bChapter /bb252 /b

    OLIVIA’S POV

    “Is that young boy my son?” Adrian asked again, his eyes fixed on Charlie with an intensity that made my skin crawl

    My chest tightened. Why was he asking me this now? I thought he already knew. Or maybe he just wanted to hear me admit it out loud, to force the truth from my lips. The weight of his gaze pressed against me, as if he could see straight through my heart and into the years I had worked so hard to bury.

    “Why do you like asking so many unnecessary questions?” I snapped, my voice sharper than I intended. “I’m sure you already

    I know, so why rub salt into an open wound?”

    He didn’t flinch. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And how do you expect me to know when I’m literally staring at someone I thought was dead for years? Then, out of nowhere, I see you again on TV and another man is standing next to you, holding you bby /bthe waist.”

    His voice was low, steady, but I could hear the frustration bleeding through every word.

    I clenched my fists in myp, nails digging into my palm. “Whose fault is that?” I bit out, rolling my eyes away from him, unwilling to let him see the storm brewing inside me.

    “Is this how you behave toward me after all these years?” he asked, and for some reason, that question lit a fire in me. He had the audacity to look confused, even hurt, as if he was the victim here.

    “You really have some nerve, Adrian,” I said, my voice trembling, not ifrom /iweakness but from rage I had swallowed for too long. “You’re lucky this chaos even brought you here to speak to me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have bothered to look in your directionb, /bnot even once.”

    “That’s exactly what I mean,” he countered, leaning closer, his brows furrowed. “Hearing you speak now, I can literally hear the hatred dripping from your voice. I don’t understand it. I don’t know what I did to make you hate me like this. Because five years ago, before you disappeared before I thought you died we weren’t exactly the best of friends, no. But you didn’t have this… this fire, this poison, that you’re showing me right now.”

    His words stung more than I wanted to admit, not because they were true, but because of how blind he still was to what really happened. My lips curved into a bitter smile, though my chest ached with old memories.

    “You ask me why I hate you?” I leaned forward, my eyes narrowing into his, the distance between us charged with years of pain and betrayal. “What did you expect? That I’de running back into your arms? That I’d smile and pretend everything was fine? After what you did, Adrian?” My voice dropped, trembling with rage I could no longer hold back.

    He opened his mouth, but I cut him off, my words like venom.

    “After you tried to kill me… and my child.”

    Thest words slipped from my lips in a whisper, soft enough that Charlie wouldn’t hear. But Adrian heard. And I wanted him to.

    His eyes immediately widened in shock, his brows squeezing together as though what I had just said was the most unthinkable thing he had ever heard. His mouth opened slightly before he finally spoke, his tone sharp but confused.

    “What are you talking about?” he asked, his voice carrying both disbelief and frustration.

    I crossed my arms, ring at him like he was the lowest form of life. My chest tightened with anger, but I refused to let it show as

    weaknessb. /bI wanted my words to cut, to stab at him the way his betrayal had stabbed at me.

    “Now you’re doing your specialty,” I said bitterly, my lips curling in disgust. “Always acting dumb when you’re cornered. But byou /b

    past, right?” know, that’s not gonna change the

    His brow furrowed even deeper, his lips trembling as if he wanted to argue but couldn’t find the right words.

    “Why would you think such a thing of me?” he finally said, his voice stillced in shock, but there was something else in it too – ba /bcrack, a tremble, like maybe deep down he was terrified of what I was using him of.

    I let out a sharpugh, a sound without humor, only pain. “Why wouldn’t I? It’s not like I was the first person you’ve tried killing. You literally killed my foster parents, Adrian. And now you’re standing here, acting like you’ve never done something like that before.” My tone was sharp, biting, meant to be as rude and unrelenting as possible.

    He clenched his fists at his side, shaking his head, eyes wide as if I had pped him across the face.

    “That doesn’t mean I would try to fucking kill you!” he snapped back, his voice suddenly louder, raw with emotion. “Those guys killed my mom, so they deserved what they got. You know that! They were not innocent! But you…” He pointed at me with trembling hands, his voice cracking under the weight of his words. “What reason would I even have toe after you for?”

    His tone held desperation, as if begging me to believe him. But I wasn’t about to give in that easily.

    I took a deep breath, my voice rising without my permission, my anger leaking out with every syble. “Looking at you right now, hearing all this you’re saying, it just makes me sick to my core. How dare you deny something like this? The men you sent after me and my family they were the ones who told me you were behind it! One of them literally said your name, Adrian. He said you were going to see me and that child in hell. And now, here you are, standing in front of me, lying through your teeth after everything?”

    My chest was heaving now, my voice louder than I had intended. My hands shook, and I could feel tears threatening to rise, but! swallowed them back. I refused to look weak.

    Adrian’s face twisted in pain, his voice lowering, softer, but every word filled with desperation.

    “Look, Olivia,” he said slowly, almost like he was afraid of breaking me with his tone. “I don’t know where you got all these stories from, but I can assure you one thing I didn’t send anyone to kill you or your family. I swear it. After you stormed off from my ce, I heard that the house you were staying in exploded. They told me you died in the st. Olivia… I mourned you for days. Thinking that you were dead.”

    His words pierced through the thick wall I had built around my heart. I wanted to scream, to call him a liar again, but when I looked into his eyes, I froze.

    stared, unblinking, searching for the tiniest twitch of guilt, the smallest hint of deception. Instead, what I saw there shook me to my core. His eyes weren’t defensive anymore, they weren’t filled with anger or arrogance. They were filled with sincerity. Real, raw sincerity.

    For a split second, my heart faltered. Could he actually be telling the truth?

    I hated the way that thought burned in my chest. My whole body screamed at me not to believe him, not after everything, not after the pain I had endured. Yet staring into those eyes… I couldn’t deny what I felt. He looked like a man telling the truth.

    But eyes could be deceiving. Eyes had lied to me before.

    I clenched my fists, taking a shaky breath. If he wasn’t the one who sent those people after me, then who did?