Fatal Alliances: Chapter 23
All these questions rendered me tired and I was thankfully able to get an hour’s rest yet I felt the same confusion and hurt swimming inside me. My head still ached after waking up, maybe I should take my pills. I had them in the car downstairs. As I went down and collected my meds, I saw the young receptionist girl Sasha trip from afar.
“Oh my gosh. Sasha Are you alright?” I asked as I helped her up.
“Yeah, I’m…well no.” she sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“There are so many people here to tend to and it’s supposed to be two other persons shift and they haven’t shown up here so I’m trying to take care of everything. And now Billy, one of the employees had to take a letter from someone for Mr. Vandermir but he asked me to do it since there was an ‘emergency’.”
“Oh well don’t worry, I can take it for you. I’m on my way up that floor anyway.” I smiled.
“Gosh, thanks Julie!” she said with a smile and hurriedly left.
When I arrived at Vandermir’s room, I knocked lightly on the door when I saw Finny, Donnie, and Ricardo there as well. Walking in, I placed the letter on the countertop next to Ricardo.
“Someone sent this for Adrian.”
At that moment, I noticed some strange documents open on the counter. They were legal actions against ‘Mr. Blake’. For some odd reason, I didn’t want him to go bankrupt. Not because I cared about him- I hated that man, but because I didn’t want Alexandria and her family to be bankrupt. They didn’t deserve that. Ricardo seemed a bit surprised at my sudden interest in the papers.
“Everything alright Miss Greene?” he asked.
I ignored his question. How could Adrian even do something like that? Didn’t he think about the man’s family?
“How rude,” Vandermir said as he saw me with the papers.
“You-you can’t do this Adrian.”
“Excuse me?”
“This…if you make this man go bankrupt did you even think about what would happen to his family?” I said feeling frustrated and depressed.
“That is none of my concern.” He replied.
“How can you think like that!”
“Wow, calm down.” Donnie inputted.
“No, I won’t. You all don’t know how that man is.”
“Julie, what are you talking about? You know him?” Finny asked as he got up and came to my side.
I noticed how deep Adrian’s stare was piercing me. At that moment, I realized something. He knew. Adrian Vandermir knew that the man was my father. He probably knew long before I did. When he saw the picture of my family in my locket the first night we met. He saw my father’s picture there as well. But why didn’t he tell me before? Why didn’t he say anything up until now? It seemed as if his stare was edging me to say it. To say what that man was to me. He wanted me to admit what was hurting me the most all this time.
“He’s my father,” I said softly.
“What?” I heard Finny ask and Donnie coughed on his drink.
“So, you’re asking me to take pity on him?” Adrian smirked. That smirk strangely didn’t seem real. It wasn’t his natural smirk.
“No,” I sighed, “I’m not asking you to take pity on him. I’m asking you to think of Alexandria, her mother, and her sister. They don’t deserve to suffer from his ‘back-up plan’.”
“His what?” Ricardo asked.
“He’s going to do Alexandria’s family what he did to mine. He’ll leave them bankrupt and broken with no one and find a new family to probably start over with. That’s what he admitted on the phone Adrian, that’s what he meant by ‘he did it before and he would do it again’. I cried for him and he wasn’t even dead.” I said feeling my voice tremble.
“Julie, I’m sure there would be people to help them make back what they lost.” Finny smiled and put a hand on my shoulder.
I slapped it away, “Do you really think that would happen! Do you really think people would stick at your side when you have nothing? It doesn’t work that way Finneas! When a person has fortune everyone is close to him, is his friend, they may even call him ‘family’. But trust me, when it’s gone and you have nothing, when the money goes away so does those ‘so called’ close friends and ‘family’.”
“Julie-”
“You wouldn’t understand! Do you know how hard it was for my sisters and me? Do you even know what we went through? We had so many ‘close friends’ before we went bankrupt. Where are they now? Thank God for the Dawnlys, we would have been orphans if it wasn’t for them. And what did they get from us in return? Their death. We saw how hard life was, but we survived through it. Do you think Alexandria could do that? She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she’s dependant on her family, she’s immature, she even thinks her father would risk his life for her. What would happen to her, her mother, and her sister? Donnie, you know her more than I do, you know how she is. Do you really think that she could handle that? A life without money and her father?”
