Adrian followed Mr. Williams into a dark alley. He was sensing trouble. Nevertheless, he couldn't turn. Didn't want to. Slowly, two young boys came out of the alleyway. One had a baseball bat in his hand. Adrian knew what was up but what happened next was something he didn't know. The boys were the members of his mafia group.
Both the boys stopped dead when they spotted Adrian behind Mr. Williams. "Is this the person you want us to beat up?" The boy wearing jeans and a loose fitting top, with combat boots said in a lowly grumble. Mr. Williams nodded. "Sorry, but this is not going to happen." The other boy spoke. "Why? I paid you the money you asked." Mr. Williams was shocked.
"You bring any boy in town to beat up for the right reasons, we're ready. You bring our boss and ask us to hurt him. We ain't laying a finger on him." Both the boys dropped their weapons on the ground. "Your boss!! What do you mean?"
"It means that I run this mafia group Mr. Williams. I am their boss. Looks like luck isn't just supporting you after all. In this town, full of mafias, the men you pick are mine. Isn't it a pity." Adrian's all famous smirk was back on. His voice confident again. "Boss, do you want us to fix him up?" The boy with the baseball bat said. "I could use a workout." The other one took large strides to get face to face with Mr. Williams. "No. I want to have a chat with this gentleman. Please leave us alone." Adrian said as he felt those boys melt into the shadows.
Mr. Williams was too awe struck to utter a single word. He was planning on distorting Adrian's face for life but what got distorted was his prestige by some teenager who outsmarted him. Great! But why did he leave him unharmed? Mr. Williams was this close to being hurt, like he had hurt him all day long, in his own house. "I left you because you are Jennifer's father. She loves you and I don't want to be the reason she has an ugly father." Adrian spoke from behind.
Mr. Williams turned to see a whole new look at Adrian's face. A confident, smart boy with a hint of danger on his face. An authoritative posture and eyes high, piercings into his soul like sharp knives. His hand were in his pocket looking cool as ever his tongue poked the inside of his cheek. "You beat me today but do you think you will get away with this? I will tell Jennifer about your truth. She will hate you forever and just in case, you don't know yet, she hates liars." Jennifer's father sounded defeated so Adrian let him go without another word.
Adrian very well knew that there was a fat chance of Jennifer hating him for what he did to her. Build friendship on fake words and fake identities. But there was no point denying it. This was who he was. Even if he managed to win Jennifer over how long before she discovered the truth herself. She was a smart girl. There was no other option left. Adrian had to face the reality. He could not go on living this two faced life and keep Jennifer in the dark.
"I guess, we both lost something today…. Mr. Williams" Adrian thought to himself as he was walking towards his home. He went to the forest clearing. His mind was chock-full with thoughts and he needed some air to clean it up.
Jennifer, on the other hand, was crying so uncontrollably that she hadn't managed to leave Mr. Rains house ever since her father left with Adrian. Mr. Rains turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to all her cries. He didn't even offer a tissue. This man was only obsessed with money. Now that the deal was off for sure, he had no business, pretending to be nice to her. A maid took pity on Jennifer and offer her some tissue and a glass of water. She took it with trembling hands.
"Let me take you home." She offered. "I don't want to go back to that wretched thing called home." Jennifer shouted. The maid brought her back to her feet and with little steps, she was finally standing in front of her home again. She hesitated to go inside but when her mother came outside to get her from the maid, Jennifer finally decided it was time she went back home and did something constructive about this situation than crying.
"I tried to reason with your dad, but you know him. He can get really stubborn if he wants to be…. I'm sorry he humiliated you in front of your friend….." Her mother kept on saying comforting words to Jennifer but those words did nothing but to slice her open even further. "Mom, you don't need to say anything. I'm fine." Jennifer said as she entered her house only to see her father sitting on the couch, waiting for her.
"We need to talk." He spoke. Jennifer almost lost it. "How do you still expect me to even look at you after what you did today? Huh!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Screaming, somehow, made her feel better. "Its serious." Her father spoke once again. "Nothing related to you matters to me anymore." Jennifer was about to go into her room when her father's words made her stop in her path.
"It's about Adrian. I think you should listen." Jennifer turned around and took a seat in front of her father. Her heart was beating so loudly that it could burst out of her rib cage at any given moment. She could almost hear it thumping. "Adrian is not the boy you know him as. He runs a mafia group. He is a mafia." Jennifer's father expected a different reaction from her daughter but the only reaction he got was her laughter. Not smiling. Not chuckling. Full blown laughing.
"Why do you expect me to believe that?" Jennifer asked her father to which he had no answer. After today, Jennifer had no reason to trust her father. Maybe, Mr. Williams also realized that he had gone a little bit too overboard with his anger today. "You don't have any reason to but if I tell you the whole story you probably will believe me. Will you listen?" He asked. Jennifer wanted to walk away but even then she nodded.
Mr. Williams explained everything that happened today. How he saw the video at office today and then a group of media men crowded him asking answers to the question he didn't know. How they embarrassed him by calling his very precious daughter a slut. A lust driven teenager who would probably sleep with anybody who had a pocket big enough to support her lifestyle. Then, he dived into the details of how he came back home and talked to Jennifer's mother about it and then Jennifer came back home from school.
He also told her that he was not that innocent as he had been portraying to her. He confessed that he had some illegal connections to back him up if the things went horribly wrong anytime. He told Jennifer all about how he called upon those men to beat Adrian up but they refused to do so because Adrian as their boss. Adrian himself agreed that he was running a mafia group.