Countdown to "I Do" novel Chapter 17

**Midnight Roads Unseen by George Orwell**

**Chapter 17**

Ella’s slaps against Adrian’s arm grew increasingly feeble, her once vigorous struggles dwindling into a breathless stillness. It was as if the very life force within her was ebbing away, her eyes rolling back as she teetered on the brink of unconsciousness.

Just as the world began to fade into darkness around her, Adrian finally released his grip, his expression a tempest of turmoil.

Yet, the inferno blazing in his eyes showed no signs of abating, a storm brewing that threatened to consume them both.

“Cough, cough…” Ella gasped, her body wracked with desperate attempts to reclaim her breath, as if she were trying to expel a lung along with the suffocating weight of the moment.

And yet, amidst the chaos, there was a flicker of relief crossing her features, a quiet acknowledgment that she had survived this encounter, albeit at a great cost.

After what felt like an eternity, she began to regain her senses, the tears that had been held at bay now flowing freely down her cheeks, each drop a testament to her anguish.

“Adrian, you’ve completely misunderstood me. I never intended to deceive you, I swear I didn’t.”

“I love you, but I had no choice in this matter. If I don’t fight for the Vance family business, I will lose everything. I’ll end up destitute, begging on the streets. You wouldn’t want that for me, would you?”

A hollow laugh escaped Adrian’s lips, a sound so desperate it was more sorrowful than any cry of anguish.

“I can’t believe that even now, you’re still playing this game, still weaving your webs of lies!”

“You keep saying you love me, yet while you were in my bed, trying to create a life with me, you were also with other men. What does that say?

Wasn’t I enough for you?

Or is this simply the essence of who you are, willingly lowering yourself?”

“You claimed you had no choice, that you craved the Vance family fortune. You could have confided in me. I would have stood by you, fought for it with you. But why this insatiable greed?

You wanted everything from the Foster family too, and you even attempted to drug me to ensure I could never have children!”

“If you had just agreed to marry me, everything—the legacies of both the Vance and Foster families—would have been yours!

What was stopping you?

Why did you choose to trample on my feelings like this?”

Adrian’s voice trembled with raw pain as he pressed her for answers, his heart laid bare in the intensity of his words.

Ella’s complexion had drained of color, her expression a battlefield of conflicting emotions. Her lips quivered, struggling to form words, yet silence enveloped her like a suffocating shroud.

The private room was steeped in an oppressive stillness, the air thick with unspoken words and unresolved tension.

Fine, I’ll do it. We’ll get married, the three of us will forge a life together, and we’ll bury everything that has transpired before this moment. Let’s start anew, shall we?”

She awaited his response with an air of confidence, expecting him to embrace her proposition.

Yet, this time, he remained resolutely cold, his demeanor unyielding from start to finish.

“Ella, I genuinely regret ever loving you, and I mourn the loss of Isabella.”

“You managed to deceive me only because of my love for you; otherwise, your clumsy tricks would have never ensnared me.

But from this day forward, I no longer love you. I am letting you go, Ella.”

Adrian’s voice was eerily calm, as smooth as still water, devoid of the slightest tremor, as if he were discussing a matter entirely detached from his own life.

Yet beneath that tranquil exterior, a tempest raged within him, a chaos that threatened to unravel his very being.

To relinquish the love he had harbored for over a decade—a love that had become entwined with his identity—felt like tearing away a piece of festering flesh from his heart, a wound so deep it nearly rendered him unconscious.

But he had to remain steadfast.

There were still matters to address, responsibilities that called to him, demanding his attention amidst the turmoil.