The road to Adrian's villa felt agonizingly longer than Elena remembered, the city lights blurring past the windshield like sharp, bleeding neon. Inside the car, the silence was a suffocating weight, broken only by the soft, mocking rustle of her ruined wedding gown against the seat. Her hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles had turned pale, trapped in a torturous loop of the empty sanctuary she had just fled. The same images replayed over and over. Rachel standing at the altar. Adrian sliding the ring onto her finger. The applause that followed.
Just hours ago, she had worn this gown with hope. Now, the wrinkled, dust-stained lace felt like an insult clinging to her skin.
When the tall iron gates of Adrian's villa finally loomed ahead, Elena slammed on the brakes. The estate stood imposing under the security lights, glowing with a warm, deceptive hospitality that had once felt like a promise. Now it looked like a mausoleum where everything had been taken from her.
Elena stepped out of the car slowly, the cool night air biting at her bare skin as her heavy train dragged across the dark pavement. Two security guards immediately stepped forward from the shadows, their expressions hardening with unease.
"Miss Elena," one of them said, his voice cautious. "Please stop there. Mr. Adrian gave strict instructions. No one is to be allowed in tonight."
The words struck her like a physical blow. No one. Not even the girl who was supposed to be his wife.
A frantic, wild desperation seized her. Her hands flew up, signing with sharp, jagged movements: I need to see Adrian. But the guards stood like stone walls, refusing to move. Something inside Elena finally snapped. Bending down, she snatched a small stone from the gravel and hurled it at the gate.
The sharp, metallic clang shattered the quiet night. She didn't stop. She grabbed another, and another, her movements turning frantic and desperate as each stone slammed against the metal gates with a loud crash—a mute, violent scream vibrating inside her chest, trying to break through the barrier separating her from the truth.
Suddenly, the front door of the villa swung open, spilling warm light onto the stone driveway. Two figures stepped outside into the silver dark.
Adrian and Rachel.
Rachel froze the moment her eyes locked onto Elena's disheveled form. "Elena..." she whispered, her voice carrying across the quiet driveway, trembling with panic. Rachel rushed forward, but Adrian followed behind her with a slow, unhurried stride.
Rachel reached the gate first, her fingers gripping the cold iron bars as her eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice breaking. "I didn't mean—" She stopped. Started again. "I panicked."
Elena stood completely paralyzed, the world tilting on its axis. Adrian stepped closer now, and there was no guilt on his face. Only amusement.
He looked at her ruined gown for a long moment before he spoke.
"You came."
That was all.
Rachel's breath hitched. "Elena, I never wanted—" Her hands twisted together. "I loved him first. Before you ever met him." A pause, her voice cracking further. "I couldn't lose him."
Elena's chest caved in on itself. She didn't need the rest. The pieces were already assembling themselves in her mind, each one crueler than the last.
Adrian tilted his head slightly, studying her the way a man studies something he already owns. "Your sister asked me to be kind to you," he said. "I was."
Nothing more.
"Adrian, please," Rachel whispered, reaching her hands further through the bars toward Elena. "Don't. She's already—"
"I'm not breaking her," Adrian said quietly, not looking away from Elena. "She's doing that herself."
Elena had drifted closer to the gate without realizing it, close enough now that when Adrian reached through the bars, his fingers found her chin easily. His touch wasn't gentle. He tilted her face up, forcing her to meet his eyes.
She flinched.
Something shifted behind his gaze—not concern. Interest.
"You flinched," he murmured.
He said nothing else. He didn't need to.
The jolt of pure horror ran through her. Elena jerked away sharply, breaking from his grip, and forced herself back to her feet. She stepped back, her breathing ragged, her eyes burning—but she refused to grant him the satisfaction of a single tear.
Lifting her hands into the silver light, she began to sign with lethal precision, every gesture heavy with cold fury.
You all betrayed me.
Rachel froze. Adrian's mouth curved, delighted by her defiance.
Elena's hands moved again, cutting through the heavy silence like a blade.
My sister. The man I loved. My own family. All of you.
The silence that followed was suffocating. Rachel let out a devastated, helpless sob, but Elena had already turned her back on them. She walked quickly toward the car, ignoring the desperate cries behind her.
"Elena! Wait!" Rachel screamed, running along the inside of the fence, but the engine was already roaring to life.
Elena slammed the car into drive and hit the accelerator, the tires screeching as the car sped down the dark road.
Behind her, Rachel stopped, crying helplessly. "She hates me now..."
Adrian caught up to her, his expression shifting back into something gentle as he pulled her into his arms. "It's okay," he murmured, his eyes lingering on the empty road where the car had vanished. "She just needs time."
He didn't sound like he believed it. He didn't sound like he cared either way.
Far down the desolate, winding road, Elena's hands throbbed against the steering wheel. She didn't cry again. Not for Adrian. Not for Rachel.
She had cried enough for both of them tonight.