Chapter 26: Naive little girl

Arissa looked outside at the pine tree lane they are driving through and at once, she knew that they were close to her groom's home.

Her stomach knot tightened as she crotched her head down and just stroked Blu. fur with a face devoid of all emotions.

"Are you letting them do this to us? " she asked Mr. Adam as her eyes softened again the moment she rose it up and looked at him, "You stood by the background and let all of these happen,"

The air in the car thickened with the silence piercing Mr. Adams's consciousness. He looked at her from the front mirror of the car and to his expectation, he meet her eyes.

"I had to. I serve them and not you," he answered still looking at her from the mirror. The lane is a quiet one with only pines around forming a long line at both sides so Mr. Adams's last fear was an accident occurrence.

Arissa held his gaze in the front mirror as she rubbed sleeping Blu. fur more and softly.

"I would take them down and when am set, I would not spare you, Mr. Adams," she assured him holding the tears that stung her eyes back.

Is this what loyalty means?

She knows how the world works - loyalty to masters forever but, this is Mr. Adams. He was the first person she ever called father.

According to stories, he held her on her first steps and her first word was to him - calling him Papa. He was even the one who thought her how to speak up and fight for herself.

She smiled at how naive that little girl was to think that someone else father would love her when her father did not show such affection to her and just when she thought Mr. Adams was different, he let her and Adele face this alone.

Mr. Adams said nothing to her assurance but still focused on the lane and from a short distance separating them from her groom's house.

"I want the best home for you both," Mr. Adams said which was genuinely true

Working for a psychopath and a criminal as covered as Mr. Lincoln, Adams knew that having a family is off the point because any time of the day, they might be jailed or assassinated and so for that fact, all his life, he stayed and watched Adele and Arissa grow.

Nurturing and taking them as his own.

"Don't you think you should take your words of where you added taking me down back," Mr. Adams spoke up finally, and now, his voice was less professional and caring just as usual when they are alone.

Arissa raised her face up and after starting at his back for a while, she asked with pins on each word, "Why should I Mr. Adams? You watched Adele rapped by thugs and now, you are taking me down to my end," her voice was low but extremely breaking - though she did not notice.

Mr. Adams wanted to explain everything that happened on that day but that would be a waste of time because this isn't the right time and she would only get angrier if he should explain that he was busy wiping out a family her parents wanted dead on the day Adele was rapped.

Her parents knew that he would not allow that had it been he was around so to send him away, they occupied him with a job.

He gritted his teeth as he recalled everything that happened that day and how Mr. Lincoln and his wife sat in the living room on that day, as they replayed a tape before himself and Adele where Adele struggled with her life while being laid down.

The face of the traumatized lady tied to a chair and forced to join in watching the clip hunted him.

He closes his eyes and after opening them, his emotions were back in order, "You should Arissa. And that is because I saved you from death," he gave an unreasonable answer - at least it was better than making her think he is trying to walk away from the whole affair.

Arissa's lips let out a sly smile after listening to him, "And now, you are taking me to a fate more worst than death."

"I have to,"

And with those three words, her whole self crumbled inwardly as she watched Mr. Adams behind. There is nothing he could have done to change her and Adele's faith but...

Initially, she only wanted him to tell her that he wasn't part of her parent's scheme and maybe, comfort her as he usually did in the past but to her surprise, he is making to realize that he would always stick to her parents.

And before she would mask it, a lonely tear slipped from her left eye, "I would make sure you pay, Mr. Adams," she promised him as she cleaned the tear that escaped her eyes.

Mr. Adams caught wind of her action through the front mirror and the urge to help her to hide increased but that would make everything more complicated so, a step at a time is the best.

"I know," he answered calmly as he approached the entrance of her groom's house due to the supervillain cameras around each pine tree, they already knew who was coming so, there was no extra time to talk back as the black gates pulled open and Mr. Adams drove in.

....

Arissa was taken aback by the sudden affectional hug from Mrs. Wyatt. Her fist tightened beside both parts of her body as the pull to hug back covered her.

Hell, she wasn't prepared to fake a hug.

The last time she hugged a stranger? She does not remember but this lady hugged her the moment the door was pulled open. And because of the damage she receives from Mr. Adams minutes ago, she felt the emotions from the hug vividly.

Her body stiffened with the warmth that radiated from the body of this stranger or better still, her mother-in-law, something she can't link to her own mother's hug.

"I thought you would not make it," Mrs. Wyatt said as she simply stepped away from Arissa when the latter stiff body did not respond to the hug.

Arissa hid some strands of her hair behind her left ear before turning to the two armed guards that took on the duty of walking her down to the main house.

"So now, you can see it was invited, and no assassin," she said with a light order of telling them to back away underneath her voice.

She does not know if it was caused by guilt on his part but Mr. Adams refused to see her to the don't and only sent her off with the closest guards.

And although knowing who she was already, they still carried their weapons - just in case something worth not occurring happen.

"You both can leave," Mr. Wyatt spoke to both guards when they did not listen to Arissa.

"Give her luggage to Rue," she ordered the other two guards that were proceeding in with Arissa's stuff.

Arissa took in the tune Mrs. Wyatt used to talk to the guards and how warmly she received her. Remembering the contract signing meeting, Arissa can say that she is standing before a different person right now.

"Let's go inside," Mrs. Wyatt suggested, and with that, Arissa bent down and cradled Blu. underneath her right arm.