Until Her - Ami Van Page 0,82
it’s physically possible.
“Oh God,”’ she whispers. “I-I think I’m going to be sick.”
But she’s unable to peel her eyes away from the screen even as Isabella straddles Adam and continues to stroke Derrick.
To credit, Derrick does somehow move out of her grip to sleep on his side. Isabella is truly enjoying every single second of it. The power…the control…of having a man…two men…completely at her disposal must be intoxicating for a power-hungry slut like Isabella.
“She…she raped him.” It sounds strange to say, even to her own ears. But it’s true. Both men are clearly unconscious.
She can’t get herself to watch any more so she forwards the video to the end where Isabella has half covered herself and with the help of Cristian, they pose the two unconscious men in various positions to look like they were willing participants while Cristian takes pictures.
Then, Isabella works at waking them up.
It’s clear that when they do awaken, they’ve seen the destruction it’s left behind.
She watches, eyes wide open when a man helps Adam walk off the frame. But she sees Isabella, still half-covered on the bed, flinch at the flashes that appear on screen. She can only assume what happened but it didn’t matter to her right now.
“Son of a bitch!” she says.
Anger rises within her like never before. Not just for herself and what’s happened between Adam but for Derrick and Stella too. This could have destroyed their love and their family. It nearly did.
“She never…she wasn’t with Derrick,” she blurts out, trying to lessen the pain for her friend. At least, Stella can have that.
“I’m going to kill your brother and sister, Ariana,” Stella deadpans.
Stella’s statement snaps her out of her thoughts like a bee sting. Her eyes shoot over to meet Stella’s hardened hazel gaze.
“My…my brother and sister?” she asks in confusion.
“Can you trust me on this?” Stella asks her. “I had Brooks dig and dig until I found out why Isabella hated you so much, Ari. I’ve been searching high and low. I made sure every stone was left unturned.”
“The debt,” she answers. “My mom owed them so much money.”
Stella shakes her head.
“No, Ariana. Think about it. Your mother was their housekeeper. She lived on the estate, in the house that you lived your entire life. She was never married and her salary was decent enough. She never had any needs that would have required her to borrow a large amount of money. Large enough that would require you to pay for it for the rest of your life.”
She’s thought about that time and time again. Mostly after each time she was severely beaten or during the times where she was trying to detox herself from the drugs. She’d lie down wherever her body can curl up at night in her suffering and wondered why her mother would leave this responsibility upon her. She wondered what her mother needed the money for and came up empty every single time.
She looks at Stella. “I trust you,” she says quietly and honestly. “What really happened? I need to know the truth.”
Stella nods and takes a deep breath then straightens up in her seat.
“Pietro Romano was your father too, Ariana.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Pietro Romano was your father too, Ariana.”
She immediately shakes her head.
“No. NO!” she says, trying to forget what she’s just heard. “Stella, that can’t be true. He hated me! He wouldn’t even look at me and he taught his children to hate me the same too.”
Her hands tremble as her mind and thoughts race to make sense of what’s just been said. The jitters immediately onslaught everything in its path but she fights tooth and nail not to succumb.
“No,” she repeats more to herself than to Stella.
“Ariana,” Stella calls out to her gently. “Listen to me. You have to listen. I’m here and you can do this. This is the answer to what you’ve been asking. This is what you’ve been searching for your whole life.”
She looks at Stella’s beautiful face and sees so much concern in her friend’s eyes.
“Adam,” she says, calling out his name on instinct. She needs him to take this away. Adam can control her thoughts and take away her fear.
Every cell in her body is terrified. Not of Stella but of the truth and Adam is the one person who’s ever taken this…fear…away. She needs him to take control so that she doesn’t have to manage it. How sick is that?
“Stay strong,” Stella encourages. “Stay strong for Adam but more so, for yourself.”
She manages to focus on