Countdown to "I Do" novel Chapter 9

**Midnight Roads Unseen by George Orwell**

**Chapter 9**

“Just say what you need to say,” Adrian urged, his tone casual yet tinged with an undercurrent of tension.

As he spoke, he casually toweled off his damp hair, the fabric of his loose bathrobe clinging to his form. It did little to conceal the hickeys and scratches that marred his muscular chest, remnants of a night filled with passion.

Ella, standing before him, bit her lip, feigning a look of concern as she extended her phone towards him, the screen illuminating her expression.

“The person in this video… it looks so much like Isabella. Am I seeing things wrong?” she asked, her voice laced with a feigned innocence. “Weren’t you two already engaged? Planning a wedding? How could she possibly accept another man’s proposal and marry him?”

“Could she really be cheating on you with someone else?” she added, her eyes glinting with a malicious curiosity. But then, she quickly shifted her tone, attempting to defend Isabella. “No, that can’t be her in the video! Isabella loves you too much for that. It must just be someone who resembles her!”

“Why don’t we just show this video to Isabella? Maybe they’re long-lost sisters or something,” she suggested, a hint of sarcasm creeping into her voice.

“But really, those two in the video look fantastic together. They seem like a perfect match. Everyone is saying how happy and compatible they appear,” she continued, her words dripping with a false sweetness.

With each passing moment, Ella’s explanations only deepened the weight of guilt hanging over Isabella. Adrian’s expression darkened, his dark eyes narrowing, a fire igniting within him.

He wasn’t naïve; he recognized the faces in that video all too well.

“That’s Isabella and Jared!” he exclaimed, disbelief and anger surging through him like a tidal wave. “How could she accept Jared’s proposal? Has she completely lost her mind?”

Fury coursed through his veins, and he felt an overwhelming urge to call Isabella, to confront her and demand answers. But as he reached for his phone, reality hit him like a punch to the gut—he had been blocked. His call wouldn’t go through!

Even worse, he realized he had been erased from all her contacts, a digital ghost in her life.

Suddenly, the long message and video Isabella had sent him just hours earlier flashed vividly in his mind.

In that instant, the fiery anger within him was doused by a chilling wave of ice-cold realization. “She… knows everything?” he murmured, his heart racing as chaos erupted in his mind.

His fingers trembled as he tapped on the video.

There they were—him and Ella—wrapped in each other’s arms, lost in a wild, chaotic embrace that had lasted far too long. The video was shaky, and he could almost feel the weight of Isabella’s heartbreak as she watched it unfold.

Adrian felt his complexion pale, his voice lost in the turmoil of his mind.

How could he reconcile the fact that someone who once loved him so fiercely could suddenly declare that love extinguished?

But if Isabella truly knew about his actions, there was no way she could accept him.

If she didn’t know, she would still be by his side, unwavering. Someone had to have spilled the secrets, the truth that had shattered their bond.

In a flash, a face appeared in his mind—Julian!

With a surge of determination, Adrian dialed Julian’s number, his heart pounding with urgency.

“Did you tell Isabella everything I did?” he demanded, his voice edged with accusation. “Why else would she agree to marry someone else?”

Julian’s silence on the other end was palpable, a frozen moment that felt like an eternity.