Chapter 1 : Madelyn
Saturday, November 19th, 2022
When I was ten, my father told me that all of my dreams would one day come true. What he forgot to mention was that nightmares are also dreams.
Cotton white shirts with sleeves that end at your forearms. Identical pants that are loose everywhere but the snug elastic of the waist. The meals provided at seven, twelve, and eight that run like clock-work, closing exactly twenty minutes after the doors open.
Order is a consistency at the Keep, and it's a rule I've made a mockery of enough times to be fully responsible for the additional lines that have appeared across the skin of my father's forehead.
Whether he's finally caught on to my opinion about this place or not, it didn't matter to me.
The Keep was complete and utter bullshit, and I had every intention of leaving once I was off the stupid probation I'd "earned" myself.
"You're off your game today, Adams." Lev tuts as I spin away from his strike, the knuckle of his index finger just barely breathing past the curve of my jaw.
I blew out a huff of irritation as the blonde strands of my ponytail moved with me, grazing across my collar bones in the process of avoiding Lev's follow up attack right afterwards.
He shouldn't have even been able to even get close to me to start with, so the fact that he did only made me more frustrated.
"Or maybe I'm just sick of never having a real challenge, Ivankov." I shoot back, adding a lot of emphasis to his last name because he knows it pisses me off when he uses mine. His easy, infuriating smile served as encouragement as I offered no warning, lunging at his knees and predicting his side-step to the left.
I've sparred him enough to know his thoughts now, and as I played the attack off into an easy roll, I spun my leg out on the ground. Even if Lev saw it coming, it was too late to avoid me as I kicked at the backs of his knees, the loud thump of his body being driven to the ground softened only by the padded black mats below us.
"You okay there, tough guy?" I grinned as I fluidly stood back up, not offering my hand because I knew he would use it against me. "You're looking a little flustered."
There was one rule for those on the mats, and it was that any attacks were fair game until either one person resigns, is unconscious, or steps off of the black border entirely.
Lev got back up just as easily, but there was a little bit of pink now to the hard edges of his cheeks, not out of embarrassment, and rather in the need to get even.
Lucky for him, it was the exact kind of distraction I was looking for.
"I'm not flustered." He said as he walked back into position across from me. I already knew a jab was coming at me by the time he opened his mouth, his confident smirk showing me he'd already brushed off his fall. "I just don't like cheats."
Raising my eyebrow at him, I moved as we began to circle each other defensively.
So what if I had a history of cheating during our fights? If life has taught me anything, it's that the world doesn't favour those who are fair over those who aren't, otherwise nobody would need to get dirty to survive.
"Or maybe you're just a sore loser." I cocked my head, waiting for him to come to me. "Still not over the West party?" The event where he asked me out, and I respectfully explained I wasn't interested in relationships. Like at all.
He was good about it, but anything more than sex was off limits. And even then, Lev wasn't my type.
Reaching just a few inches above six feet, the man was covered almost entirely in tattoos, barely a single section remaining uncovered by muscle and ink.
He was undoubtedly nearing a power builder on this side of work, impressive, but simply not my taste. Not that I'd ever admit the impressive part.
"Last time I checked, it was you who had the shitty experience at that party." Lev smiles a second before he stepped in, faking a punch to my head just to bring his knee to connect with my stomach.
The force was held back significantly considering the damage we both knew he was capable of, but I still felt winded as I twisted to the side to soften the blow.
"You're just jealous I'm actually getting some action in my life." I wheezed slightly over my laugh, trying to regain my breath and my balance. It didn't take long before I landed two hits to Lev's side, enjoying the way his smirk dulled just slightly. Not that it lasted, though.
That party was the reason I was on probation, or rather the fact because I accidentally set off the fire alarm to the entire building of people at my father's event.
"Right because giving head in the hallway is exactly—"
I could sense we now had an audience as quickly as the sound of the entrance doors clicked open, and while I already knew who it was, I suppose I could admit Lev was right about something. I was a bit of a cheat.
"Hey, dad." I said, raising my hand to wave at the person walking towards the two of us. Kiana wasn't my father by any means, but the man in front of me didn't need to know that.
Lev had some weird thing with always tipping his head down when my dad walked into the room—something about a display of respect for his family's alliance with mine. I didn't see the point, but I did plan to exploit it.
As expected, Lev dropped his guard at the belief it was Marcus Caddel responsible for the whoosh of the swinging doors, likely very quickly realizing it was Kiana by her lithe form and silent stride alone.
It didn't matter. He didn't see it coming as I sprung at his back, using my weight along with momentum to take down what's probably more than two-hundred pounds of Lev's body.
