Page 19 of Forgotten Vows

"Yes!" The word explodes out of me. "Yes, exactly that. You don't understand—you don't know what he'll do?—"

"I know exactly what he'll do." Lachlan's voice turns cold, and there's something in his eyes that makes me take a step back. "I know your family has been keeping you prisoner for ten years." He stops, his jaw clenching, and I see his hands curl into fists at his sides. "I know what he's been doing to you, Adriana. I saw the photos."

My breath stops for an instant, and I feel dizzy.No no no no no.I don't want Lachlan to know any of this. I don't want him to know how much I've changed, what I've suffered, what I've had to do and become to keep my son safe. How I've had to cower and crawl and obey. I want him to remember me the way I was that last night, breathless and young and believing everything was going to be okay. Or, if not that, then the last time he saw me, frightened but still brave enough to get him free so he could live.

I'm not that girl any longer. And I don't think he's that boy, either. Looking at him now, I feel sure of it.

Which means there's nothing left for us. The pain that thought brings crashes through me so heavily that for a moment I can't think. I can't bear any more of it.

"You—" The shame of him knowing about those pictures feelsalmost as painful as the grief for what we've lost. "You had no right to take us?—"

"I had every right." He takes a step toward me, and I take another step back, darting between a row of seats to try to keep some distance between us. The closer he gets, the more impossible it is for me to think at all. "You're mine, Adriana. You've always been mine. And I'm not letting you go back to that house, back to a man who treats you like property?—"

"I'm not yours." The words come out as a whisper, barely audible over the roar of the engines as the plane lifts off the ground. "I haven't been yours for ten years. You don't get to just—just show up and decide?—"

"Mama?"

The small voice cuts through my panic and my fear and my rage, and I spin around to see Matteo standing in the aisle, his face pale and tear-streaked and his eyes wide with confusion and terror. My heart shatters into a thousand pieces at the sight of it. This is my fault, all my fault; I should have fought harder… should have donesomethingto stop this from happening….

"Baby." I turn my back on Lachlan and go to him immediately, crossing the space between us and dropping to my knees in front of him, my hands coming up to cup his face and wipe away his tears. "It's okay. Everything's okay."

But it's not okay. Nothing is okay. And he knows it—I can see it in his eyes, the way he's looking at me like he doesn't understand what's happening. His whole world has just been turned upside down, and he's waiting for me to fix it, to make it make sense.

"Who is he?" Matteo's voice is small and frightened. He's looking past me at Lachlan—at this stranger who just tore us out of our home in the middle of the night. "Why did he take us?"

"I—" I don't know how to answer that. I have no idea what to say that won't make this worse and terrify him more than he already is. "He's—he's someone I used to know. A long time ago."

"Is he going to hurt us?"

"No." I pull Matteo against me, wrapping my arms around him and holding him tight. "No, baby. He's not going to hurt us."

"Then why are you scared?"

Because I don't know who he is anymore. Because the boy I loved is gone and in his place is a man I don't recognize. Because I'm terrified of what Gio will do when he finds out we're gone. Because I'm terrified of what will happen if he catches us. Because I'm terrified of everything.

But I can't say any of that. I can't let Matteo see how close I am to falling apart completely.

"I'm not scared," I lie, smoothing his hair back from his forehead. "I'm just—I'm just confused. But it's going to be okay. I promise." I lead him to the back of the jet, several seats down. "Just stay here, okay? I need to talk to Lachlan, but it's going to be okay."

He nods, and I walk back down the aisle, feeling like I'm shaking from the inside out.

"Adriana." Lachlan's voice is softer now. "I know this is hard. I know you're scared. But I need you to trust me?—"

"Trust you? You want me to trust you? You, who just broke into my home and kidnapped me and my son? Who I haven't seen in ten years?"

Lachlan stares at me, his expression unreadable. For a long moment neither of us speaks, and I can feel the weight of everything unsaid pressing down on us, suffocating us. "I came back for you," he finally says, his voice low and rough. "I told you I would, and I did."

"Ten years too late." I see him flinch when I say it, but he holds my gaze, his jaw tight and his face resolute. "Ten years, Lachlan. Do you have any idea what the last ten years have been like? Do you have any idea what I've had to do to survive, to keep Matteo safe?"

"I know." His hands are clenched at his sides again. "I know, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner. But I'm here now, and I'm not letting you go back to that life. I'm not letting Gio?—"

"You don't know. You don't understand." My voice is rising again, panic clawing its way up my throat. "You don't understand what he'll do. When he realizes we're gone, when he figures out what happened—he'll come after us. He'll hunt us down. And when he finds us—" I can't finish the sentence because the images are flooding my mind, vivid and terrible: Gio's face twisted with rage, his hands around my throat, Matteo being dragged away screaming, being forced to watch while Gio makes an example of me, while he shows everyone what happens to people who try to leave. While he forces my son to kill someone… to killme, even. He'll break us both, find the most horrible ways to punish and torment us, and I can't… I can't let that happen, Ican't…

"He won't get to you or Matteo." Lachlan takes a step closer, his eyes locked on mine. "I promise you, Adriana. He won't?—"

"You can't promise that!" I shout, forgetting to keep my calm so that Matteo doesn't hear us. "You can't promise anything! You don't know him, you don't know what he's capable of?—"

"Mama, stop!" Matteo's voice comes from behind me, high and frightened. His small hands grab at my arm. "Stop yelling!"