When You Come Back

Clara hated the plan, although she understood why it existed.

Victor had agreed to meet Adrian at a family office with attorneys present. The police, who had been receiving evidence through legal counsel, were coordinating the next steps. Marcus would oversee building access with a team that didn't answer to Adrian's cousin.

Adrian wouldn't go alone. Clara would have no part in it. Nobody would ask her to call Victor or pretend she didn't know what she knew.

She asked twice whether the meeting was truly necessary.

“My attorneys could handle the conversation,” Adrian said. “I'm choosing to be there when we cut off his access to the businesses. The criminal proceedings are separate. Those are being handled by the people who need to handle them.”

“What if he reacts?”

Marcus explained the precautions at the location without giving details she didn't need. She listened to everything.

Then she asked for a few minutes alone with Adrian.

Marcus took Titan into the backyard. The door closed. The silence between them filled with things Clara couldn't put in order yet.

“I want to ask you to stay,” she admitted.

Adrian came to the couch.

“You can ask.”

“I know. I just don't want to find out I'm using fear to do the same thing that made me so angry.”

He sat beside her.

“Asking me to stay isn't the same as deciding I'm staying.”

Clara looked at their hands.

It was awful of him to say something reasonable at a moment like this.

“Then I'm asking.”

He took her fingers.

“I want to look at him when I tell him he won't get near you again. And I need to end the control he still has inside the family. I could send someone to do part of that. I don't want to.”

No promise could make the choice comfortable. She knew whom she was getting involved with. Even so, she needed him to see what it cost her.

“Don't tell me everything will be fine. Just tell me when you can call.”

“As soon as the meeting ends. And Marcus will keep you informed if anything changes.”

She nodded, rested her head against his shoulder, and stayed there until Titan scratched at the door.

The next morning, she made coffee she could barely drink.

Adrian came in wearing a dark suit, fastening his cuffs. She stepped closer to straighten a fold in his collar and stared at the place where the scar disappeared beneath his shirt.

He caught her hand before she could withdraw it.

“I'll call.”

“I'll answer.”

The goodbye kiss lasted longer than either of them seemed to intend. When he pulled away, she had to make herself let go.

Titan followed Adrian to the door, then returned when she called. He lay down beside her feet.

She tried working at the kitchen computer. She answered three agency messages, confirmed the following day's assignments, and read the same paragraph of an internal notice seven times.

At ten forty, Marcus told her everyone had arrived at the office.

At eleven fifteen, he said the meeting was still underway.

Clara took Titan into the yard with one of the people responsible for the house. The dog sniffed the fence, discovered a dry leaf, and returned with his toy between his teeth.

“You have an enviable ability to prioritize,” she told him.

She threw the blue toy a short distance. He went after it with a dignity that ended when he skidded on the wet grass.

Clara laughed. Then she wiped her eyes with her sleeve before realizing it wasn't only laughter.

Her phone rang at noon.

She answered so quickly she nearly dropped it.

“Clara, it's Marcus. Adrian's with me. There was a problem at the end, but he's all right. We're leaving now.”

“What problem?”

“Victor tried to leave the room when the officers arrived. He resisted, and the team had to intervene. Adrian wasn't injured. He wants to speak to you in person.”

“Put him on.”

A pause. Then the voice she needed to hear.

“I'm here.”

She closed her eyes.

“Are you really okay?”

“Yes. A chair caught my hand. Nothing else. Price can look at it if you insist.”

Her breath came out unsteadily.

“I'll insist.”

“I thought you might. We'll be there in less than an hour.”

The minutes that followed passed more slowly than the entire morning.

When the car appeared, Clara was already standing by the window. Titan reached the door first. After the guard confirmed the arrival, she opened it. The dog crossed the porch and went straight to Adrian.

He bent enough to rub the dog's neck. Clara stopped two steps away, checking his face, his shirt, his reddened hand.

Adrian straightened and came to her.

“I told you I'd call.”

She struck his chest once with her palm, without force.

“Don't make a joke right now.”

He put his arms around her before she could try speaking again.

The certainty of his body, warm and present, undid the tension she'd been holding since the night before. She clutched the back of his shirt and started crying, angry with herself for not managing to wait until they got inside.

Adrian took her in without letting go.

On the couch, she asked for the details she could bear to hear. Victor was in custody. The authorities had the records and the witness statements. His access permissions and control of resources had been blocked. He wouldn't be returning to the estate or accepting some discreet arrangement that let him keep his place at the family table.

What followed would take time. His ability to reach Clara through those channels had been cut off.

She touched Adrian's hand. There was only a shallow scrape near his knuckles, but she cleaned it anyway with supplies Marcus brought.

“You don't have to do that,” he said.

“I know.”

He let her finish.

Clara sat back and looked at him. She'd thought of several things to say while waiting. Every one of them seemed too small now.

“I love you,” she said before she could become afraid of the answer. “And I'm trying to figure out how to live with that without spending every day imagining I'll lose you.”

Adrian didn't smile. He moved closer and cupped her face with his uninjured hand.

“I love you too. I want to live long enough for you to complain about smaller things. My towel on the floor. What I buy the dog.”

A wet laugh escaped her.

“You buy him ridiculous things.”

“I know. I intend to continue.”

She closed her eyes as he rested his forehead against hers.

“I don't know how to make my life simple overnight,” he continued. “But I want to build a life with you. That means changing things I've never changed before. I'm willing to do it.”

She held his wrist, feeling the pulse beneath her fingers.

“Then we start with tomorrow.”

He kissed her. Titan pushed his head into the space between her knees and the couch, requesting attention in the middle of the promise.

Clara stroked him without opening her eyes.

This time, when she took a deep breath, she didn't have to look for blood on Adrian's shirt.