ivy wiped the blood from her lip and let out this cold laugh, casually tossing the steel pipe aside.
CLANG- the metal hitting concrete echoed through the empty warehouse like a gunshot.
“Adrian,” her voice was rough but deadly calm, “you better think real hard about who fucked up today.”
She paused, her eyes cutting into him like knives. “And don’t forget – you still OWE ME for what happened.”
Adrian’s jaw clenched, his voice ice cold: “Weren’t you the one working with Tyler?”
23
“Ha.” Ivy let out this short, nasty laugh, her eyes absolutely freezing. “Perfect. Then I’ll just call up the press right fucking now-
ווד
She stared Adrian down, her words slow and deadly: “Let’s see how you handle that shitstorm. The Kane family’s still trying to snag that prime real estate downtown, right?”
MEN
Then she whipped around to Elena. “And I’m sure Miss Pierce would just LOVE to be plastered all over the internet as a homewrecking slut, wouldn’t she?”
Elena went ghost white, her lips shaking like crazy. She immediately melted into Adrian’s arms, playing the victim: “Adrian, this is all on me… Ivy’s probably just losing it because we screwed up her wedding…”
Adrian’s scowl got even darker as he glared at Ivy. “Look, if you’re pissed about the wedding, I’ll fix it. But why the hell are you beating the shit out of
Elena?”
Ivy actually laughed at that, pure mockery in her eyes. “Save it.”
She slowly pulled herself up to her full height. Even beaten to hell, she stood like a goddamn queen. “You think I give two fucks about your pathetic wedding? Papers or no papers, I’m still Mrs. fucking Kane.”
And with that, Ivy completely ignored both of them. She clutched her bleeding stomach and limped toward the warehouse door.
When she passed Adrian and Elena, her steps barely paused, her voice like liquid nitrogen: “We’re done here for today.”
“Don’t worry though. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
And with that, she walked out without looking back once.
Adrian stood there frozen, watching her leave, and something totally foreign just stabbed right through his chest.
She was a complete mess, bleeding from where HE’D literally stabbed her, and she should’ve been screaming, should’ve been losing her shit–but she just looked at him once with those calm eyes and it made his chest feel like it was caving in.
It hit Adrian like a truck that he’d never actually SEEN her before. Not really.
Elena was still sniffling in his arms, but for some reason it was pissing him off.
He started to wipe the tears from her face, but the second his fingers touched her skin, all he could see was Ivy’s bloody smile.
23:03
3 Years as Your Backup Wife, 1 Text to Crash Your World: ‘Guess Which Twin Left?‘
Chapter 12
His hand just… stopped.
This weird emotion he’d never felt before started crawling up from somewhere deep inside-
Had Elena turned her into this?
Had… HE turned her into this?
That thought made Adrian’s breath catch in his throat.
(0)
23:03