"Cheat." He jolted as I pinned the back of his neck down with my knee, my hands holding his right arm in an uncomfortable lock behind him. We both knew he'd have to tap out or I'd dislocate his shoulder, and when he reluctantly did, I felt incredibly better than a few seconds ago.
Rolling off at his resignation, this time I offered him a hand up once I'd gotten to my full height, not that he needed it. Lev still accepted, though.
"Thanks." He grunted, releasing my hand the second he was standing again. He turned to get his water on the side, but I was moving towards Kiana instead. I'd been a little lost in the fight when I was sparring Lev just now, however I could tell she meant business and not pleasure from a closer look.
Her dark brown hair looked almost black as she approached, ending at just above her shoulders. She wore her usual leather jacket over the fitted crop of her t-shirt, but I could still see the small head of the tattooed snake peeking through the cuff.
I guess I could call her a friend, despite our interactions being mostly just for work.
Kiana immigrated to California from the Philippines with her mother and brother when she was a child, but she's been on her own for as long as I've known her. How she ended up working for my father, I don't know, though it's also none of my business.
That's kind of the way things are between us.
We've gotten together from time to time, and that was it. No expectations. No commitment. No feelings. Right now, Kia was here on business, and that was it.
"Lev." She nods at him in acknowledgement as he returns to my side, even though it's obvious she doesn't like him much.
Considering he's a part of the requirements of my lockdown, I've kind of been forced to get used to him this last month whether I wanted to or not. Our correlations with each other had pretty much everything to do with the alliance our fathers made, and the one thing we both had in common was that we wanted nothing to do with it.
"Nice to see you're still getting your ass handed to you." Kiana shot a taunting grin before leaving things at that. It was me she looked to next, Lev stiffening slightly at the obvious dismissal he'd just received.
I probably would've laughed if I didn't think something more pressing was going on.
"You'd—" Lev began, but I cut him off before he could go on a tangent about how he'd like to see her do any better. We both knew she could.
"We'll pick this up later, yeah?" I say, knowing it probably wouldn't be the last time we'd be sparring together. If it weren't for the way Kiana's posture was a little bit straighter than usual, I probably wouldn't be so curious about what she was here for.
As I took the single step down from the mats, I didn't bother to wait for a response, already knowing that if it was my father who sent her, I wouldn't really have a choice to stay either way.
I may as well just humor whatever idea he has going this time so I could return to waiting off the last week of my punishment in peace.
_______
People acted oddly as I was led down a series of hallways, even though I made sure to have this place memorized like the back of my hand since the first week I was kept here.
Intelligence is the only way I've learned to survive, but I'll admit, I was coming up blank as to what this meeting could possibly be about.
Unless my dad found out about the secret cash I have stashed beneath the loose floorboard under my bed and was mad about it, but even then, that wouldn't explain the whispers of people on my way over here.
I've mostly gotten used to it at this point, being the boss's daughter and all, but today's usual conversation felt different in a way I didn't know how to describe.
"Here." Kiana offers right before I move to open the door to my father's office, going to my back before gently untwisting the elastic that was keeping my hair tied up. It had gotten a lot longer from this last year that I've neglected to cut it, but it was the one thing that has remained constant for me as of lately.
The very fact that Kiana was undoing it for me, her long nails massaging my scalp in the process, was her way of giving me support despite the fact our intimacy didn't really branch outside of sex.
"Let me know if you want to meet up later." She says, slipping my hair elastic back onto my wrist and confuses me even more.
She knows better than anyone I couldn't care less about breaking my father's rules, just as I don't complain when the time comes to take whatever reprimand he deems fit.
I don't understand why she looks worried for me, but won't say anything because that's just out of character for the both of us.
"Okay." I sigh quietly with a nod of my head, wanting to simply get whatever talk I'd earned myself over with.
Something I appreciated about Kiana was that she didn't linger, but I knew she'd make time for me if I needed a distraction. She used me just as much as I used her, but we've also become something a lot like friends over the last year we've known each other.
While she was on the team that brought me here from New York, it was only my father I blamed for that.
Kiana was already gone by the time I raised my fist to knock on the door.
"Come in." My father's voice echoed from where is probably his desk, and sure enough, when I walked inside I found him sitting with his knee bent, his ankle resting against his opposite leg.
He wouldn't look at me as I moved inside, but it wasn't long before I realized we weren't alone. Accompanied by Alessia, Xavier's mother stood at my father's back with a look that unnerved even me.
I've always tried to avoid her as much as I could—and I've done a pretty good job at it—but it didn't seem like this was something I was getting out of. I didn't like the familiarness of her eyes or the fact she was here in general.