He didn’t know what to say. No one even said anything. Maybe it was useless for me to even talk to them, to tell them anything. Vandermir probably had just wanted to see me beg. I didn’t want to say anything else. Leaving the room, I went into my own.
I sat on the balcony and stared out. ‘Is anything ever going to be okay?’ That thought kept lingering in my mind. Would I ever be okay again? Hours passed as I sat there just staring at the outside. The dark sky began to drift above. Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about anything for the past hour. Nothing went through my mind again. I heard the soft knock on the door behind me.
“How careless, Greene. Couldn’t you have at least locked your front door?” Adrian’s velvety voice laced through the air.
I didn’t reply, if he was here to taunt me, I didn’t need that. I heard him sigh and took a seat on the small outside sofa next to me yet there was a distance between us. He looked towards the city light almost as if he was remembering something.
“You wouldn’t do it, would you?” I dared myself to ask again, but this time my voice was soft and inaudible.
“It’s on hold for the time.” He said with a soft chuckle.
That was something, wasn’t it? Better than today or tomorrow right?
“You knew- this whole time,” I stated.
“Knew what?”
“About my father,” I sighed, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I have my reasons.”
“You and your reasons,” I retorted, “Just stop with that. It’s so irritating. You’re just the strangest person I’ve ever met in my entire life.”
He laughed at that, “I’m the strange one? I find that hard to believe.”
It was actually the first time I heard him laugh, it was a real laugh. He had these perfect teeth, straight and white. And for some reason, his canine teeth stood out a bit more when he laughed. He looked and sounded a lot better when he laughed I had to say. I noticed how thick his eyebrows were yet they complimented his eyes quite nicely alone with his straight nose.
“Why did you come here?” I asked.
“We needed to talk about the partnership.”
“Really? Damn, I thought you came to small talk with me.” I smiled teasingly.
“You’ll have to sign a few documents to clear your name off the partnership.”
“I thought you said that the Rocillie guy needs to sign it to end it?”
“He does, but it would make more sense if you sign off as well too. If any legal officials get holds of that partnership then you’re screwed Greene and I won’t be able to help you that time. Rocillie can easily find a loophole for himself but it would be hard for you to do so.”
“Huh, just when I thought Adrian Vandermir knows everything.”
“It isn’t a joke.” He sighed.
“Well, I’d rather laugh than cry about it. So, when do I have to sign them?”
“We’ll need to take a little trip for that.” he smiled.
“Huh?”
“Each of the documents is in different locations, just in case anyone gets hold of it they won’t have the whole thing. It’s just to throw the officials off.”
“Wow, that must be pretty crazy stuff,” I said.
“But before you do that, we have to go to Japan first.”
“We? Are you crazy? Japan?” I asked a bit shocked.
“Relax, it isn’t like we’re going on a honeymoon. I just have to get some stuff done. And besides, Finny and everyone would be there.”
“Oh.”
“But it’s best if you come along with us. It’s safer. I don’t want to come back and find you dead,” He stated, “You can do that after you sign the documents for the partnership dismissal.”
Wow, just when I thought he was being nice to me.
“I swear, I would haunt you and make your life hell if that happens.” I retorted.
He chuckled at that, “How interesting it would be to be haunted by you, Miss Greene. Instead of going to hell, you want to be with me. Sounds fair enough.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I stated obviously annoyed at him.
“We’ll leave tomorrow, so be ready.” He said as he got up.
“Adrian wait,” I began and went up to him.
His deep smoky grey eyes stared down on me, he wasn’t the cold brutal guy at the moment. He wasn’t the intimidating person right down, he seemed different.
“I know that we don’t know each other that well, and I know that you don’t care about me, and I’m not asking you to. But, I do want something from you.”
He arched an eyebrow.
“I want you to promise me something. Promise me that you won’t ever lie to me. Everyone I love the most always keeps me in the dark, Mom, Mr. Dawnly, Dad, everyone and I’m just so tired of it. I just want to know that there would be one person that won’t do that to me. You won’t lie to me, would you?” I asked.
He stared at me for a moment and then gave a soft laugh, “I won’t Greene. I never have.”
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