Page 98 of Righteous Enforcer
"Four years," he cuts me off. "Four years my daughter grew up without me. And now I learn you ran because you thought I wouldn't be a good father?"
“That’s not true. Your father threatened me.”
"I'm done with the excuses." His entire body has gone rigid. "You've had your chance." He checks his watch. "I'm leaving in ten minutes. Mirabella is coming with me."
My heart stops.
"No." The word tears from my throat. "You can't take her.”
"Watch me." He moves toward the connecting door, and panic floods my system.
"Adriano, please." I struggle against the restraints, the zip ties digging into my wrists. "She doesn't know your world. She'll be terrified."
He turns, eyes flashing. "More terrified than hiding behind a dumpster in a back alley as men prepare to kill her mother? Because that’s all you have to offer her.” He shakes his head, and I don’t blame him. I don’t make any sense. “You’re a piece of work, Eva. I can’t believe I fell for you.”
"She's just a little girl," I plead. "She needs me."
The thought of my daughter waking up without me there sends waves of nausea through my body. Adriano is a good father, but there are a thousand tiny details that only a mother knows.
"What will you tell her when she cries for me?” Tears stream down my face. "She won't understand why I'm gone."
"I'll tell her the truth," Adriano says, his voice so full of disgust it makes me recoil. "That her mother didn't want to come home with me. That she didn't care enough to be honest."
The room spins around me as I imagine my daughter hearing those words.
Her tiny face crumpling, her eyes filling with tears as she tries to understand why Mommy left her.
"You wouldn't.” But I know he would.
He said he wants me to hurt as badly as I hurt him.
This is how he’ll do it.
"She deserves the truth," he continues mercilessly. "That her mother would rather run from her secrets than let her father protect them both."
"Please," I beg, pride abandoned. "Don't tell her that. Tell her anything else."
Something flickers across his face. I want to think it’s the man I once knew, but I see in his eyes that it’s leverage.
"Then give me something better to tell her," he says coldly. "Start with the truth."
“Adriano—”
“Bye, Eva.” He turns toward the door adjoining the two rooms.
"Wait!" I cry out, rising from the chair. "I left because Alessandro threatened to kill me!"
His hand freezes on the doorknob. He doesn't turn, but I can see the tension in his shoulders.
"One night, I ran into him in the kitchen," I continue, words tumbling out. "He told me he knew I was hiding something. Said when he found out what it was, he'd destroy me."
Adriano turns slowly, his expression guarded but attentive.
"He said if I hurt you again, he'd kill me." My voice cracks. "Then Ivan shows up at the ballet, looking at Mirabella like—" I can't finish the thought, the memory of Ivan's predatory gaze making my stomach clench.
Adriano steps away from the door, his focus entirely on me now.
"Don't you see? I'm trapped between two monsters who want me dead," I say, hoping this will work. "Alessandro waiting for any excuse, and Ivan hunting us down."