My father refused to tell me how she was alive even now, saying it wasn't his story to tell, but the very fact Xavier has mourned yet another year, unknowing of this secret his mother chose to keep... it's fair to say I don't have a lot of respect for her.
With the amount of security I have on me to just monitor each breath I take makes it impossible to tell him even if I wanted to. But just because I didn't like Alessia, doesn't mean I have any desire to talk to the man who took something from me he had no right to take.
"What's this about?" I cut straight to the point as I let the door close behind me, not taking a seat to show just how much time I planned to spend here.
I'm not mad at my dad anymore—at least not in the ways I was a year ago, however that doesn't mean I agree with the way he runs things around here.
It's been two weeks since I've even gone outside, things apparently too unsafe with all of the disruption stirring in the East.
I would never admit it, but sometimes, when things get quiet and the only presence I have is myself, I think about those who still live there.
"I take it you haven't looked at the news recently?" My father says softly, and I already know something has happened by his tone alone. He doesn't do gentle unless it's strategic for his own games.
"No, but I'm assuming I'm about to." I say in response, not showing any kind of weakness that would display the way my heart started beating just a little faster against my will.
He only frowned, Alessia remaining quiet as she stood at his side like a composed statue. I hated it almost as much as I hated seeing Natasha with him, looking like a family I'd never be a part of.
I made it my goal to alienate myself from all of them, Cameron included, because at one point, before the drinking and the pain, my mother was the most beautiful person I'd ever met. I hadn't been ready to let her go, and based on the tears I've seen my father shed when he thinks no one is watching, he wasn't ready either.
"Madelyn." The sound of my name pulls me away from my thoughts, my dad still seeming slightly sombre even though he's barely even said anything yet. Whatever I did couldn't possibly be bad enough for this? Right?
"I know you don't like to talk about them, but we need to now." He gazes downwards, not looking at me as he slides a sheet of paper across the desk. From where I was, I could see it was a printed article of sorts, but it wasn't until I saw a face I haven't seen in over a year that made the hardness of my expression falter.
Not waiting for an explanation, I picked up the sheet as my eyes were pulled straight to the title in a thick, bold font, a sick feeling pooling in my stomach from the first few words alone.
Millionaire CEO, Alec Sawyer, was found dead this morning at the young age of thirty three from a fatal bullet wound to his heart.
That was the heading alone, the attached photograph a shot of Alec walking down the street, curly brown hair slightly shorter than what I remembered. It was him, but I didn't see any photos of him dead.
"What's this?" I ask, all emotion void from my voice. Apart from the increased rate of my heart, I experienced nothing.
Blinking at my father, he was quiet for a moment as though pondering in surprise at my reaction. I didn't repeat myself, simply waiting for a response to explain the nonsense in front of me.
"This was taken three minutes before a shooting broke off in Brooklyn this morning. Witnesses say he jumped in to cover a little girl who looked like she could be his sister and was shot in the process."
Nina.
The Alec I remember was selfless and would've done something like that, but why would he be so unprotected in public in the first place when his Mafia was stirring up so much shit?
It simply wasn't true.
"Was there an autopsy?" I ask, putting the paper back down on the desk. "Pictures of a body? Proof of what these witnesses claim?"
I could go on and on about how this was staged in some way, because Alec being dead simply wasn't an option.
The look I saw Alessia give me made my blood boil, as it was very clear she thought I was in denial. But I wasn't. I didn't truly believe my mother was dead until I demanded to see the photo of her behind that hotel building in New York.
I threw up after seeing it and it's an image I'll never be able to erase, but at least I knew for certain she was gone. Until there was better proof than someone's word, Alec was not dead.
"His funeral is expected to happen in four days. We don't know where yet." My dad says carefully as if expecting me to break at any given moment. I could tell in the soft approach Alessia made in a motherly way, and the way my father didn't simply let me learn about this elsewhere.
But like I said, it was unnecessary.
"Alec Sawyer is very much alive." I say, finality in my voice as I turn my back on the both of them. Those were the only words I'd be saying on this matter, because whatever whispers I'd received on the way here were simply not true.
I heard someone call out my name as my hand gripped the handle of the door, but I was already leaving before I could care to figure out who it was.
I was going to go back to 6:00 AM wake ups, with white clothes, and hidden floorboards, just as Alec was going to go back to whatever he does now with his life.
Things have changed incredibly since I last saw him, and again since I walked from my stepfather's house smelling like ash and gasoline, but this was the way things were now.
Day in and day out.
The only part I have left now is to go find myself a new distraction, praying it will be enough to lose myself for just a little while longer.
- End of Chapter 1 -
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