Chapter 11 - LILY’S BETRAYAL
The basement holding room at federal headquarters was windowless and cold.
Adrian slammed his hand against the glass partition.
On the other side sat Lily Monroe, wearing an orange jumpsuit, handcuffs resting on the metal table.
She looked up, her face bruised by panic and betrayal.
“Adrian!” she cried out, rushing toward the glass.
“You have to get me out of here!”
“You embezzled twenty million dollars from my accounts and leaked my routes to Sterling?!” Adrian roared into the intercom.
“I had to!” Lily sobbed hysterically.
“Sterling threatened my family!”
“You lied to me!” Adrian slammed his fist against the glass again.
“Every word you said was a trap!”
“You should have saved me at the warehouse!” Lily screamed back, her mask of cool composure shattering completely.
“If your men had reached me first, none of this would have happened!”
Adrian froze.
The words hung in the sterile room like a guillotine blade.
If your men had reached me first...
He had chosen Lily because she was his financial accomplice, because he feared what she would reveal if captured.
He hadn't chosen her out of love.
He had chosen her out of self-preservation.
And in doing so, he had lost the only person who had ever truly loved him for who he was.
Adrian slowly stepped back from the glass.
The cold truth settled over him like winter frost.
May you like
He had won the empire.
And lost everything else.
