D U S K ✔

Chapter Thirty-Four

  He sighed on the other line, "It's okay, I just got worried. Have fun, don't stay up too late."

  "I won't, love you dad."

  "Love you too, kiddo." He hung up after that, the feeling of guilt spread through my body as I sat down on the edge of the bed, I rubbed my temples, trying to ease the growing headache.

  "I'll sort it out with Everett," Adam's voice perked my head up, I didn't even notice that he had come in. He was leaning against the door frame, "You don't have to worry."

  "What are you gonna do?" I asked, propped my elbows on my knees and resting my head on my hands.

  "I'll take some money, bring Solomon and Lincoln, we'll negotiate a deal." He watched me with an unbreakable gaze.

  "How do you know that'll work?"

  He smirked, "I don't."

  I sent him a warning glare. "Look-"

  Just as I was about to start scolding him, Theresa called my down for some food. I threw a questioning look at Adam and he shrugged, "I only said you hadn't eaten anything yet." I threw him another glare, "What? It's only the truth." 

  I walked past him, and made my way towards the kitchen, noticing how his hand rested on the small of my back the entire time.

He walked through the kitchen, after pulling out a chair for me and basically throwing me in the seat, grabbing a 'wad of cash' from a safe, he came back.

  "Where are you going?" I asked, as he was about to leave. He came over and gave me a quick kiss to my temple. I was about to pull away with his uncommon action, but he was faster than I thought. He threw me a devilish smirk.

  "I'm gonna go get Solomon and Lincoln, they only live down the road. I won't be long."

  Once again as soon as he shut the door behind him, Theresa burst in. Making herself another cup of tea by the counter, I sat twiddling my thumbs. I couldn't help feeling awkward as the deep silence completely surrounded us. 

  She sat down after a minute or two and stared at me it wasn't a harsh stare like the ones I would usually get from Adam, it was more of a curious stare, "Would you like a cup of tea, Gabrielle?" She offered with a delicate smile. 

  I took up her offer and soon my hands, too, were wrapped around a cup of delightfully warm tea. I sighed in content and watched as my spoon swirled the tea around in it's mug.

  "He's going to be fine."

  My head snapped up to meet her's, she threw me a reassuring smile. "What?"

  "Adam. I mean." I suddenly felt sickness creep into my stomach, I didn't want to think about it, and if I couldn't even think about it after only knowing Adam for a few months then how could Theresa be feeling after knowing Adam her whole life? "He'll be fine."

  "Is that why you looked so happy after the phone call?" 

  She smiled so brightly the areas around her eyes crinkled, "Yes, Adam's parents finally found a doctor willing to do the surgery."

  My stomach surged into my heart.

  "What surgery?"

  She blinked up at me, taking a sip from her mug, knotting her eyebrows together.

"What did Adam tell you?" She asked hesitantly.

Fiddling with my thumbs, I realised Adam hadn't really told me anything, I felt almost guilty talking to Theresa behind his back, like I was breaking some sort of unspoken rule. But was it really the worst thing in the world, if it was for the best? I was positive-- almost positive-- I was only doing this for his well-being in the long run, but that wasn't exactly true, in the deepest part of me I knew I needed to feed the constant, silent nagging in the back of my mind, desperate for answers he's been dodging from the start.

"He told me he was dying- sort of." It wasn't a lie, completely. He didn't say explicitly he was dying, he just made countless references to it.

She rolled her eyes, a small laugh bubbling out of her chest so raw, I could tell it had been a while since she laughed like that. "That boy is so dramatic."

"Is he not?" I glanced at her expectantly, but all that I got back was silence.

For a split second I got my hopes up. It was stupid and naive, especially since I know I can't get attached to him, all arrows were pointing at me to run, leave it all behind, and forget the boy who'd came crashing into my life, with explosive intentions. Yet I was already too attached.

  I had been since we locked eyes the very first night.

"I wasn't always the Valentino's housekeeper," she changed the subject quickly, looking away from me. "When I got the job I was told about their son, a little boy, couldn't have been older than seven, maybe six."

She looked back up to me, "And in all the years of work I've done for this family not once have I seen that boy healthy."

"What do you mean?" I asked cryptically. Pulling at a strand of my hair, I swallowed the dry lump growing in my throat.

"She means," A new, yet so very familiar voice spoke up, "if I don't get this tumour out of my brain anytime soon, I will die."