A Billion Reasons To Hate You

Chapter Sixteen: Plan A - Hotel & Survive.

Renee finally got a proper look at the man on her sofa… it was her father. The sheer sight of him made her blood boil. The fact that he thought he could break into her place like this, not once but twice, was unbelievable.

“Oh, you f*****g arsehole. Can you stop breaking into my apartment?” she bellowed as she stormed inside.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes, blinking hard before he finally realised it was Renee standing there.

“Sorry, monkey. This time, I really had no choice. Ricardo found me; he would have killed me, too, if I hadn’t jumped out the window and made a run for it in the dead of night. I had to go somewhere, and honestly, after what I saw, I needed to check you were still alive,” he said, barely awake.

She dropped her keys on the counter with a loud clatter. “Still alive? What the hell do you mean? Besides, that is not an excuse to keep breaking into my place. You know, I could have you arrested for this, right?”

“There was a news report,” he quavered. “The girl from the other day… the one at High Confidence? Or Solid Confidence? Something like that. Anyway, she looked exactly like you. For a second, before they said her name, I thought it was you. My whole world stopped until they announced she was someone called Kels or something.”

He swallowed hard before continuing, “Is that where you work? Did Ricardo think that was you, or was it just a crazy coincidence?”

Renee stared at him, torn between lying and telling the truth. But he looked genuinely lost, and for a moment she almost felt bad for him.

“Yeah… I think the bullet that killed Kels was meant for me. I’ve been trying to lie low since, and I assumed he thought he actually killed me—so it was over.”

Adrian looked shaken, like her words had knocked the air out of him. He sank back onto the sofa, dragging his hands over his face before letting out a long, heavy sigh.

“Okay… maybe he really does think you’re dead. If he hasn’t seen the news, and trust me, he doesn’t give me the impression he watches anything that isn’t about himself, then yeah. Maybe you’re in the clear.” He paused, his voice becoming more serious. “But I don’t want you going back there. Ever. Find another job, and I’ll cover whatever you lose until you do. Please… let me help you this time, Renee. You’ve seen what he can do.”

Renee hesitated, a lump building in her throat as she fought to hold back the tears threatening to spill.

He was right: she couldn’t go back there. Not with even the slightest chance that Ricardo had doubts about whether he’d murdered the right person. One misstep and he’d come after her and make sure he killed the right person, no mistakes this time.

“Where would I go? I still have to look after mom. I can’t leave her; she relies on me too much,” Renee asked.

“How about a hotel near Maud’s? Check in under a false name, and I can have a passport made within an hour for proof of identity. You can pay with one of my cards and use it for expenses in the meantime. They’re under a different name, so no possible suspicion.”

“I mean… a hotel for a little while would be nice.” The words slipped out before she could stop herself.

She froze, replaying what she’d just admitted. Taking his money meant taking his help, his blood money… and it felt too close to forgiving him for disappearing all those years and making her life a hundred times harder than it ever needed to be.

Adrian could see the hesitation on her face and how conflicted taking his help made Renee.

“Taking my help doesn’t mean you forgive me, Ren. I know it’ll take a lot more than that. Call it compensation or something for all the emotional turmoil I’ve caused you over the years.”

Renee laughed under her breath, but there was nothing funny about it. “Compensation? Adrian, you’d need to sell a damn kidney.”

He winced, but didn’t argue. Instead, he leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands clasped like he was holding himself together.

“I’m serious,” he said quietly. “You don’t owe me forgiveness. You don’t even owe me a conversation. But you do deserve safety. And right now, that’s something I can actually give you.”

She just looked at him, eyes wide, like she didn’t have anything left in her to fight with. Just… sad.

“Please, Ren. Let me do one thing right,” he asked softly.

Her chest hurt at the sincerity she wished she hadn’t heard. She swallowed, slowly, painfully, like the decision was catching on the way down.

“It’s not that easy,” she whispered.

“I know,” he said. “But neither is staying here with a target on your back.”

Renee closed her eyes. Because damn it: he was right, and she hated that more than anything.

She paused to steady her thoughts and murmured, “Fine. But I get to choose the hotel. And when all this dies down, I’ll pay you back in full—every single cent. Then, you leave my life for good, understand? No more cryptic messages, no more breaking in. Gone. Forever.”

Her words stung, but Adrian didn’t flinch. He took it without hesitation because, at the end of the day, the only thing he cared about was making sure Renee survived this.

“Fine. Let’s find you a hotel. Do you have any preference?” Adrian asked as he opened his phone and pulled up the browser.

“I don’t care. Something close to Westbury. I can visit my mom without any issues,” Renee replied.

“Okay, grab everything you need. You won’t be coming back here again for a while.”

Adrian started scrolling through options while Renee gathered her things. She pulled an old suitcase from the wardrobe, at least ten years old, maybe more. It was one of the last reminders she had of better times with her mom, back when they could still travel, laugh, and pretend the world wasn’t falling apart.

Inside the suitcase was an old photo of her and her mom in Greece. The moment she saw it, her eyes started to water, a hard knot forming in her throat. Happy memories hurt now. They felt too far away, too impossible, compared to the chaos her life had turned into.

She ran her thumb over the picture softly, then wiped her eyes with her sleeve before the tears could fall.

She packed the important things first: the photo, every document tied to her mom’s medical care, and her laptop, placing them carefully at the bottom of the suitcase.

By the time she finished, Adrian had already found a hotel. He pitched it to her as high-security, had room service, and was close enough for her to visit her mom easily — something that would give her another layer of protection and make it harder for Ricardo to show up and kill her in the middle of the night if he ever tracked her down.

Of course, nothing could guarantee her safety entirely, but a busy, well-known five-star hotel was at least a start.

Renee tried to argue for something cheaper, somewhere more modest, but Adrian shut it down immediately. He wasn’t risking it.

“You’re staying in this one,” he said firmly. “End of discussion.”

As they prepared to leave, Adrian paused in the hallway. Through the three frosted, blurred windows, the kind you could see shapes through but not faces, he noticed movement. Three men, all dressed in black, were making their way down the corridor to Renee’s door.

“Hide,” Adrian demanded.