me. I could hear them on an endless repeat. I often used them to buoy me up, to shore up my defenses to help me evade the siren song that was the link I had with Adam.
But I’d left Adam alone, until yesterday. I’d done as she asked, but fate had still worked its wiles against us.
Maybe it always would.
It all started with Adam grunting as he realized his battery had run dead on his phone.
Then we’d had to dig through both our bags on the hunt for a charger which, for whatever stupid reason, was in his suitcase and not his carry on.
When he’d found it, plugged it in, and let it charge some before turning it on, I’d switched on mine, which I hadn’t bothered with since I turned it off for takeoff in Tokyo, and the immediate pings didn’t altogether surprise me.
I ignored them as I went about making us some coffee, thanks to the basic goods in the kitchen, but when I instantly received a call, I peered at the screen and saw it was Robert.
Seeing his face light up the screen, Adam scrunched his nose.
“Do you have to answer that?”
“Probably. Must be about a contract he might have finalized.”
He heaved a sigh, then muttered, “Shame.”
I smiled a little, grabbed my phone, even as I filled the back of the Nespresso machine with water, and connected the call.
“Hey, Robert. I just woke up so be—”
“Thea! Thank God. I’ve been calling you all night.”
I blinked. “Why? What’s wrong? You knew I’d be landing soon.”
“I know you and Adam are close,” he rasped, sounding so unlike the Robert I knew that I scratched the crown of my head in surprise.
“I wouldn’t say we’re that close,” I muttered, rolling my eyes when Adam snorted.
“Well, we both know that’s a lie, Thea,” he rumbled, making my eyes widen. “Do you know where he might go in a—well, in a crisis?”
A crisis? What the hell was Robert talking about?
I cleared my throat. “This isn’t about a contract?”
“No, Thea. It’s about Adam.”
“I don’t want to talk about Adam,” I retorted stubbornly. “You know I value my privacy, and I’m on vacation, Robert. You were only supposed to call me when you had finalized the contracts.”
“Thea, for God’s sake, this is more important than a fucking contract. My son and my grandson’s lives are on the line. Do you know where he is? Where he might take Freddie if he was trying to, I don’t know, get away from everything?”
“Get away from what?” I ground out, getting mad. “What the fuck’s going on, Robert?”
“He killed Maria, Thea. He killed her, and he took Freddie with him. The cameras on the estate recorded most of it.” He choked for a second, before he whispered, “I-I didn’t believe it until I saw it.”
“Maria’s dead?” I whispered, and not unsurprisingly, Adam grabbed the phone out of my hand.
“What the hell, Dad? Maria’s dead?”
“Adam? What are you...? Oh fuck.” A choked sob burst down the line. “Are you in Australia? With Thea?”
“Yeah,” he spat. “I’m with Thea.”
A shaky breath came down the line. “I-I didn’t want to think you’d done it.”
“Done what?”
“Killed her.”
Adam shook his head, and I didn’t blame him for being confused. “Why would I kill her? I was getting a divorce. I’d have won the custody battle, you and I both know that. Sure, they usually side with the mother, but in this instance, with all the crap I have against her, I wouldn’t have needed to.” He blinked then reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “She’s really dead?”
“She’s really dead, son.”
“And the cops think I did it?”
“The cops knew you did it. They saw you.” He gulped. “T-They saw Cain.”
“That bastard. He tried to pin that shit on me?” A snarl escaped him, and he surged onto his feet and started pacing.
My mouth worked as I stared at him, then gaped at the phone.
This was it.
This was how it was always going to be, wasn’t it?
The most crazy, random ass shit being hurled at us from all directions because we dared to be together.
My mouth trembled, but I forced it to stop. I needed to stay strong. I had to.
Adam was innocent, and his presence here would prove that, but...
Cain had murdered Maria.
He’d murdered her.
And somehow, even worse than that, he’d pulled one of his usual moves and had tried to pin it on Adam.
I couldn’t stop myself from rounding the counter and walking into his path. He grabbed a