Dusk Snow Hides All Return (Rowan and Adrienne) novel Chapter 25

Chapter 25.

Rowan stood there looking the two of them. His eyes were wastelands.

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“Before, you used family to guilt me into compliance,” he said, voice soft, every word cutting straight to the bone. “Now switch over and use your guilt instead?”

you want to

“All your love went to Desmond. Now you regret it, and I’m just supposed to fall on ray knees in gratitude and come back?”

He laughed. Tears slipped down in silence.

“Too late. The moment you threw me away, you stopped deserving to be my parents.”

“That declaration was the last shred of dignity we had left.”

“Don’t show up in my life again.”

He turned and walked through the door, shutting their gut–wrenching sobbing outside.

With his back against the cold door, he slowly slid down to the floor and buried his face in his knees. No sound. Just his shoulders shaking silently.

It wasn’t that he didn’t hurt.

It was that the wound had gone septic a long time ago. It was never going to heal.

Four months later, spring arrived in Montreal.

Rowan’s life had settled into something steady.

His French was fluent now.

He’d landed,

solid translation job. Every so often, a faint smile would show up on his face.

He and Viena were getting closer.

They had meals and watched movies together, and the way she looked at him was soft and fully locked in.

Adrienne watched from a distance. Jealousy chewed through her heart. She didn’t dare step in.

That was until the day a friend called her in a panic. “Ms. Merritt, your ex–fiancé–looks like somebody’s about to propose!”

The cord inside Adrienne’s head, the one that had been stretched way too tight for way too long, finally snapped.

She raced to the Riverside Restaurant. She got there just in time to see Viena walking out holding his hand, both of them smiling.

The world drained of color in an instant. All that was left was that one brutal image burning into her eyes.

She charged over, ripped Viena off him, and stared at Rowan with bloodshot eyes. “You’re marrying her?”

business.” Rowan frowned. “None of your

“None of my business?” Adrienne let out a broken, ugly laugh. “You are my fiancé!”

“We’re done. Long done.”

“I never agreed!” She screamed it. She grabbed him and started dragging him away.

Viena stepped in to block her. Adrienne threw a punch, hard, and knocked her off.

The two women went at it by the river. Adrienne was a full–on wild animal off its leash. Every punch landed. In the end, Viena went down, out cold on the ground.

Adrienne dragged Rowan over to the railing by the river. Night had fallen. The water underneath was pitch black.

“If I died,” she said, staring into his ice–cold eyes. Out of nowhere, she smiled. The smile was in pieces. “Would you forgive me?” “No.” His voice didn’t move. “If you died, I’d just feel free.”

Chapter 25

Okay Adrienne nodded. Her eyes were set. “Then what if I die for you?”

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Before the words were fully out, she was already over the railing, throwing herself into the freezing St. Lawrence River.

“Adrienne-!”

Rowan’s pupils shrank. He lunged for the railing. Only ripples remained on the black water.

His whole body went cold. He fumbled his phone out with shaking hands, trying to dial emergency, but his fingers wouldn’t work.

“Rowan…” A weak voice came up from below.

Adrienne was clinging to the base of the bridge, half of her submerged in the freezing river, looking up at him. Her face was bone–white in the dark.

“See? I can die for you.”

“You’re insane! Get up here!” he shouted down at her.

“Forgive me, and I’ll come up.”

“You’re threatening me?”

“Yes.” Her voice shook. He couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or from the despair. “Rowan, I am threatening you Either you forgive me and come home with me, or you let me die right here.”

The current was pulling hard. Her fingers, gripping the base of the bridge, were slowly going white.

“Just come up! I won’t call the cops!”

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