The Reason
1158 Words
Chapter 3
The Reason
The tunnel seemed to have no end.
Nadia's shoes splashed through shallow puddles as she hurried after Adrian. The walls were dark, wet, and streaked with rust. Somewhere above them, rainwater seeped through the concrete, dripping steadily into the darkness.
Her breathing came out uneven.
She looked over her shoulder.
Nothing.
Only darkness.
“Adrian.”
He stopped.
Nadia nearly walked into him.
He turned and looked behind them, listening.
“Are they following us?”
His eyes remained fixed on the tunnel entrance.
“I don't know yet.”
Nadia stared at him.
She was exhausted, frightened, and angry.
But one thought kept pushing everything else aside.
“Layla?”
Adrian looked at her.
“My best friend?”
He said nothing.
Nadia's voice cracked.
“She was watching me?”
Adrian lowered his gaze.
“Yes.”
Three months of lies.
Three months of conversations, laughter, shared notes, and secrets.
Had any of it been real?
Nadia leaned against the tunnel wall.
Her hands trembled.
“She knew everything about me.”
“I know.”
“She knew where I went. She knew when I studied. She knew when I stayed late.”
“I know.”
Nadia looked at him sharply.
“Stop saying that.”
Adrian remained silent.
“You knew.”
Her voice was quieter now.
“You knew someone was watching me, and you still let me walk around campus like everything was normal.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You don't get to decide what I'm allowed to know.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Adrian looked away.
For the first time since she'd met him, he seemed unsure of what to say.
Finally, he leaned against the opposite wall.
“I noticed Layla before I noticed you.”
Nadia frowned.
“What?”
“She started watching you.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“Why?”
“I didn't know.”
Adrian rubbed his thumb against the edge of his sleeve.
“She wasn't obvious at first. She would ask where you were going. Who you were meeting. When you'd be at the library.”
Nadia's stomach tightened.
“I thought she was just being my friend.”
“So did everyone else.”
“And you?”
“I thought something was wrong.”
Nadia stared at him.
“You started watching me too.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His eyes met hers.
“Not because I wanted to.”
A pause.
“Because someone was watching you.”
The words settled heavily between them.
Adrian continued.
“I wanted to know who they were. I followed the trail back to Layla.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I had nothing.”
He looked at her.
“No proof. No explanation. Just photographs and patterns.”
Nadia remembered the file.
The photographs.
Her schedule.
Her name.
“So you watched me for three months.”
“Yes.”
“And you were waiting?”
“I was trying to find out what they wanted from you.”
Nadia swallowed.
“What did you find?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Enough to know that Layla wasn't doing this because she hated you.”
Nadia's eyes narrowed.
“Then why did she do it?”
Adrian reached into his bag and pulled out one of the photographs.
He turned it around.
It showed Layla standing beside the man from the library.
But this time Nadia noticed something she hadn't seen before.
Layla's face.
She wasn't smiling.
She looked frightened.
Nadia took the photograph.
“She was scared.”
“Yes.”
“Of him?”
“Not just him.”
Adrian pulled out another photograph.
This one showed a message written on a piece of paper.
KEEP WATCHING NADIA.
Below it was another line.
OR SHE PAYS FOR YOUR MISTAKE.
Nadia's heart sank.
“What mistake?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“I don't know the whole story.”
Nadia looked at the photograph again.
“So Layla was being threatened.”
“Most likely.”
“By who?”
“That is what I'm trying to find out.”
Nadia closed her eyes.
For a moment, she imagined Layla sitting beside her in class that morning.
Laughing.
Complaining about an assignment.
Asking if Nadia had eaten.
How much of that had been guilt?
How much had been fear?
And how much had been real?
“I want to talk to her.”
Adrian immediately shook his head.
“No.”
“She's my best friend.”
“She's also being watched.”
“Then I'll be careful.”
“Nadia—”
“I spent three months being watched without knowing it. I'm done being kept in the dark.”
Adrian stared at her.
Something changed in his expression.
Respect, perhaps.
Or concern.
“You don't know what you're asking for.”
“Yes, I do.”
She stepped closer.
“I want the truth.”
Adrian looked at her for several seconds.
Then he nodded once.
“Then we find Layla.”
Nadia exhaled.
“Thank you.”
“But there's something you need to understand.”
“What?”
“If Layla contacts you, you don't meet her alone.”
Nadia nodded.
“Fine.”
“And you don't tell her where we are.”
“Fine.”
“And you don't trust anything she says until we know who forced her.”
Nadia hesitated.
“That's going to be difficult.”
“I know.”
A sound echoed through the tunnel.
Both of them froze.
Footsteps.
Far away.
Then another.
Adrian immediately switched off the small light on his phone.
Darkness swallowed them.
Nadia held her breath.
The footsteps grew louder.
One.
Two.
Three.
Adrian reached for her hand.
“Quiet.”
They moved deeper into the tunnel.
The footsteps stopped.
Nadia waited.
Nothing.
Then Adrian's phone vibrated.
Both of them looked down.
A message.
Unknown number.
Nadia's heart sank before she even read it.
You wanted to know why Layla did it.
Another message appeared.
Ask her what happened three years ago.
Nadia stared at the screen.
Three years ago?
What had happened three years ago?
Before she could ask, another message arrived.
And ask Adrian why he remembers it.
Nadia slowly lifted her eyes.
Adrian was staring at the phone.
His face had gone completely pale.
“You know,” she whispered.
He didn't answer.
“Adrian.”
Still nothing.
Nadia stepped closer.
“You know what happened three years ago.”
Finally, he looked at her.
And for the first time since she'd met him, Nadia saw something she had never expected to see in Adrian Vale's eyes.
Fear.
“There's something I never told you,” he said.
The footsteps started again.
Much closer this time.
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