Chapter 337
SIERRA.
“Adrian p>
The name leaves Noah’s lips like a ghost.
His name and the familiarity in it loops in my mind on repeat, echoing over and over no matter how hard I try to shut it out.
“Noah p>
Besides me, Adrian stills as if he’s seen a ghost. He looks at Noah like he doesn’t trust what he is currently seeing.
That stillness, his reaction, sends something cold slithering down my spine.
I try to wrap my head around what the hell is happening but it’s hard. It’s like for a moment my brain has shut down and stopped working. I reboot it over and over again, but nothing happens. It won’t load no matter how many times I try to get it functioning, so I stand there, arms at my side, my eyes shifting between the two men. My past and my future.
Slowly, I pull back, my lips parting slightly as I turn my head. Maybe I didn’t hear them correctly, right? Maybe it’s a coincidence. I mean, there are so many Adrians and Noahs in the world, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they know each other.
They can’t know each other. They just can’t, because that would make it a very cruel twist of fate.
My eyes move back to them again as I try my best to stop the sinking feeling weighing heavily over me.
Noah looks like he’s just been hit by a truck. His face is pale, his eyes wide, fixed entirely on Adrian like he can’t quite believe what he’s seeing. Adrian, on the other hand, looks like he’s trying to figure out what is happening.
His hand, which had been resting on my waist, tightens just slightly, not enough to hurt, but enough for me to notice.
“Wh-what are you doing here?” Noah stammers the words, his voice hollow and broken.
It’s like he knows the truth, a truth I’m blind to, but it’s also like he needs to hear it out loud. Hear it from Adrian’s mouth.
“I could ask you the same thing, Noah,” Adrian says, his voice tinged with a certain dangerous edge to it.
Have you ever been in the middle of something and yet felt completely outside of it? Like you’re watching it unfold from a distance, like a dream you can’t wake up from? That’s what this feels like. I’m here. I’m part of this but somehow, I feel detached.
“You two know each other?” I ask finally, my voice quieter than I intend.
Part of me doesn’t want the answer but I need it.
“Yes,” Noah growls while Adrian says nothing. Just gives a single, confirming nod.
For a moment It feels like the ground disappears beneath me. Like the rug has been ripped out from under my feet and I’m left falling with no idea what I’m about to land on.
I try to make sense of everything, but nothing works because my brain refuses to believe that they know each other.
I take a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down… Maybe it’s not as bad as I think. Maybe they’re just acquaintances. Maybe their families know each other…
Maybe.
Maybe.
Maybe.
My mind latches onto every possible explanation, desperate for one that doesn’t shatter everything.
“H-how?” I stammer, the word catching in my throat.
I’m afraid of the answer because deep down, I already know that whatever he says next is going to change everything.
“He’s one of my best friends,” Adrian says the words sounding forced. Like they don’t want to leave his mouth.
My heart stutters and sinks at the same time. I swallow. “One of the two you’ve always told me about p>
He nods and just like that, my breath gets stuck in my lungs.
Adrian always told me about his two best friends. He never told me their names or much about them, just that both of them are into business and one of them is a widower with two kids.
To be honest I never connected the pieces because there are so many widowers with two kids, and it never ever crossed my mind that the person he was talking about could be Noah.