Chapter 5 - The Snake's Venom
By Friday morning, the reality of his situation had finally driven Adrian to desperation.
I was sitting in the penthouse living room, nursing Leo, when my phone rang. It was an unknown number, but I answered it anyway, expecting it to be one of the pediatricians we had scheduled for the boys' checkups.
"Evelyn," Adrian's voice came through the line, sounding raspy, breathless, and completely unhinged. "You have to stop this. Your father is destroying my life. The bank took the Mercedes this morning. The firm has locked me out of my office, and my landlord in the new apartment is refusing to lease to me because of a 'credit red flag.' This is abuse!"
"Abuse, Adrian?" I asked, keeping my voice low so as not to startle the baby. "You walked into my hospital room thirty-six hours after I had major surgery and tried to leave me homeless with three newborns. You brought your mistress to gloat. What would you call that?"
"I was angry!" Adrian yelled. "You were always so... so quiet! You never told me who your family was! If I had known—"
"If you had known I was rich, you would have stayed?" I interrupted, a cold laugh escaping my lips. "You would have pretended to love me for another ten years? That’s not an excuse, Adrian. That’s a confession."
"I have rights, Evelyn!" he snarled, his voice turning vicious. "Those are my sons too! If you don't call off your father's lawyers, I will go to the press. I'll tell them that the Vance family is using their wealth to kidnap my children and ruin a self-made man. I'll drag your name through every tabloid in the country!"
"Go ahead," I said, my voice completely devoid of fear. "Do you think the press will take the side of a man who was fired for embezzling corporate funds to buy his mistress a Birkin bag while his wife was in labor? Do you think the public will sympathize with you when they see the security footage of you throwing divorce papers onto my hospital bed?"
The line went silent for a long three seconds.
"You... you have footage?" Adrian whispered, his voice suddenly shaking.
"The VIP maternity wing of the hospital has security cameras in the corridors, Adrian," I said. "And the nurse you dismissed so 'charmingly' recorded the entire conversation on her phone because she was disgusted by your behavior. We have you on video, in high definition, telling me I’m too ugly to be wanted, while Celeste Monroe boasts about her new bag."
I took a deep breath, looking down at my beautiful son sleeping against my breast.
"Don't call this number again, Adrian," I said. "From now on, you only speak to Arthur Pendelton. And believe me... he is not as polite as I am."
May you like
I hung up the phone and blocked the number.
As I sat there in the quiet luxury of the penthouse, I realized that the fear I had carried for five years—the fear of not being enough, of losing his approval, of being abandoned—had completely evaporated. He had no power over me anymore. He was just a small, angry man screaming into the wind.
