All three of us go to our knees in front of her bed at the same time.
Her breath catches.
I hold her gaze. “Then hear this part clearly. We’re so sorry, Adelaide. Not in some quick, neat way that asks you to move on. I’m sorry in the way that keeps you awake. In the way that sits in your chest and doesn’t let you breathe right.”
Luca nods once, hard. “I’ll apologize for as long as you need me to. A week, a month, an eternity. However long it takes to make you believe I mean it.”
Ace bows his head slightly. “We should’ve trusted you with the truth sooner and let you decide with all the facts instead of half of them. That’s on us, and I’m going to spend every damn second making it up to you.”
I drag a breath into my lungs and hold her gaze. “We can’t change what we were. I’m not going to stand here and dress it up into something cleaner just because I want this to hurt you less. It happened. We did those things, and they belong to us.” My voice roughens despite everything I do to keep it steady. “But that isn’t who we are now, and never with you. Ask me anything, Adelaide. Ask all of it. The ugly parts, the pieces we left out, the things you think might break this wider open. I’ll reveal it all to you.” I swallow once. “And when I’m done, I just… I hope youcan still see the men who are in front of you now and let that matter too.”
Her face crumples, and the sight rips straight through me. “I do see you,” she whispers. “That’s the problem. I see you, I believe you, and I hate that it still hurts this much anyway.”
Ace nods. “You don’t have to process it all tonight. There’s no rush.”
She lets out a shaky breath, then presses both hands harder to her stomach as another wave rolls through her. Her whole body folds with it, a small, broken sound leaving her before she can stop it.
She takes a shaky breath, like she means to say more, but it catches on the way out. Her hands press harder to her stomach, her shoulders pulling tight. I watch the effort it takes for her to stay upright through whatever fresh wave just hit her, and it kills me to sit back.
Then she glances at us again, eyes wet, mouth trembling. “You have no idea how much it hurts to be away from you.”
Every muscle in my body goes tight.
She lets out a breath that almost turns into a laugh and doesn’t make it. “And I don’t even understand it. None of you have marked me, so it shouldn’t feel this intense.” Her hand presses harder against her stomach. “But the craving has been unbearable.”
The room tightens with the carnal hunger strangling my balls.
I rise first, slowly, then Ace and Luca with me, and we move onto the bed around her by instinct, by need. We come close but do not touch until she’s ready, so we leave the last inch to her.
“Thank you,” she says, and her voice is so wrecked it nearly breaks me. “For telling me all of it. There is so much to unpack, and I’m still confused, not ready to fully forgive and accept yourpasts…” She closes her eyes for one second, opens them again. “But in my heart, I don’t think you’re those men anymore.”
Relief hits so hard it makes me dizzy.
“I do believe you,” she whispers. “And fully accepting it might just take some time.”
“Does that mean you’re not kicking us away?” Luca asks.
She laughs. “Nope.”
Luca leans in slightly, dark eyes fixed on her face. “That means everything.”
Ace’s hand hovers near her knee, not touching. “I can breathe again. If I lost you…”
I grin, holding her attention, when there’s a knock at the door.
It’s Adelaide who gets up and goes to open the door. Clio steps inside, phone in hand. She does a sweep of the room, at the three of us gathered near the bed, and lifts her brows. “Got hold of Chris,” he says. “And he’s going to do the world’s smallest spying job in the morning and report back. He knows it’s got to be super discreet.” Her mouth pinches at the side. “And I may have mentioned you met three Alphas.”
Adelaide exhales, and color rises to her cheeks. “Well, I’m sure he’ll have a billion questions. But in truth, I had mentioned it to him in passing.”
“So, how’s it going in here?” Clio asks, taking a wide glance of the room once more.
Adelaide stares back at us, and I’m watching every small change in her expression, every flicker of hesitation. It says so much. Then she’s facing Clio once more. “We spoke, and I believe what they told me. I get that they’re not the men they once were. Not that it excuses their past, but right now, I do trust them.”
Clio studies her. “Babe, are you sure?”
Adelaide presses a hand to her stomach, still wrapped in her robe. “There’s still so much I need to come to terms with, but deep down, I believe what we have is real.” Clio’s hand grips Adelaide’s.
Hearing her say those words touches me, reassures me that she hasn’t given up on us, which means the whole fucking world to me.
