Eye for Adrian

EYES FOR ADRIAN Chapter Nine – The Test

It began with a single phone call.

I was arranging flowers in the sunroom when Mrs. Carver appeared in the doorway, her expression unreadable. “Mr. Adrian wants you in his study. Now.”

My hands stilled. The study was his most guarded space I had been inside only twice before, both times under his direct instruction.

When I entered, he was seated at his desk, a phone in his hand, his glasses reflecting the glow from the desk lamp. He gestured for me to sit.

A voice crackled faintly from the phone’s speaker Daniel’s voice.

“Ever? Are you there?”

I froze.

Adrian tilted his head slightly toward me, as though to confirm something he already knew. “He called here,” Adrian said, his tone deceptively calm. “Asked for you by name.”

My heartbeat roared in my ears. “I don’t know what”

“Don’t insult me,” Adrian cut in. “You’ve seen him again.”

I swallowed hard. “Once. To buy more tea.”

He set the phone down on the desk, still connected, Daniel’s voice faintly audible as he said my name again. “Answer him,” Adrian instructed.

“What?”

“Answer him. Let’s see what kind of conversation this really is.”

My mouth was dry. “Daniel?” I said into the phone.

His relief was instant. “Ever I’m sorry for calling like this. I just you seemed… unhappy. I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

Adrian’s expression didn’t change, but the tension in the room thickened until I could barely breathe.

“I’m fine,” I said quickly, the words tasting like ash. “Please don’t call here again.”

There was a pause. “If you ever needs” Daniel began, but I ended the call before he could finish.

The silence afterward was heavier than the words we hadn’t spoken.

Adrian leaned back in his chair. “That was a test, Ever. And you passed. Barely.”

I wanted to ask what would have happened if I hadn’t, but some part of me already knew.

That night, I lay awake replaying the call. I hated that Daniel had reached out hated how much danger it had put me in. And yet, deep down, a smaller, quieter part of me clung to the fact that someone in the outside world had thought about me at all.

It was the first crack in the walls Adrian had built around me. And cracks have a way of spreading.