Chapter 166: DANGEROUS
"That’s right but I’m not willing to take that much risk for you. Remember that we are still runaways, and those people you are planning to offend are not ordinary people. Aren’t you thinking about the consequences of what your actions could lead to?" Madam Laura questioned her back. "If something was to happen to you, who would take care of your baby?"
Felicia didn’t want to understand any of the words that Madam Laura had uttered. Her mind was clouded with the evil things that she had planned for Erika and anything that suggested otherwise, she wasn’t willing to hear one bit.
Banging her hand hard on the table, she growled with rage in her eyes,
"Did I ask for your opinion on that?! Did I ask for you to take care of my baby?! I only need you to help me just like you had offered earlier!" she snapped.
Tobias could already sense that things would escalate if he didn’t do something quickly. He stood up and tried to calm Felicia down but the latter was too enraged to listen to anyone.
"That bitch is the only reason that my life has turned like this!" Felicia continued to yell. "And I am telling you, Laura, she is never going to rest until she gets what she deserves!"
"Felicia, calm down," said Tobias.
Mary who had been napping, woke up due to the loud noise and questioned,
"Why are you people screaming?"
No one answered her.
All of a sudden, Felicia yelped in pain as she grabbed her huge tummy.
"It hurts," she mumbled under her breath.
The two women immediately rushed towards her and tried to make her walk towards the room. They didn’t need to ask her to know that she was feeling labor pain and it was time for her to give birth.
Instantly, Tobias ran out of the house, got into his car, and drove to a supermarket to buy some baby supplies while the two elderly women tried their best to make a safe delivery in the house since they couldn’t go to the hospital.
In New York, Adrian walked inside his house after having a wonderful evening. He saw Juliet in the living room, answering a phone call and ignored her. He directly walked towards the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water to quench his thirst.
In the middle of his drinking, Juliet walked towards him with speedy steps and announced,
"Felicia has given birth!"
Thinking that he might probably choke on his water due to the happy news, Juliet watched as Adrian drank his water until he emptied his glass before he replied to her.
"And so what?" he questioned her.
"So what? What do you mean by so what? You have a son now, Adrian. Don’t you want to see the baby? Your son?" she questioned him back.
Juliet had already been informed by her mother after Felicia delivered the baby safely and the latter was excited to hear that she had a nephew now. She didn’t care if they were runaways. Instead, she was happy that they had escaped. As much as she was angry at her mother, she couldn’t bear to see her behind bars.
"I have told you countless times that child is not mine," he snapped.
Juliet didn’t reply immediately. She opened her phone and searched until she found what she was looking for.
She showed the picture in her phone to Adrian and asked,
"Do you think that the baby isn’t yours? Look at him properly, just look."
In her phone was a photo of a newly born baby whose eyes were still closed but one could already tell that the child looked similar to the father.
"The baby has almost a striking resemblance to you. And before you ask, this isn’t photoshopped," she added.
Adrian on the other hand stared at the photo with wide eyes and lips parted in surprise. He couldn’t deny the fact that the baby did look like him.
"But that’s impossible, Felicia had been cheating on me with several men," he managed to speak in between his shock.
"I know you are still mad at her for that but just forget about it. Forget about Erika and focus on
your family. Let’s go back to California and help to hide them from the police, you wouldn’t want your baby to be taken to the orphanage now would you? she tries to convince him.
Juliet had no clue about what Adrian could have possibly seen but wanted to go back home and see her mother. If she had her own money, then she wouldn’t even be there with him.
At the thought of forgetting about Erika, Adrian glared at his sister with so much hostility which frightened her.
"I am never going to forget about Erika and you better remember that. Erika is the woman I love and I will never let her go so easily," he declared.
**
Adrian was in his room, sleeping when he suddenly heard his phone ring. He checked the time on his clock first and grumbled when he saw that it was just 3 in the morning.
"Who could be calling at this hour?" he grumbled with an irritated tone as he reached out for the phone. When he saw the boss’s name displayed as the caller, he abruptly sprang up from the bed and quickly answered it.
"Yes b-boss," he said with a slightly stuttered voice.
"Adrian, I need you to come to the hideout," said Viper from the other side.
"Now?" he asked.
"Yes, now," said Viper and after his words, he hung up on the call.
With a frustrated sigh, Adrian ran his hands through his hair before he went to dress up and left the house.
A week had already passed since the day Mr Salvador accused Adrian of cheating in the game. He earned more money until the boss suddenly asked him to retrieve money from a debtor.
It was his first task ever and he didn’t want any mishaps to be created in the middle of his work.
The debtor had refused to pay back his debt which was a large amount of money so Adrian had to bring the man to the boss. The man didn’t own any valuable property that could be sold to get back that money so he was wasted and Adrian was the one to waste the man’s life.
Ever since that day, Viper would entrust Adrian with other tasks which included retrieving money from debtors or killing them if they refused to pay up. When he got back to the underground gambling, he would play a game just like every other player.
Adrian drove till he entered a forest, a path for cars was already created so it was easy to drive through the branches and tall trees that prevented the moon from kissing the ground with its moonlight. Adrain continued to drive until he reached the two-storey building that looked like a house but was far from being a house.
He parked his car, along with the other cars, and walked inside. He opened the door and a heavy stench of alcohol, mixed with blood and burnt skin infiltrated his nose, leading him to cover his nose instantly with his forearm.
A few bulky men with armed weapons patrolled the hallways as they watched out for any intruders, even if it was in the middle of the night.
One of the men went towards Adrian and said,
"The boss is waiting for you inside."
Adrian didn’t need to ask where the ’inside’ was since Viper only had one favorite room in the hideout and that was the torture room. He responded and gave a brief nod to the man and left to the torture room.
Though curious about the reason behind why Viper wanted to see him at the moment, Adrian also wondered who had turned into a scapegoat that night.
As he got closer to the torture room, the heavy stench only got stronger and he could already tell that there had been a misbehaving scapegoat. Slowly, he pushed the metal door open and peeked inside.
A man whose clothes had been torn in no proper order, as if he had been attacked by a wild animal was seated on an electric chair. His hands were tied as the electric wires were wrapped around his body. Blood from his open injuries stained the pieces of the rag called clothes as he groaned in pain, begging the man who was wearing a black outfit for mercy.
"Please viper, let me go. I didn’t do anything", the man seated on the electric chair pleaded.
Viper scoffed, "Let you go? You want me to let you go but you keep on lying to me? You know, we wouldn’t be here if you had just paid the money that you owed and not tried to escape from your unpaid debts," he spat out.
This kind of issue had been the one taking most of their time. It seemed that debtors had decided to not pay up but instead, wanted their lives to be wasted.
He glared at the man who was begging for his mercy and smirked before his eyes landed on Adrian, whose head was already in the dark room, sneakily listening to their conversation.
"Adrain, don’t just stand there, come inside," he ordered.
