Chapter 5: The Man I Secretly Loved
1287 Words
Serena stared at Adrian's last message.
I got exactly what I was trying to prevent.
Her thumb hovered over the screen.
She wanted to ask what he meant.
She wanted to demand an explanation.
Most of all, she wanted to believe him.
That was the problem.
Some part of her still believed Adrian Blackwood before she believed anyone else.
Even after everything.
She locked her phone.
“No.”
The word came out quietly.
She couldn't do this again.
She had spent three years translating his silences into affection, his distance into stress, and his rare moments of tenderness into proof that somewhere beneath the cold exterior, he loved her.
Then he had looked her in the eyes and said he never had.
She wasn't going to let one mysterious message pull her back into the same trap.
Her phone buzzed again.
Adrian: Please.
Serena's chest tightened.
She stared at the single word.
Adrian Blackwood didn't say please.
Not to employees.
Not to investors.
Not to his family.
And certainly not to her.
She typed a response.
Serena: Tomorrow. After the board meeting.
She pressed send before she could change her mind.
His reply came almost instantly.
Adrian: Thank you.
Serena put the phone down.
She walked toward the bedroom, but stopped when she passed the mirror.
For a moment, she barely recognized the woman looking back.
Her eyes were swollen from crying.
Her hair had fallen loose from the neat style she'd spent an hour creating.
The emerald dress was still beautiful.
It simply no longer felt like hers.
She touched the empty space on her finger.
Then, against her better judgment, she remembered how it had all started.
Three years ago, before Adrian became her husband.
Before the divorce.
Before she learned that loving someone didn't mean they would choose you.
She had loved him long before he ever knew her name.
Not because he was a billionaire.
Not because of the Blackwood name.
It had started with something much smaller.
A rainy afternoon.
A hospital corridor.
And a man who had stayed when everyone else had left.
Serena closed her eyes.
The memory returned with uncomfortable clarity.
Three years earlier, she had been leaving the hospital after visiting her father when she saw Adrian for the first time that day.
He was standing near the entrance, speaking to an elderly woman who looked confused and frightened.
Serena slowed.
She didn't know why.
Maybe because Adrian looked different.
There was no expensive suit that day.
No boardroom.
No intimidating expression.
Just a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows.
The elderly woman was holding a hospital bill.
“I don't understand this,” she said.
Adrian took the paper from her.
“You don't need to understand it.”
“But I can't pay.”
“I'll take care of it.”
The woman stared at him.
“I don't know you.”
Adrian gave her a small smile.
“You don't need to.”
Then he walked away.
Serena had watched him disappear through the glass doors.
She hadn't known his name yet.
She hadn't known that he was Adrian Blackwood.
She had only known that the man everyone described as ruthless had quietly paid someone's hospital bill without waiting for gratitude.
That was the first c***k in her judgment.
The second came a few weeks later.
She saw him at a business conference.
This time, he was exactly the man she had heard about.
Cold.
Sharp.
Untouchable.
An executive was presenting a proposal that Serena knew was terrible.
Adrian listened without interrupting.
When the presentation ended, he simply said,
“No.”
The executive swallowed.
“Sir, if you give us another—”
“No.”
Adrian closed the file.
“We don't invest in businesses because we feel sorry for them. We invest because we believe they can survive.”
The room fell silent.
Serena had almost laughed.
So the rumors are true.
Then Adrian turned to her.
Their eyes met.
It lasted only a few seconds.
But Serena remembered it.
He had looked at her as if he had noticed her long before she had noticed him.
That night, she asked Daniel about him.
“Adrian Blackwood?”
Daniel had looked suspicious.
“Why?”
“Nothing.”
“You don't ask about billionaires for nothing.”
Serena had ignored him.
She told herself it was curiosity.
It wasn't.
She fell quietly.
Painfully.
Without ever intending to.
And Adrian never knew.
When he eventually asked her to marry him, Serena had thought fate was finally being kind.
She had been wrong about that too.
The memory faded.
Serena opened her eyes.
She was back in her apartment.
Back in the present.
Back to the man who had divorced her.
She walked to the bedroom and changed out of the emerald dress.
Her phone remained silent.
She wondered if Adrian was still awake.
Then she hated herself for wondering.
She climbed into bed.
Sleep refused to come.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw him sitting across from her.
I never loved you.
The sentence repeated until it became unbearable.
At 2:13 a.m., Serena finally got up.
She walked to the kitchen and poured herself water.
Her phone lit up on the counter.
A new message.
She picked it up.
It was from Daniel.
Daniel: The board meeting is confirmed for 9 a.m.
Serena replied:
Serena: Good.
Then another message appeared.
This one wasn't from Daniel.
It was Adrian.
Adrian: You were always the only person I trusted.
Serena stared at the screen.
Her heart squeezed.
She typed:
Serena: You should have remembered that before you divorced me.
She sent it.
No reply came.
She placed the phone facedown.
Then she heard a sound outside.
A car door closing.
Serena froze.
Her apartment was on the third floor.
She walked carefully toward the window.
The street below was quiet.
A black SUV was parked across the road.
Its headlights were off.
Someone was sitting inside.
Serena watched.
The driver's door opened.
A man stepped out.
He looked toward her building.
Her heart began beating faster.
Then her phone vibrated.
She nearly jumped.
A message from the unknown number.
Stop looking into Blackwood Industries.
Serena's eyes narrowed.
Another message followed.
Your husband tried to protect you.
She stared at the words.
Then the third message appeared.
If you continue, Adrian won't be able to save you next time.
Serena looked through the window again.
The man outside was gone.
The SUV was still there.
Her breathing became shallow.
She stepped away from the window.
For the first time, the divorce didn't feel like the biggest problem in her life.
Maybe Adrian had been telling the truth.
Maybe there really was something happening behind Blackwood Industries.
And maybe the man she had secretly loved for three years had known exactly how dangerous it was.
Her phone rang.
Serena looked at the screen.
Adrian.
She hesitated.
Then answered.
“Hello?”
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Finally, Adrian's voice came through.
“Serena, listen to me carefully.”
Something in his tone made her sit down.
“What?”
“Don't go to the board meeting tomorrow.”
Her brows drew together.
“Why?”
“Because I won't be there.”
She frowned.
“Then where will you be?”
Silence.
“Adrian?”
His breathing sounded heavier.
Then he said,
“Someone knows what you did.”
Serena's heart stopped.
“What are you talking about?”
“The shares. SV Capital. Everything.”
She stood.
“Who knows?”
Another silence.
Then Adrian said the one thing she wasn't prepared to hear.
“My father.”
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