The Don’s Hidden Pawn

Chapter Three: Dangerous touch

Adella’s POV

“That’s not how you do it! If you continue to move like a sloth, the enemies will catch up to you in no time and you’ll be killed immediately!”

No one told me that defense training was so hard, it felt like I was preparing to take on the next world war all by myself. Adam trained me as he’d do for a trained warrior.

“That’s it! I’m not going again. That was the fastest I can go, I’m even so tired already, Is it until I collapse?” I asked, falling back to the grass.

“You’re tired? You’d know what tired means when your best friend finds out that you’re still alive and makes it her priority to kill you again, or when I send you on a mission and you get attacked instead.” His jaw clenched as he talked, his face marred with anger.

“What do you expect me to do then? My body aches so much, I can’t breathe properly anymore! I just want to rest a bit then we can continue.” I fired back.

I just got here and I just managed to get on his nerves, but even he was impossible.

“Whatever. It’s not like I have the time to train you. Meet me in my office in one hour, I’m out of here.” He stormed off just like that.

My breathing came out shallowly and I tried to just calm down. Never in a million years did I think I would be in this situation, training with Adam Luciano. But I just saw the reason he had always been undefeated.

That guy had an energy that I’ve never seen in anyone before. I was still thinking when I saw someone approach me. It was Stella.

“You should come inside and rest properly, isn’t the sun affecting you?” She asked.

“I don’t think I can make it into that house before collapsing. I just want to rest a little bit here.”

“You know, I’ve not seen him bring anyone to this house before, nor does he allow any female close to him. I’m sure he doesn’t know how to handle things like these, that’s why it looks like that.”

I pushed my tired body to sit up and we talked till I eventually had to leave at some point, going to meet Adam in his office just like he told me to.

“I thought you wouldn’t come again. Check this out.” He said, handing me his phone as I got in.

I didn’t have access to my former phone as it was in the car when that accident happened. It had either been confiscated or was with Liz. Adam gave me a new phone when I got here though.

He was showing me a news headline with my picture plastered on the front page.

The late Mr. and Mrs Rowan Black’s daughter was burnt to death in her car.

I scrolled down to see that numerous media outlets have published news articles about my ‘death’. The comment section was a disaster, a lot of people were sad and the other majority made it known that they didn’t know me at all.

“It’s everywhere now,” I mumbled, handing him back the phone.

“That’s not all.” He scrolled through his phone for some seconds then gave it back to me.

It was Liz, she was crying so hard on a live video. She kept talking about how close we were and how much she missed me. I had never felt so much rage consume me, I felt like hitting her repeatedly through the phone.

The next video was a compilation of all our pictures and videos, then she added ‘See You Again ' by Charlie Puth with a long ass epistle about how I shouldn’t have left her alone in this world.

“I just want her dealt with already! That b***h! She killed me! How can anyone be this pretentious?!” I yelled.

“I found something else.” Adam said dryly.

“What?”

“Her parents killed your parents. Here’s the evidence.” He slid a brown envelope towards me on the table.

Everything around me swayed at first, my vision went blurry and my head rang loudly.

“What the f**k? What did you just say?” I questioned him, blood pulsing heavily through my chest.

“The evidence is right before you. You both grew up together, yeah? Her parents had always been jealous of your parents. I have the footage of the scene from that night five years ago here too.”

My legs couldn’t support my body any longer so I fell on the chair beside me. My entire body shook and I found it hard to hold the paper with my hands.

“No, no, it can’t be so.”

Breathing became difficult for me, I couldn’t even do anything at all, I felt my body shutting down on its own.

Just as I was about to give in to darkness, I felt strong arms go around my waist and pick me up. I fell against the hard chest of the person carrying me. I was made to sit on their lap and I heard a very strong and controlling voice call out to me, telling me to come back to them.

My body felt so weak and I just wanted nothing more than to embrace peace at the moment and the closest thing to peace was just to give in to darkness.

But that voice, I just couldn’t give in. It kept calling me back, telling me to come back.

Soon enough, I escaped from darkness and held onto light, I felt my head getting lighter and a new sense of calmness washed over me.

“You’re doing well, just breathe in and out again.” That voice said. I did just like I was told, inhaling and exhaling after the person.

“Good. Do that again.” I breathed in and out, repeating the process till I finally came back to reality. My chest was relieved, but I still felt pain lingering there.

“Are you okay now?” He asked me and I nodded slowly. I didn’t even realize that I was still on his lap till he moved his hand that was on my waist.

Seeing his face so close to mine made my breath quicken. I’ve always known he was handsome, but I didn’t expect him to look so human up close.

His face was so smooth, there wasn’t any blemish whatsoever. Any female would want to switch to such flawless skin with him without thinking twice.

His nose was of moderate size, his moustache too was very moderate, almost unnoticeable. My eyes went lower to his lips, the plump and soft lips called out to me so much. They were so inviting and beautiful that I wondered who carved every single part of his body so perfectly.

Then his eyes, they were a perfect blend of brown and black. They stared down at me with so much emotion. My eyes once again moved to his lips and I found myself fantasizing about them. I wondered how they’d feel like on mine. It would definitely feel so good—

Wait, what? I jumped off his body almost immediately as I came back to reality.

My cheeks burned so hard that I was so certain that they were as red as tomatoes. I didn’t know how I went from finding out that my parents were killed by Liz’s parents, to having a panic attack, then to being on his lips and fantasizing about getting kissed by him.

And he didn’t even say anything, he allowed me gawk at him like a weirdo.

“I’m sorry… sorry about that.” I stuttered.

“You should rest. That must have taken a toll on you.” He said, referring to the panic attack as he changed the topic completely.

I used to have panic attacks after my parents died, but they stopped a year after. This would be the first time in years since I had one. And truly, I should feel weak like I always do after having one, but I felt energized instead.

“No. I want to see the documents.” I exclaimed, knowing I couldn’t walk out of the room without seeing those evidences.

“Okay then.” He said, walking over to his seat so leisurely as though he didn’t just help me out of a panic attack, or that I didn’t just try to kiss him.

I opened the papers with a more controlled mind.

The first paper was a transaction receipt. “That was the payment Liz’s parents made to the man who tampered with their car,” Adam explained.

That’s right, Liz tried to kill me using the same procedures her parents used on mine. The next one was a blurry image of a man behind my parents' car.

“Here’s the footage to back that up.” He said, handing over his phone to me. I watched the blurry video of the man walking over to the car while looking around, I saw his face clearly though.

“This man… I saw him on the day of the accident.” I mumbled, my heart starting to race again.

“Yes, Liz contacted him to do the same thing to your car too,” Adam answered.

“Where is he now?”

“Dead.” He answered curtly.

“What do you mean by that? He died already. It has just been a week and four days since the incident.” I frowned in confusion.

“I killed him on that same day.”

“What?”

“He deserved to die. I told you that I also keep tabs on you, and I found out that he tampered with not just your car but your parents’ too. Don’t worry, he died a very slow and painful death. I made sure he felt a whole lot of pain before he breathed his last.”

I stared at him as though he had grown two heads suddenly, I sure wasn’t expecting that from him at all.

I checked the remaining evidences and truly, Liz’s parents killed mine.

But why? The entire family wanted me dead. To think that I grew up seeing her parents as mine, we were really close. Her mother was my mother’s best friend, and her father was my father’s too.

“Liz is hosting your memorial dinner in three days. That’s when we begin.”