Becoming Mrs DeLuca novel Chapter 86

**Through Shadows We Painted Our Forever by Erynn Vel Coren**

“You came back.”

The words slipped from Serena’s lips like a whisper carried by the wind, soft yet heavy with an unspoken weight. There was a distinct edge to her tone this time, a calculated undertone that sent a ripple of unease through me. She perched by the window, her hair cascading over one shoulder, the morning light dancing around her features, illuminating the delicate contours of her face. It was the same face I had glimpsed in the photographs Adrian had once tucked away, a face that should have remained a distant memory, lost in shadows. Yet here she was, undeniably present.

“Yeah, I did,” I replied, my voice slightly trembling as I stood rooted by the door.

A knowing smile graced her lips, one that seemed to hold secrets I had yet to uncover. “Thank you, Valentina.”

I remained at a distance, feeling the air between us thicken, charged with an electric tension. Each time I glanced at her, my mind wrestled with the dissonance of her existence. She was supposed to be gone—deceased and buried beneath the weight of grief.

But she was here, undeniably real.

With a slight tilt of her head, Serena scrutinized me, her gaze piercing through the layers of my confusion. “You’re scared of me.”

“I’m not scared,” I retorted, perhaps too quickly, as if my denial could mask the truth.

Her eyes narrowed, amusement flickering within their depths. “Then why are you standing all the way over there, Valentina?”

I hesitated, the weight of her question pressing down on me. “Because I don’t know what to think. You tell me one thing, Adrian tells me another. I can’t even discern what’s real anymore.”

“That’s because he’s adept at this,” she said, her voice low and steady. “He has always excelled at reshaping the truth until it aligns perfectly with his desires. You begin to question your own perceptions without even realizing it.”

A frown creased my brow. “He’s my husband. Am I just supposed to take your word for it when you claim he’s been deceiving me?”

“Valentina… he was my husband too.”

I crossed my arms defensively. “Serena, you could have divorced him…”

Her expression shifted, revealing a flicker of something deeper behind her calm facade. “You’re married to him now. Do you think you could ever truly leave? None of us ever really can when it comes to Adrian, and you know it. It seems to me like you’re just grasping at straws.”

She looked away, her gaze drifting into the distance as if lost in a memory. “I was young and foolish enough to believe I could make him love me.” Her voice softened, almost wistful. “And you’re caught in the same trap right now. Adrian never wanted a wife; he craved control.”

A chill crawled up my spine, an unsettling sensation. “What if… I’m not you, Serena.”

Her smile held no humor, and she sighed, leaning back slightly. “Oh, you poor child… Adrian doesn’t tolerate disobedience. He prefers his world to be tidy and predictable. When it strays from that, he breaks things until they conform again. And sometimes, that includes people.”

“I’m not a child. And that’s not the man I know.”

“Of course not.” She leaned forward, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “He knows how to embody whoever you need him to be—Husband or Savior; it doesn’t matter.”

Her words struck me harder than I anticipated. I recalled the tender way Adrian would caress my cheek after a disagreement, his quiet apologies, the reverence with which he spoke my name as if it were sacred. “You’re trying to make me hate him.”

“I don’t need to try,” she replied simply. “You already harbor doubts. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be standing here.”

I released a sharp breath, my gaze flickering toward the door. I should have left. But my feet remained stubbornly planted.

“I was just starting to find my footing. I love my life as it is.” I asked, “Why now?”

Her eyes softened, and for a moment, I saw a glimmer of empathy. “Because you deserve to understand what he’s capable of. I spent years questioning my own sanity, and now I see that same fear, that same guilt, that confusion in your eyes. He does this to people. He makes you doubt your own reality.”

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