Before you read I just wanted to dedicate this chapter of my book to a writer called Boring_Tings. I really love her book that I'm reading right now, you should all go and check it out, it's called "Missing Ian" and it's amazing so far:) AND... Almost at 150K views?! Omg, thank you to everyone who's reading and following this book. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Here it is, Angela's secret has been revealed!

A. Summers xo

Adriano woke up an hour or so later with a headache and a pain in his back. Angela was still lying on his chest, gripping his shirt lightly. He moved his head to look at the brightening sky out the kitchen window when he felt her stirring. He decided it would be better for the both of them to go back asleep in an actual bed so carefully picked her up and began to carry her into his bedroom.

"Hmm, Adriano?" Angela said sleepily between cracked open eyelids. Her head was leaning against his chest, her legs dangling over his arm as he carried her.

"Shh, go back to sleep." He whispered in her ear, placing her beneath the covers he had pulled down on her side of the bed. Once she turned on her side, getting comfortable, he placed them over her again and she snuggled into the comfort of the mattress.

It wasn't until around noon that Angela was woken up by Adriano tossing and turning in bed. She felt the bed dip down beside her where he was sitting up now, his legs hitting the ground beneath them. Once he got up she turned over to see where he was going.

"Adriano?" she croaked out, she looked at his moving back as he made his way to the ensuite.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up." he sounded groggy and as soon as he turned to look at her, she could tell he must have been hung over. His eyes carried big bags under them but he was trying to give her warm smile anyway.

"Where are you going?" she asked, knowing that now might not have been the time to spill everything out but if she waited until another day she thought she might explode. She knew she needed to tell him, right not.

"I was just going to get ready for work." He sounded tired.

"I'm sorry about yesterday." Angela apologised again.

"No, I'm sorry. You don't need to apologise for anything. I shouldn't have come home last night in a state. We should've just talked about it. I know you're not ready to tell me what's wrong, but I hope you can sometime." Why was he being so nice? It made her feel even worse. She was staring at him now as he stood there in the same spot on the floor. "I'm just going to take a shower okay?"

"No, Adriano wait." He turned around again quickly to look at her. She was sitting up now in bed, her eyes were tearing up but she looked up at the ceiling in an attempt to try and make them go away.

"What is it?" he asked, a little concerned now. He made his way over to her quickly then placed his hands on each arm, bowing down to her eye level. "Is everything alright?"

She shook her head slowly and then closed her eyes to mask her crying. Adriano wrapped his arms tighter around her now and squeezed her. She peered through his embrace up at him now with big, red and puffy eyes.

"Tell me what's wrong Angela." The next couple of minutes were hard for Angela, she never imagined actually doing what she was about to do. And through her tears she and pain from the scars and memories of her past, she still managed to tell Adriano what needed to be said.

"I was running Adriano."

"Running?"

"I didn't go through a bad break up, I ran away from him. That's what I was doing in Canada. When you found me the only reason I had my things packed up was because there was no point in unpacking, I didn't settle down anywhere in case he found me and I had to leave again." She ignored her tears and continued to talk.

"I had to get away from him, and running away to Canada was my only chance. I'd been stuck with him since we got to New York, even if I wasn't too ashamed of myself to go back home, he would never let me."

"Let you?" Adriano furrowed his brows at her, angry by the story she was now telling him. "What do you mean?" A silence fell upon them; she had sat up again and was staring at the wall with a blank expression on her pale, tired face. It scared Adriano to even see her like that. His heart felt like it was breaking to look at her for another minute.

"I was trapped. He trapped me, I put up with everything for too long, I needed to get away. I had to run, life was terrible and when I ran I knew I'd see him again. That night at the diner he was right there, I just knew he would come back."

"Did- Did he hurt you?" Adriano finally asked, gulping loudly after he spoke. He wasn't quite sure whether he wanted to hear the answer yet or not. She just burst into more silent tears and nodded her head ever so slightly. Adriano held his arms out and surrounded her in his warmth again. She responded by pulling her arms around him tight too and clinging to him like he was her lifeline. Angela's tear soaked into his shirt as she gripped it.

"He drank a lot you know? Some nights, he would come home and pass out, other nights he would like to scare me." Angela whispered and gulped again before continuing, every word hurting as it left her mouth but the secrets that she had kept inside needed to come out. It felt right to tell him everything and so she did.

Angela told him about the first time she saw him, how she thought she was in love and how she stupidly moved away with him quicker than she should have. Everything was fine for a couple of months except that Angela missed home but Derek liked it there in New York and convinced her to stay so many times.

