"Send her in. We will talk." Adrian said. His voice was barely audible. James went outside to see Jennifer on her phone. "What are you doing? I told you to discard your phone. It's dangerous." James ran towards her and snatched the phone from her hands as he scolded her. He became still as he noticed that she was swiping through some photos of Adrian. "Since the day I fell in love, everyday that I met him, I clicked a photo secretly but why do you care about me? Now, even Adrian is going to discard me. I'm no more rich. I'm no more the beautiful princess. It doesn't matter. These photos bring me comfort."
James was so shocked when Jennifer finally revealed what she had on her mind for so long. He couldn't imagine a world where Adrian would dump Jennifer. Not even in his wildest nightmare. "He isn't going to leave you like this. After all, you've fought for him so hard." James told her. "He dumped me. I think you forgot that. I was just sticking to him like some unwanted disease. He didn't ask for it. It's natural that he would want to get rid of me. Moreover, I don't know if he told you but he is already in love with someone." Jennifer said.
"Did he tell you that?" James asked, confused by what Jennifer was saying. How could she know that Adrian loved someone and which part of the conversation stated that the 'someone' was other than her? "No. I heard it when I followed you both to Kurt's casino-" Jennifer blurted out her secret mindlessly and then clamped her hand to her mouth as her eyes widened, realizing the blunder she did right now. "You did what?" James' voice was so loud that it captured the attention of everybody on the entire hospital floor. Many people looked at him annoyingly.
Ignoring all those people, James dragged Jennifer towards Adrian's bed without exchanging any more words. Even his expressions did not change. When he dragged Jennifer into the room, Adrian was shocked at the intensity so much that he told him, "Calm down dude! We can talk." James just looked at him without saying anything. "Did you know that Jennifer knew?" he asked Adrian.
"I knew what?" Jennifer questioned, looking all confused at being dragged here suddenly. "Jennifer knew that we burnt Kurt's casino." James lowered his voice. Adrian couldn't receive anymore shocks that he had received today. Minute after minute, new incident were unfolding too fast to stuff them into his brain.
"Since when do you know?" Adrian shifted a little bit to make space for Jennifer to sit. He spoke really calmly, carful, not to disturb or offend her. After all, she was going through a really hard time because she decided to stick to him. "I saw you burn it down." Jennifer replied, looking down at her knees. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Adrian? What kind of stupid questions are you asking?
I have to ask something. I can't just … just let it go. The safety of the den depends on it.
"Did you speak about it to somebody else?" James was the one to ask this question. "No. I wanted to let Adrian explain himself but I couldn't being myself to talk to him. I thought he will see me as a creepy stalker and sever our friendship so, I stayed quiet." Jennifer was almost about to cry. Her secret had busted in the most unexpected way. James heaved a frustrated sigh. He couldn't do anything because it was Jennifer!
"It's time we actually tell her. It's doing more harm than good by keeping her in the dark." James was tired of acting like everything was okay when it wasn't. Outside this same room they were standing in, about 20 children were standing, staying with Adrian day and night to keep him company, bring him food, and Adrian's love had endangered all of them. These guys had sacrificed their everything to come and join their group. They did not deserve what was going to happen to them.
"In the dark? What does that mean Adrian?" Jennifer turned to Adrian. Her mind brought her back to the sentence her father said about him being a mafia. At night, Jennifer used to debate with herself, the probability of this being true and the consequences that followed. Everything was terrifying to her. "Jennifer, there is something you need to know." Adrian said.
Outside the café, Jennifer was standing with James and Adrian standing beside her and followed by a group of 5 children. They entered the café and went to the same place James had introduced to her a few days ago. When Jennifer entered the room, she was surprised at the extend of change that had been made in one night. The entire room was cleared and organized neatly. It was changed altogether. One could never say that it had been the same dingy basement like room that she had encountered a week before.
Adrian entered the room and walked up to a platform painted in metallic grey and white. All this time, this platform was treated like some royal throne, all the members bowed before crossing it and no one dared step on it. When Jennifer once tried to climb it, she was immediately brought down even before her feet touched the surface. The rest of the day, all she received were the death glares from other members.
"Thank you for assembling here and giving me your precious time. I have returned home after a long week at the hospital due to an injury I received during a very unfortunate incident. A lot had happened and I want to talk to you about it. But before that, I feel really grateful for all the love and care I have received from all of you. I just wanted you all to know that I feel really honored to be your leader." A loud noise erupted behind Jennifer as she turned around to see that the group of five had turned into a crowd of about 20. This had happened so silently that Jennifer didn't even sense the other 15 people entering the room. "Now let's move over to more sad topics to be discussed. Firstly, as you all know, there is a girl I love." Jennifer's heart sank. Adrian was going to dump her now. "She's standing here in the room right now." Fear and bewilderment gripped her heart all at once as she noticed all heads in the room turning towards her.