The Way he loves

Chapter 3

Adrian's POV

Lucas was being frustrating as usual. Sometimes I would look at the man and be shocked at the realisation that this was the man I had idolized and even worshipped as a kid. I would forever be indebted to him for taking in my mother and me back when we had nothing. I was still grateful to him for fighting against the whole world to make sure that my mother had a dignified life. He loved my mother and sister with a devotion that was comparable to my own, and I trusted him completely when it came to them. But when it came to his own daughter, he was often quite callous. Angelina was staring at him, her expression filled with a mix of disbelief and anger. She had the kind of eyes that could stare right through your soul. With every passing year, I had observed that her eyes had kept losing some of their shine, their spark. She was still gorgeous with her dark brown hair and pale skin that contrasted nicely against her blue eyes, but there was too much sadness in those eyes, and worse, there was a sense of defeat. She had given up years ago, on her life, on everything. But she wasn't completely broken, yet. If Matteo Moretti got his hands on her, he would break whatever spirit she still had and leave her empty and destroyed. Lucas had met him, had seen him. I did not understand how any man could even think of that man as a potential husband for his daughter. Yes, we were all monsters. But some monsters were just worse than others and Matteo was probably an incarnation of devil himself.

“Lucas, Angelina cannot marry Matteo. It is not safe, you should know that", I said hoping to talk some sense into him.

“Adrian it's your father who thought of this idea. I don't know if this is his way of punishing me, of punishing all of us. But whatever be the reason, you know that I am in no position to refuse the Boss!"

Father was definitely doing this to punish him. But father did not realise that hurting Angelina or ruining her life would not affect Lucas much. If Father really wanted to hurt him, he would have to target mom and Jessica, but of course, I would kill the man before letting that happen... And the old bastard knew that well.

“I will talk to Father and see what I can do". I had gotten pretty good at convincing Father over the years. And the fact that I was effectively running all our businesses and was for all intents and purposes, already the real “Boss" helped.

I glanced at my watch and realised that I was running late for a meeting with our suppliers. I kissed mom and Jessica goodbye, promised them that I would be home for the weekend and started walking out of the house and towards my car.

Light footsteps followed me outside. From the corner of my eye, I could see Angelina walking towards me, looking unsure. I paused and turned, forcing her to meet my eyes. It seemed to make her uncomfortable, and she swallowed.

“Thank you, for trying to help me", she said softly.

‘Trying to'? It looked like she didn't have much faith in my abilities. Accepting defeat before even fighting, it was typical of this Angelina. Sometimes I wondered what had broken her so badly. She had a good life, by our standards. Sure, her father hardly cared about her and her mother was a depressed mess. But love and healthy family dynamics wasn't something you could always expect in our world.

I nodded in her direction and started walking again.

“Wait, do you think there is a realistic possibility that the Boss would agree?", her anxiety was palpable in her voice.

“Angelina", I said. “I won't give you false assurances, but the situation might not be as bad as you're thinking. It would be quite embarassing for us to offer you to our enemy, especially after what they recently did. It would almost be as if we are accepting defeat. And that is, of course, unacceptable. I am sure I can make father see some sense"

She looked slightly calmer, reassured. But I was sure she would start catastrophising and freaking out again soon.

“Give me some time okay? I will sort this out but I would need time", I told her honestly.

She nodded, her expression grateful. She was such a polite little thing and so vulnerable, so breakable. There was no way in hell she would survive Matteo.

I watched her walk away as I got into my car and thought about how to negotiate with my father. We had a very atypical father-son relationship. There was absolutely no love, or even affection of any sort.. For him, I was his last choice, an unfortunate necessity. For me, he was my opportunity, my ticket to power, so that I could be the strong man I had always known I could be. I had learnt very early on in life that being powerless and vulnerable in this world was a recipe for disaster. My mom had been powerless when those vile men had abused her. I had been powerless when they had hit me whenever I had tried to protect her. I had vowed to myself, even as a child that I would one day have my revenge. And I would one day be so powerful that nobody would dare to even touch my family. I had almost reached my goal, Jessica and mom were safe, loved and happy. Just a few days after my initiation into the mafia, I had cut the tongues of two men who had dared to call my mother a w***e. I had killed the cocky young captain who had taunted me by saying how much does he need to pay for one night with my sister. I had made sure that the horrors of our past remained buried in our memories and nightmares and didn't spill on to our lives.

Father had always considered this my weakness. My need to protect irked him, he said it made me weak and human. I would have to approach the Angelina situation carefully, making sure I explained logically to him why his idea was a bad one and not let him think that it was my protectiveness that was talking.

I did not even have an explanation to why I had always felt protective of her. It was perhaps because I had seen her as a child, the pretty angelic baby that had fascinated me. Over the years, we had hardly had any contact apart from exchanging pleasantries, but I had always known that if she was ever in trouble, then I would have to help her.