Cracks had already begun to appear since they had shown up in the big city, his drinking habits being one of them. The first time he hit her she noticed a look on his face that showed shock, like what he had done was unbelievable and he didn't stop apologizing for days. But then it happened again and again, the more it happened, the more his apologies turned into insults and more shouting until all he ever seemed to do was abuse her, mentally and physically to the point where Angela had completely hit rock bottom. She felt like she was nothing, simply because she was treated that way, only allowed outside when he needed her to go to work or get groceries or to run other errands for him.

And once she felt like nothing, she had become nothing, a mere blur of the woman she was supposed to be. She gave up the one thing that made her happy, her job working in that jazz club where she had met Trisha and was trying so hard to hide her bruises and mental scars every day as she carried herself around, pretending to the few people she came across that everything was okay but it wasn't.

Angela's life had become something she never thought it would and the only way she felt she could change was to run away and never come back. Trisha had helped her, although she had quit her job, Angela still managed to get out and sneak around to see her friend, just not as much as she wished. At the time, Trisha had really helped her. She gave her some extra money along with Angela's saving she had kept to herself without Derek knowing to run away and even helped Angela organise where she was going to first. Getting away from him for even a couple of minutes once a month to see Trisha helped Angela get through everything, Trisha always tried to be in good spirits and was somewhat inspiring to Angela.

But as soon as Angela had left she moved around twice in fear of Derek coming to find her until she stopped off in that small town outside Toronto. She had gotten that job in the diner but the feeling remained that what was happening in her life was only temporary. She kept her boxes with her things in it by the door and had yet to unpack. She never spoke to many people and tried to keep a low profile.

Angela had felt like she was still running, although she had settled in a place where Derek would probably never find her and she hated that. It made her feel like her life would remain like this forever or at least until he came back, impermanent. She told Adriano all of this, about her panic attacks and how nervous and jumpy she would be at the smallest things. And he listened, to everything she had to say, to all of the words pouring out of her mouth. It overwhelmed Adriano, her story of complete pain and horrific events in great detail, it made him feel terrible, to think he had brought her right back to New York, the exact place she wanted to be as far away from as possible. He just didn't know what to say next but his lips began to move before he could stop them.

"Oh Angie." Adriano spoke quietly, holding her hair and kissing the top of her head to comfort her. "I'm so sorry." He rocked her gently; neither said a word for a couple of minutes. Angela sat there, enclosed in his warmth, his scent, all of him and she loved it. She loved it so much that she didn't want to move from her spot ever again. She felt safe with him. "I just want you to know that I would never hurt you like that. I know I get mad sometimes, and I'm quick tempered but I wouldn't, I couldn't do it."

Adriano still had a hand in her hair as tilted her head up slightly to look at him. He wiped away her tears with his thumb and caressed her cheek gently. He was angry at what he had found out. The thought of anyone laying a hand on someone as kind and gentle as Angela made him feel sick but he said nothing to Angela.

"I know." She nodded again at him earning her a soft kiss from him.

"Did he see you at the diner?" Adriano wanted to know more and figured the time was now to ask the questions he had in his head.

"No." Angela said quietly.

"What would have happened if he had?" Tears pricked Angela's eyes again, making him wonder what was going on in that head of hers right then. She imagined if Derek had spotted her that night so many times since it had happened but didn't want to share what her horrifying imagination had made up.

"I don't know." Angela's voice remained just above a whisper, as did his throughout the conversation. There was a gentle quietness in the room, it was comfortable and every so often one could hear the humming and buzzing of traffic down below. It was calm, just what she wanted. "If he finds me Adriano- I don't know what he'll do. He'll take me away again. I can't go back there, I really can't go back to him. He promised he'd find me if I ever left but please, don't let him take me away." She said, her voice coming out strangled and panicked, hitting Adriano right in the chest again with an aching pain to see her this way.

"You aren't going anywhere piccolo. I won't let him put a finger on you. You shouldn't ever have to be afraid of that ever happening because I simply won't allow. I could kill him for what he done to you." Adriano's rage was coming through in his voice now and she could sense it clearly.

"Please don't do that, I don't want any trouble. I don't want to have to think about him anymore."

"Maybe I should stay here with you today. Screw work, I want to be here with you. I want to make sure you're okay." He spoke sweetly to her, making the smallest of smiles tug onto her lips, almost non-existent but Adriano could still tell it was there.

"Okay." Her voice cracked out, she nodded slightly at him. Her words felt reassuring to him, that maybe he could make her feel better. He took another look at her place face, the bags she had under her eyes and the circles to go with them. She was tired. Her eyes were swollen and red, they showed a kind of sadness Adriano had never saw before. He knew she was hurting, and that hurt him too.