The silence in the room was deceptive. Tess was curled on the edge of the couch, knees drawn up, eyes staring blankly ahead. I sat on the floor near Marcus, who was still asleep on the mattress Adrian's men brought in. The smell of antiseptic still hung in the air, mixed with something faintly metallic... the memory of blood. I looked at Tess and then down at my hands.
"I don't think we ever stood a chance," I said quietly.
She shifted, blinking back into focus. "What do you mean?"
"This. All of it. Marcus was in it the whole time. The money, the secrecy, the way he used to disappear for days. And I never asked questions because I didn't want the answers. I just wanted to feel... wanted."
Tess sat up straighter, arms crossed. "You were in love. That doesn't make you stupid."
"It makes me an accomplice." I laughed bitterly, the sound sticking in my throat. "You know what Marcus's family wants? Not me. Not even him. Just the baby. I'm a womb to them. A vessel. A goddamn incubator for their next heir."
The word heir tasted sour.
Tess cursed under her breath. "You ever think Jessica knew? About his family? About what they were part of?"
"I don't know. Maybe she found out after the wedding. Maybe she didn't care." I looked at her. "Maybe she loved him enough to look past it."
"That's not love," Tess snapped. "That's survival."
I fell silent. She was right. And I hated how that stung.
Tess stood, stretching her arms. "I need to call my boss, let them know I'm out for a while. Can't risk losing my job entirely, not now... even though your man said he'd pay me."
"Use the balcony," I said softly. "The signal's better."
She disappeared into the small hallway that led to the sliding glass door, and just like that, I was alone again. The quiet filled up too fast, pressing on my chest like a weight. I exhaled through my nose and leaned my head back against the wall, closing my eyes.
"Wow."
I jolted upright.
There she was... Dr. Rita Preston, leaning against the doorframe with a smug twist on her lips, arms folded like she'd been watching me crumble from afar.
She stepped into the room uninvited. "I underestimated you, Gina."
"Go away."
She ignored me and paced in slowly, her heels clicking softly against the tiled floor. "No, seriously. I pegged you for the doe eyed intern who wouldn't last a week. But here you are. In the thick of it."
I got to my feet. "What do you want, Rita?"
"To remind you that this isn't a dream. This," she gestured around, "this mess you're standing in? It's real. And you're in it now, Gina. Up to your pretty little neck. An accomplice to a very personal crime."
I crossed my arms. "I didn't commit any crime."
She tilted her head with mock innocence. "Didn't you? You've been aiding and abetting a known criminal. You helped smuggle a man who's wanted by his own family, the same man who probably set half this chaos in motion. And you think because you didn't pull the trigger, your hands are clean?"
"You don't know anything about me," I snapped.
"I know enough. And I know it only gets worse from here. If you think this life won't touch your friendships, your future, your child, you're more naïve than I gave you credit for." Her tone darkened. "Adrian's world is poison. It rots everything it touches. Eventually, it'll rot you too."
"Like it happened to you?" I asked, catching her off guard.
I swallowed hard, refusing to let her see the quake in my chest. "You seem awfully invested for someone who claims not to care."
She laughed, sharp and dry. "Oh, I don't care. Not about you. But Adrian..." She walked a little closer, lowering her voice. "He may have taken a liking to you, but at night? It's my body he comes crawling to."
The words landed like a slap.
I felt the sting in my throat before I even opened my mouth. "Then you should be ashamed. If a man only wants you in the dark, he doesn't want you. And you shouldn't want him either."
Her eyes flashed, caught off guard once again.
I stepped forward, refusing to flinch. "If you're only good for what happens when the lights are off, that says more about you than me."
Her smile wavered. Just for a second. Then she gathered herself, straightened, and smoothed invisible wrinkles from her blouse.
"Adrian knows where his loyalties lie," she said coolly, striding to the door. "He's just lost right now. But he'll come back to his senses soon enough."
"Good luck with that," I muttered.
She paused at the doorway, lips pressed into a tight smile. "You'll need it more than I will."
And then she was gone.
The second the door clicked shut, I sagged against the couch, breath shaking. I ran both hands through my curls, fingers tangling as if I could yank the thoughts out of my head by force.
What the hell was I doing?
Everything I'd ignored... everything I pretended not to see... Marcus's secrets, Adrian's darkness, the way this world kept pulling me in, it was all unraveling. And it was too late to stop the fall.
All because I didn't want to be alone.
I bit my lip hard, tasting the faint copper of blood. Maybe Adrian had been right all along. That night in the car when I wondered why he cared, why he showed up when I was sick, why he was protecting me now... he said something I couldn't forget.
"Because you built your whole identity around a man who didn't choose you."
He didn't say it to hurt me. He said it like a mirror. And I hated that it was true.
I wrapped my arms around myself.
I didn't have a mother. No siblings. My father? Gone before I was old enough to remember his laugh. I thought Marcus was all I had. That he was home.
But he wasn't.
He was a cage I willingly walked into.
And Tess? Tess was the only one who had truly shown up. Risked her job. Her life. For me. She didn't owe me anything, and yet, she stayed.
If she had any sense, she would've walked away by now.
The balcony door slid open again, and Tess came back in, phone still in hand.
"Your favorite person just left," I muttered.
She frowned. "Dr. Rita?"
"Mm hmm. She came to play her usual games."
Tess set her phone down and sat beside me. "What did she say?"
"That Adrian still comes to her at night. That I'm in over my head. That this life will ruin me."
Tess blinked. "Wow."
"Yeah."
"You believe any of it?"
I exhaled slowly. "Maybe the part where I'm in over my head."
"But not the rest?"
I turned to her, voice quieter. "I think I already knew what this was. I just didn't want to admit it. I've been clinging to the idea of love, of family, for so long that I didn't notice I became someone's pawn."
"You're not a pawn," Tess said firmly. "You're the damn queen. And they're about to find out."
A laugh broke through my chest, shaky and grateful. "You always say the right thing."
"That's why you keep me around."
We sat there for a long beat, the city sounds bleeding in through the balcony.
I looked toward Marcus's still form. "Do you think I'm crazy for not sending him away the second he collapsed at our door?"
Tess shook her head. "I think you've got more heart than most people deserve."
I leaned my head on her shoulder, and for once, let myself feel the weight of everything I'd been carrying.
Tess didn't say anything else. She didn't have to.
She just stayed.
And right now, that was more than enough.