Chapter 16 - The Broken Crown
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The next few hours were a bloody, frantic nightmare.
Sophia, relying on the basic first-aid training she had learned years ago, assisted Marcus in digging the bullet out of Adrian’s shoulder and stitching the wound closed. Adrian remained unconscious, his face pale and covered in a sheen of cold sweat.
When it was finally over, Marcus sat heavily in a chair, wiping blood from his hands with a towel.
“He shouldn't have come here,” Marcus muttered, staring at his unconscious boss. “The Russos will tear the city apart looking for him. If they find this safe house, we’re all dead.”
“He came here because he had nowhere else to go,” Sophia said quietly, washing her own hands in the small kitchen sink. She looked down at the crimson dress she was wearing, now ruined and stained with Adrian’s blood. It felt poetic, in a dark, twisted way.
By dawn, Adrian began to stir.
Sophia was sitting beside the cot, staring blankly at the wall. When Adrian groaned, his eyes fluttering open, she didn't rush to hold his hand. She just watched him.
Adrian blinked against the harsh fluorescent lights, clutching his bandaged shoulder. He looked around the sparse room, his eyes finally landing on Sophia.
“You’re safe,” Adrian breathed, a faint, relieved smile touching his lips.
“I am,” Sophia replied, her voice entirely devoid of warmth. “No thanks to you.”
The smile vanished from his face. He tried to sit up, wincing in pain. “Sophia... Dante is dead. The engagement to Valentina is broken. There’s nothing keeping us apart anymore.”
“Adrian, you just started a war that will likely kill hundreds of people,” Sophia said softly, the tragic reality of his world suffocating her. “You didn't break the engagement for me. You broke it because Dante tried to put a bullet in your head.”
“I came here to find you,” Adrian pleaded, his gray eyes shining with a desperate vulnerability she had never seen before. The ruthless king was begging. “I have enough money stashed away. We can leave. We can disappear to Europe. Just you and me. I’ll walk away from the empire.”
Sophia looked at the man she had loved for four years. She saw the exhaustion, the fear, and the genuine, desperate love he held for her. It broke her heart into a million irreparable pieces.
“You can never walk away from the empire, Adrian,” Sophia whispered, a single tear tracing down her cheek. “It’s in your blood. The Russos would hunt us to the ends of the earth. We would never be safe. I would spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, waiting for the day they finally put a bullet in you.”
“I can protect you!” he argued frantically, reaching out for her.
Sophia stepped back, out of his reach. “You didn't protect me, Adrian. I had to threaten you with a flash drive just to get out of a room alive. I had to run barefoot through a parking garage while your enemies tried to shoot me. That is not love. That is captivity.”
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Adrian stared at her, the devastating truth of her words finally breaking through his arrogant defenses. He slumped back onto the cot, entirely defeated.
“What are you going to do?” he whispered, his voice cracking.
