Reverence In Ruin

Chapter Thirteen

The study was tense. Voss stood with his back to the room, his silhouette sharply outlined against the stormy window. The only sound was the low hum of the servers and the frantic drumming of the rain.

Rino didn't wait for the tension to lift. He tossed his jacket over a chair and leaned against the desk, his eyes fixed on the back of Voss's head.

“She’s in the west wing,” Rino said, his voice flat. “But let’s stop pretending, V. If you’re holding her here for a slow revenge, just finish it now. If she was part of the setup, if her love was just a long con for the enemy then why are we dragging this out? End it and let the Southern District know the debt is settled.”

Voss turned, his face a mask of stone. “You think I don't want to? Every time I look at her, I see the lie I lived for a year. I see the woman who sat in that shack in Bonifacio, whispering promises while waiting for the men to come and kill me.”

“And the kid?” Rino tilted his head toward the hallway. “What was she? Part of the act? Because I saw her, Adrian. She looks like you. Not a little, a lot. It’s like looking into a mirror that’s skipped twenty years.”

“It’s impossible,” Voss hissed, his fingers curling into a fist. “It’s a trick. A visual bait. She probably chose a child that would hit home, or it’s just a cruel coincidence of light. She was never mine. It was all an act.”

Rino straightened, his expression hardening. “Your anger is blinding you. You want so badly to see her as the villain that you’re ignoring the simple fact standing in your nursery. Look at the girl, Adrian. Stop being a coward and actually look at her.”

“Get out!” Voss’s voice cracked like a whip.

"Don't say I didn’t warn you."

Rino didn't flinch, but he didn't stay. He walked out, leaving the door ajar.

**********

The air in the suite was thick with unspoken words until Voss broke the silence. He didn't just walk in; he barged in, the heavy door crashing against the wall with a force that matched the storm outside.

He didn’t stop until he was in her face, his shadow looming over her.

"You betrayed me," he said, the words tasting like copper and anger. "Every touch, every morning in that shack, you were just waiting for the check to clear. You sold out the man who trusted you for a life in the gutter."

Amelia laughed, a sharp, humorless sound. She stepped forward, closing the gap until her chest nearly touched his. "I betrayed you? You left, Adrian! No word, no explanation. Just disappeared as if you'd died." She tapped into her pain, her voice rising. "What was I supposed to do with that filthy, cold note you left? Frame it? Keep it under my pillow while I wondered if the men who came for you would come back to finish me?"

"I left to keep the rot from touching you," Voss shouted, his hand crashing into the mahogany dresser beside her head. "But the rot was already there, wasn’t it? It was in you. Your love was a scripted lie, a show to keep the target still while the blade was sharpened. And now? Now I’m going to make you regret every breath you took in that village. I’m going to make you wish you never knew my name."

Amelia didn’t back down. She leaned into the heat of his anger, her eyes wide and blazing with a hatred that matched his.

"Regret knowing you?" she whispered, her voice shaking with rage. "You think I like you now? You think I see this monster in a thousand-dollar suit and feel anything but disgust? I hate your guts, Adrian. I hate the way you breathe, the way you look at me like I’m a debt to be collected. I want to strangle you right now. I want to feel the life leave you just so I can finally have some peace from the ghost of who you used to be."

Voss tightened his grip on the dresser until the wood creaked. His face was inches from hers, his eyes searching for a hint of the woman he used to know, but finding only a reflection of his own cold revenge.

"Then do it," he whispered, his voice dropping to a fearful, intimate tone. "Reach out and try. But remember this, Amelia, you’re in my world now. And in this world, nobody leaves until I say the debt is paid in full."

He didn’t wait for her reply. He stepped back, the movement as sudden and jarring as his entrance. He left her standing in the center of the room, the echo of their shared venom still hanging in the air. As the lock clicked shut, the weight of the house settled around them a beautiful, dark tomb where love had finally turned into a war with no winners.