"Your parents were there," I say, my voice dropping. "Your sister. They were wrecked, Leni. Completely destroyed. Your mom couldn't stop crying. Your dad just stood there, staring at the casket like he didn't believe it either. And Stefania..." I stop, shaking my head. "Stefania screamed your name when they started lowering the casket. She tried to run to it, and your dad had to hold her back."
"My poor parents. My sister," Elena says between silent cries, her voice hard to make out.
"They're all okay by the way," I say quickly, leaning forward. "They're in Bucharest. I made sure they were taken care of. LikeI promised I would. They don't know you're alive yet, but I promise you we'll figure that part out soon."
She nods, but the tears don't stop.
I rub my forehead and force myself to keep going.
"After the funeral, I..." I stop, the words not wanting to come out. "I didn't handle it well."
That's an understatement, but it's hard to admit your own faults sometimes.
"I drank," I say, my voice low. "A lot. Every night, every morning, every goddamn hour I could. I drank until I couldn't feel anything anymore. Until the world went numb."
Elena's eyes stay on me, wide and glistening with tears, but she doesn't speak.
"Matei, Victor, Lucian, they tried to help," I continue. "One by one they'd show up at my place, drag me out of bed, force me to eat, force me to shower. But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered."
I stop, my chest tightening. "I stopped caring if I lived or died."
Elena finally pulls her hands away from her face and scoots forward a little more, staring at me.
"I took reckless jobs," I say. "And if they weren't reckless, I made them be. I told myself I was doing it for the family, for the business, but the truth was, I wanted a bullet to find me so I could be reunited with you."
"Oh Adrian," she says, her voice breaking.
"I'm not proud of it," I say, shaking my head. "But that's the truth. That's what happened after you were gone. So you want toknow why I didn't come for you," I say and shrug, "I thought you were dead. I thought my lot in life was to hurry and get through it so I'd see you again wherever it is we go." I stop and smile. "I knew if there was an after, I'd find you."
She stares at me, tears streaming down her face, and I can see the guilt flickering in her eyes.
"Don't," I say, my voice firm. "Don't you dare feel guilty or regret our fight or what was said. None of this is your fault. I'm the one who feels stupid. I'm the one who feels I should have just kept looking, searching."
She shakes her head no.
I rub my face as all these things flood my mind.
"But then life changed," I say, "the universe correcting my path."
Elena's eyes narrow. "What changed?"
"Lucian sent me to Los Angeles to help Matei," I say. "Long story, but we were expanding into the West Coast. Anyway, I didn't want to go, but Lucian insisted. Said I needed to get out of Romania, clear my head."
Elena wipes the last of her tears away and keeps listening.
"I got there and we stumbled onto a Bulgarian trafficking ring," I say, my voice hardening. "We took them down. Every last one of them. We burned their operation to the ground, freed the girls they had locked up, and made sure they could never do it again."
Elena's eyes stay on me, wide and unblinking.
"And on a cleanup, I found a tablet," I say, my voice dropping. "It was in one of their main offices. On it were a bunch of folders and files, of names, dates, locations, and prices."
I stop, as the next part flashes in my mind before I can get it out.
"And then I saw your photo."
Elena's eyes go wide again. "You saw me?"
"Yes," I nod. "It was you. Your face, your name, everything. And next to it was a price tag, fifty million dollars paid by the Volkov Bratva."