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“Get within a hundred feet of my daughter again, and I’ll see to it they’ve got everything they need to kick ‘ya off.”
I stilled. My nails dug so hard into the palms of my hands that I worried I was drawing blood. “David, please.”
“Nah,” he laughed. “Don’t fuckin’ please me. You’re hangin’ on by a thread at Stone & Co., and I will gladly take a pair of fuckin’ scissors to it.”
I tried to breathe in, but my throat felt so raw, so swollen, it was as if the air wouldn’t go anywhere. Adrenaline rushed through my system, sending my pulse skyrocketing to the goddamn heavens. I couldn’t deal with this, couldn’t handle it, couldn’t fathom how I’d let things get so out of control that I’d found myself here. “We wanted to tell you together,” I said, my voice barely level, barely calm. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“Together?” he laughed. “Christ, do ‘ya love her or some shit? How deep does this go?”
“I…”
Fuck, did I?
Surely not. I hadn’t allowed myself to think long enough about that to have come to any sort of conclusion—love had been off-limits for so long, and although I’d let myself believe that it could be possible with her, I hadn’t stopped to consider if it was genuinely in the works or if I was following a path of potential and not certainty.
And if I did…
Surely, that feeling wasn’t returned. Not when she’d done what she’d done.
“Get the fuck out of my office, Adrian.”
Chapter 33
Ava
Adrian: Meet me by the fountain in Washington Square.
I stared down at his text for the fiftieth time as I stood beside the fountain, the bitter wind keeping most of the locals away. Gray skies loomed above with the promise of the first hint of snow—it wouldn’t stick for another month or so according to Emily, but flurries would start soon, and despite the double layer of jackets around me, the smell of ice in the air made my teeth chatter.
But maybe that was just the stress.
I’d managed to calm down enough that the dizziness had abated for now. But I worried that no matter what I was expecting out of this, the dizziness would come back with a vengeance.
Tearing my gaze from my phone, I monitored the archway that stood at the main entrance to the park, looking for any sign of him. Tourists in I Heart NY merchandise strode past, some of them overdressed for the weather and some not wearing nearly enough, clutching tote bags full of gifts or souvenirs that would inevitably break before they’d even made it home. The man working the hot dog stand argued loudly with a customer, and across from them, a leashed dog barked and jumped atthe pigeons nearby, sending a massive swarm of them flying off overhead.
“Are you happy with yourself?”
The voice behind me had me spinning on the spot, giving me just an inkling of vertigo as I came to a halt in front of Adrian.
His face was almost entirely expressionless, but the tic in his hard-set jaw was enough to tell me he wasn’t happy. His thick wool coat was buttoned nearly all the way up around his neck, his nose just slightly pink in the cold.
He narrowed his eyes at me.
“What do you…”
“Your father called,” he started, and just the mention of him made my stomach twist. “Asked me to come see him. I came from there.”
I blinked up at him, searching for whatever he was trying to tell me in the sharp blue of his eyes, but there was nothing but steel to see.
“You’re lucky I’m even here,” he said, a hollow chuckle breaking from his lips. “I could have disappeared off the face of the fucking map. I could have not given you the ounce of grace I’m giving right now to allow you to explain yourself and never speak to you again. But against my better judgment, Ava, I’m here, again, giving you the smallest bit of trust that I absolutely shouldn’t be.”
I recoiled from the minor lashing, taking a step back as I clutched the sides of my jacket together. “What?”
“I know we’re on the rocks, Ava, but we were supposed to do this together.”
The nausea roiling in my gut doubled, tripled, quadrupled. “He knows?” I asked, my voice nothing more than a whisper. The backs of my eyes burned, but before a tear could even form, the cold air evaporated it.
Adrian didn’t answer me.
