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Adalena finds joy in working from home. She finds joy in watching the sun rise and set after a long day meeting people and thriving in her business.
She finds joy in watching the Las Vegas skyscrapers from her high rise penthouse while she sips on a glass of expensive wine to get her to sleep.
What she doesn't like is being ignored by the one person she really ever talks to only to be bombarded by said person in the dead of night, a smudged lipstick stain on his scarred face.
She remembers him telling her how he got it and she's always noticed it, but the sight of a woman's mark on it is enough to light something up within her.
She shouldn't be jealous. They're not together. She just asked him to be her baby daddy, he said yes. Nothing else to it.
"We're not ready for a baby, Lena."
Okay, something more to it.
She says nothing, just stares at him and nods. Not like she can force him and she doesn't really feel like fiending for an excuse. A moment passes, silence tense between the two.
"That why you were ignoring me for a month?" She questions, head tilted as she stares at him.
He huffs and maintains eye contact with the woman he loves. "I was thinking."
"You were thinking..." She repeats. Her eye twitches. "Okay. Is that all?" She dismisses, her pride too strong to look away from him.
He narrows his eyes at her, allowing his body to lean forward and rest his hands on the island separating the two, "You're not ready for a baby, Lena. You know it —"
"Don't patronize me, Adriano." She stresses, "I know that I'm ready for a baby and that's all that matters."
"You're not, Adalena. You can't even commit to a relationship, how are you going to commit to a child?"
His words hit her harder than he'd hoped, but she doesn't react. Adriano can read past her walls though — he knows she'll attack him so that she can keep her defense up.
This is how every argument between them goes, it seems. One says something they mean, the other gets offended and defensive all at once and everything goes to shit for the couple of minutes it takes them to bury their pride.
"Don't start with that commitment bullshit." She scoffs and downs the rest of her wine. "I don't need another man or woman in my life to sway me from what I've had my sights on. You don't get to tell me what I am or am not ready for."
"Why do you want a baby, Adalena?" The criminal poses the question.
"I told you."
"It wasn't enough. Why do you want a baby?"
Adalena pauses, knowing she can't keep the secret any longer. That's the thing about her best friend. He knows her too well, better than her mother or her father. She knows she can't keep much from him.
But one thing about her? She'll try.
"If you're not going to help me, you don't need to know." Adriano scoffs and leans back at her words. He's frustrated, she can tell, but he knows that's all he's going to get from her for now. "You can go back to whatever girl you were giving your time tonight. Your priorities were obviously misplaced by coming here."
Adriano rounds the island and rests a hand on her cheek, recognizing her defensive words. She's hurt about the fact he changed his mind but he's going with his gut. He knows it's not the right thing to do.
"You will always be my first priority, Adalena. But you need to stop lying to yourself and me. There's something you're hiding from me and I care about you too much for you to let it control you like this."
She blinks and looks away, avoiding his gaze for the first time tonight. "Adriano, you don't know what you're talking about."
There's nothing else to be said. Which is why he presses a kiss to her temple and walks away, leaving the woman to her own devices as she fights the internal battle that's been raging since the day she got the news that pushed her into this.
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oooo what do y'all think lena is hiding?
also, sorry if this chapter doesn't make sense, im in class and exhausted asf😭
