Eyes for Adrian Part Two Chapter Six – The Bargain
353 Words
Sleep was impossible. The moment my head touched the pillow, my mind replayed the images from the locked room: my own face staring back at me from grainy surveillance shots, the faint ink stamps on certain files, the chilling fact that some were dated years before Adrian and I had ever met.
When dawn broke, I found Adrian already seated in the small breakfast room, his hands curled around a porcelain teacup, his posture perfectly straight. He didn’t turn toward me as I entered, but I knew he’d sensed me the second I stepped in.
“Sit.”
The single word slid across the air like a command from a judge. I obeyed, feeling the hard wood of the chair press against my spine.
“You’re wondering how long I’ve known about you,” he said calmly, setting the cup down with quiet precision.
“I’m wondering why,” I replied, my voice thin but steady.
A faint smile touched his lips. “Because some things are inevitable. I knew the first time I heard your voice years ago on a recording I wasn’t meant to receive that you were already mine. It was only a matter of making it so.”
“You bought me,” I said bitterly.
“I saved you,” he corrected. “From your father, from the vultures who wanted to use you in far worse ways than I have. And from yourself.”
I leaned forward, heat rising in my chest. “That’s not saving. That’s possession.”
He tilted his head, the pale light from the window outlining the sharp lines of his jaw. “There’s a difference only if you’re free to leave. Are you?”
The silence stretched. My answer, or lack of one, was all he needed.
Finally, he stood. “You will not see the man in the garden again. If you do, I won’t be responsible for what happens next.”
And then he left me alone, the taste of cold tea on my tongue and the weight of a bargain I never agreed to pressing down on my chest.
- Writer
