Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Adrian Sterling was keeping a college boy on the side.
Young. Bright. Full of life.
Adrian had a bad stomach, yet he still drank for him. “The kid can’t hold his liquor. I’ll take his.”
Even at his busiest, he indulged the boy when he sat nearby playing games on his phone. “Lose again? Give it to me.”
Adrian was convinced I would stay with him forever without ever asking for a ring or a title, even if he married someone else, had children, and slept with whoever he pleased.
What he didn’t know was that I was fucking dying.
Later, when Adrian found the bucket list I’d written for the last two months of my life, jealousy nearly drove him insane.
“Julian Bennett, these are your final wishes?
“Then why isn’t a single one of them about me?”
For the first time, Adrian forgot my birthday.
I had reheated the food on the table so many times I’d lost count.
The lights were off. In the gloom, I could almost believe I was a child again, alone in that damp, dark old house whenever Dad went out to sea.
It seemed I had spent my entire life waiting.
As a child, I waited for my father to come home.
Now I waited for Adrian.
The clock on the wall pointed to eleven.
I gave myself one final deadline.
If Adrian wasn’t home by midnight, and I still hadn’t heard a word from him—
I was done fucking waiting.
Midnight came and went.
Then one o’clock.
The bastard really wasn’t coming home.
Every dish on the table had gone cold. The sauces had congealed beneath a greasy film.
Growing up poor had left me unable to stand wasted food, so I ate it all anyway.
My stomach felt ready to burst.
But inside, I was still empty.
I thought about the birthdays Adrian used to spend with me. We’d both been broke then, two penniless kids crammed into a basement apartment. We couldn’t even afford the cheapest little cake in the bakery window.
In the end, Adrian bought a plain steamed bun and stuck a candle from the corner store into it.
That was what I made my wish over.
As far as I could remember, it was the first time I ever saw Adrian cry.
“Fuck.” Steady, dependable Adrian almost never swore. “Why should you have to suffer like this just because you’re with me?”
“Jules.”
He always called me that. I used to complain that it made me sound like a little kid.
“When I make it, I’m going to buy you every expensive, incredible birthday cake in the world.”
His eyes had been red as he made the promise.
“I’ll make up for every birthday I owe you.”
My stomach lurched.
I gripped the edge of the table and vomited.
By the end, there was blood.
Bright red against the bottom of the trash can, impossible to ignore.
It was nothing.
I had stomach cancer. Coughing up a little blood was normal.
Then I remembered the photographs some busybody had sent me a few days ago.
Adrian had taken his younger boyfriend out for his birthday. Because he knew Noah loved sweets, he’d ordered enough extravagant cakes to fill an entire room.
Chapter 2
More than a hundred different kinds.
All just to make him smile.
But today was my twenty-ninth birthday.
There was no cake.
No candle.
No birthday wish.
Only a stark white medical report lying on the table, silently handing down my death sentence.
Julian Bennett. Male. Age twenty-nine.
Stage IV stomach cancer.
I didn’t sleep all night.
Instead, I started packing.
I’d been poor for too long. It made everything difficult to leave behind.
Adrian had bought me the Louis Vuitton shoes with his first real payday. They’d cost over ten thousand dollars, enough to cover six months of our living expenses back then.
The watch had been my birthday present from him two years ago, a custom-made piece designed especially for me.
And then there was…
Forget it.
I sighed and packed everything valuable.
Adrian wouldn’t miss any of it.
I took the bank cards too.
Dawn was beginning to break when I dragged my suitcases toward the door. Just as I was about to leave, Adrian came home.
These days, he dressed with understated luxury and carried himself with effortless composure. He no longer let his emotions show.
His gaze swept over the suitcases, and he immediately understood what I was doing.
“What is it this time?”
This wasn’t the first time I had threatened to leave.
Adrian was a master of the silent treatment, while I had never been able to keep my temper in check. Every argument with him felt like throwing a punch into a pillow. I would be so furious afterward that I often couldn’t sleep all night.
For a while, I had made a habit of walking out just to force him to give in.
But I had never truly left. I would drag an empty suitcase around the neighborhood, and Adrian would usually find me before I’d even finished a meal at KFC.
Adrian had been drinking. The scent of alcohol clung to him, mingled with an unfamiliar men’s cologne.
Neither of us wore cologne.
“How long are you planning to run away for this time?” he asked. “Long enough for another trip to KFC? Or maybe two cups of bubble tea?”
The mockery in his voice cut deeper than it should have.
I took a moment to steady myself before I answered.
“Adrian, I’m ending this.”
“Ending this?”
He gave a derisive snort, then abruptly changed direction.
“Julian, don’t you want to ask about him?”
There was no expression on Adrian’s face.
“You must know I’ve been keeping a younger man on the side. His name is Noah Reed.
“There’s something about him. That same fire you had when you were twenty.”
Behind me came the sharp flick of a lighter.
Chapter 3
Adrian’s voice drifted through the cool morning air, carrying the casual cruelty of a man whose years of success had worn away whatever tenderness he once possessed.
“He’s young. Clingy. Jealous, too.
“And I’m the only man he’s ever been with.”
I had already prepared myself to let Adrian go.
Even so, pain stabbed through my chest.
I knew exactly what he meant. He had never forgiven me for having been with other men.
Three years ago, Adrian had been a rising figure in Brighton Bay, and powerful people on every side had been determined to crush him. With his company on the verge of collapse, I went behind his back to meet someone who could help.
At the private executive dinner, the man brought two senior business partners with him.
I drank with them until my stomach began to bleed.
But there had been something else in my drink.
That night…
Afterward, Adrian’s company gained an influential backer. With powerful protection behind it, the business surged ahead and became a force no one dared dismiss.
Adrian’s status rose with it. He gained wealth, power, and everything he had ever wanted.
And I became the only stain on his perfect life.
When I came back to myself, Adrian was speaking again, his voice low and heavy.
“Julian, I have to take responsibility for him.”
“Fine. Take responsibility.”
I spread my hands, trying my damnedest to look like I didn’t care. “I’ll get out of your way and leave you two to it.”
Dragging my suitcase behind me, I plunged into the night without looking back.
Adrian’s voice followed me, cool and indifferent.
“Maybe getting away for a while will do you good. Come back when you’re done throwing your tantrum.
“Julian, there’s nothing legally binding about our relationship. I’ve paid for everything all these years. Whether I support one more person or one less is entirely up to me.”
“Exactly!” I shouted without turning around. “You’re free. Your whole damn family is free!
“Oh, right. I forgot. Just like mine, your entire family is dead.”
Served him right if he ended up alone.
Fucking faithless bastard.
Early that morning, I knocked on the door.
A handsome, bearded man stared at me for several seconds before finally recognizing me. “Julian?”
He hurriedly smoothed down his bedhead and stepped aside. “Come in, quick!”
“What are you doing here?”
Mason Carter.
He’d been my closest friend in college.
Mason, Adrian Sterling, and I had all lived in the same dorm. Mason had never been entirely straight, and back then, he’d secretly been in love with Adrian.