His dad didn’t respond right away, and Adrian pressed for answers.
“Dad, how are you sure that it wasn’t just an accident? I’m serious, this was years ago. What makes you think that we made her a target?”
His dad hesitated. “Ivan and I were best friends since high school.”
“What?” Adrian was trying to pull the name. “Aria’s dad?”
“We were best friends. We even went to nationals together, did I ever tell you that?” A bitter smile graced his face.
“Dad?”
“I think you get what I’m saying.”
Adrian finally understood the message loud and clear. “You two are soul mates?”
“Yeah, the whole thing is kind of f*cked up, but I’m sure you already know that.”
“You guys . . . wait, why is this the first time I’ve heard of it?”
“It didn’t really concern you.”
“What about Mom?”
“I love her.” There was no hesitation on his end. “But Ivan was like my brother . . .”
“But why are you separated? I thought that . . .”
“After Lucia died, he blamed me for a lot of it.”
“Why? But she . . . she might’ve been involved with Lupinus pack so why would he blame you? What did you have to do with it?”
“I think it’s what I didn’t do.”
Adrian waited for him to explain.
“We think that Lucia was targeted because she knew about us. She knew something that was valuable. The accident didn’t kill her on the spot, and we thought that the goal was to capture her instead of killing her, but whoever planned it hid their traces.”
“What would be so important to fake an accident?”
His dad shook his head. It was classified.
“But that still doesn’t mean that this couldn’t have been just a freak accident.”
“You’re right, we couldn’t speculate anymore until now.”
Adrian was confused. What other bits of information was he missing here?
“We found some DNA evidence on the victims, and the same exact DNA that was found in Lucia’s car. The strangest part was that there were no matches. It’s like this person had been off the grid.”
“Okay.” He tried to digest it all. “But why did Ivan blame you?”
A sigh escaped his dad’s lips. “I think . . . I think it’s because he felt betrayed. Ashlyn told him something, I don’t know what, but she told him something.”
“Did he ever ask you about what that ‘something’ is?”
“He only came at me with rage. He wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say.”
Adrian could tell that this was a difficult conversation for his dad. Picking at old wounds wasn’t fun, but to think that his dad had to deal with the idea of his soul mate hating him? Could he even imagine that?
Throughout all the stories that he can remember from his dad, Adrian never heard the name Ivan before. He had never even seen old photos of his dad from his high school either. Not even the one from nationals, although the medal was framed on his office wall.
His dad never talked about Ivan.
Ever.
But it didn’t take a genius to know how important he was to him.
Adrian bit down on his own confusion, and tried his best to sympathize. His dad understood what his situation was like. Oddly enough, they both had a soul mate with someone who wasn’t like them whatsoever. It even got stranger when he thought about how Aria and her dad ended up as his and his dad’s soul mate, but he really didn’t want to think about the complications in that. Even just saying that out loud sounded so wrong, but it was no different than having best friends, and wanting their kids to be best friends.
Adrian cut that train of thought, and refocused on the fact that his dad was living with a soul mate who didn’t even speak to him for how many years. He could only imagine what kind of impression Ivan must’ve had on his dad’s life. How close they must’ve been.
Adrian wondered for a moment if they had that type of ride or die friendship that he had only really seen in anime shows. If it was, then how much more heartbreaking was it to lose not just a best friend, but someone he considered family?
Adrian asked softly, “Is Aria in the same situation? Is she in danger?”
“I think so.”
The pain hit his heart like a hammer. “But why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why did you tell me this?” He was letting his frustration seep through his words.
“Some kind of warning is better than none at all, right?”
Adrian sighed.
He was right.
“We’ll figure this out and put an end to it before anything else happens.” His dad was clearly wrapping up the conversation. “I just wanted to let you know.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“No problem.”
Adrian should’ve left it as is. He shouldn’t have asked any more questions than necessary, but he had to know. Just in case he ended up in the same situation. So before they could actually leave the office, he called out,
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you miss him?”
“It was like losing family.”
“How do you feel?” Adrian wasn’t sure if this was an appropriate way to ask this question, but still.
“I love you guys. Don’t doubt it, but like I said, he was like my brother. It’s like my family will never be complete.”
Ouch.
“But we’re not focusing on that now. We’re focusing on how to stop this threat. Stop it from hurting anyone else. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure Lucia would kick my ass for letting something hurt her daughter.”
“You knew her?”
“I was the best man at the wedding.”
Adrian knew that his dad meant for it to be a joke, but the underlying message
