Page 60 of Care: Part 1

"Tell me the truth. Why am I here? What do you want from me?" She shouted.

He didn’t want to answer her. The admiration she typically held in her eyes already appeared to slip away. Adrik wanted to do everything he could to bring it back. He was scared that if he told her the truth, her love would never return.

"You are here because you are the only way to find Vincent before he finds my sister," he said quietly.

"So, you used me?"

Her heart seemed to crumble from the sound of her own words. Even a tear fell from her face as she looked at him. It only showcased the hurt she felt in her chest.

"Do you even love me?"

"I do love you," he said, walking up to her, but she moved back. "I would never hurt you or let anyone else hurt you. I love you, Avelina."

She stared at him in shock. Her emotions were battling with her mind. There was a war that withheld an undetermined winner. She didn’t know if she should scream, cry, or both.

"Why is Vincent looking for your sister?” She asked him, searching for an excuse to piece back the fallen pieces of her spirit.

“I am worried that if I tell you, you will not fancy me anymore.”

“Tell me,” Avelina demanded.

He looked off in the distance.

“My sister had to do a job.”

“What job, Adrik?”

“The job to find you many years ago. Natasha was young and in this toxic mindset. At the time, she did not understand what she was doing,” he began, “when she couldn’t find you, she tried getting information about your whereabouts from your grandmother, but…”

“No!”

“…your grandmother would not tell her. So, the leader at the time gave Natasha a new job; kill her.”

Avelina always had this feeling that Adrik wasn't telling her the whole truth. Her intuition was still whispering everything was just too good to be true. Who would have guessed that her instincts were right?

Adrik reached for her hand.

"I do not want to lose you," he said.

Adrik pulled Avelina into his chest. He then wrapped his arm around her waist. A trail of heartbreak left his fingertips, and it pained her.

Her shock wouldn’t allow her to move. Even as Adrik pressed his head into the crook of her neck, Avelina remained robotic.

"How could you keep this from me?" She cried.

"I do not know.”

His arm was tightening around her. The thought of never holding her like he was doing now was difficult even to comprehend. She was his, and he wanted her in that way forever.

There was a guilt Avelina kept with her for years after her grandmother died. She thought her grandmother killed herself because she no longer cared for Avelina. The whole time, she built her life based on that tragic experience only to hear that it was all caused by the sister to the man she loved.

Memories played out in her mind of all the moments Avelina and her grandmother shared. All the happiness, the taught lessons—everything. She loved her grandmother more than she loved anyone in the world.

When she came home from school to see her grandmother passed away with this lifeless look on her face, it was the worst day of her life. Her grandma was the second family member that she had ever seen dead, and it was too traumatic even to comprehend. After that day, Avelina grew a newfound hate for herself that wouldn't have been there if her grandmother was still alive.

She snatched herself away from Adrik’s hold.

"What did my family ever do to her?" Avelina asked, tears freely finding a path to slide down her face.