That One Ride

Chapter 19: Enemy's enemy is a friend

5 months later...

Adam sat in his hotel suite with Eliana by his side, trying to take his mind off the deal they had lost from Alex. One morning in their New York office they had received the mail with all the legalities that why AM Hotels could not go further with the deal. Even though he knew that the reason was nothing legal, rather personal. Adam closed his eyes, looking up at the ceiling as he rested his head on the back of the couch. There was anger in his heart when h saw Teresa that day, at the party. And the most unexpected part? As a date for Alex McOwen. Never in his life, he would have been prepared, and then there were memories of the day he killed Henrick Smith. He would have killed her that day... he would have only if it was not a public place and his hands were not bound.

But now it seemed as if they needed to grab the deal, by hook or crook. Because once the news went out that they had lost a deal from a man as powerful as Alex, it would be hard for them to save the company.

Eliana sat beside him, giving him a mug of coffee. She knew what went on at the party and didn't dare to stop it. There were no motherly instincts left in her for Teresa after her 10th birthday. All she did was pretend all these years. Maybe some womanly part of her wanted to see Teresa and hold her in her arms, but that died the moment Henrick died.

"What do we do now?" asked Eliana.

"I do not know. I guess we have to do something as early as possible."

"And what are we going to do about Teresa? She would have mind-washed Alex by now."

"Like father, like daughter. And Alex is a lost case now. We need to get on good terms with his brother. He is mysterious but can be very useful to us. I mean, that's why it took us this long to secure a date for a meeting with him." Adam said.

Eliana nodded as she reached to the nightstand to grab the clutch and the phone. When she met Alex for the first time, she understood the arrogant man he was, and then the vast network of his connections. No one in their time of business deals was able to dig out the information that the boy did. And she was hungry for payback. Hungry for a taste of how it felt to be this powerful. But everything in her life had a habit of going back to her past. All those years, since the death of Henrick, she had felt the peace she wanted. Without Henrick. Without Teresa.

As they walked out of the hotel gate to the similar streets of Paris, Eliana's jaw went taut. She wished to never see Teresa in her life, and thank goodness only Adam was there at the party that day. Because if she had to stand in front of Teresa... she would have been dead first, and then there would be talking. With a deep breath, she hopped into the car with Adam at her side. Looking out of the window, her thoughts wandered to Henrick. There was a time when she was head over heels in love with Henrick. He was everything she wanted- everything she had in her life until- she shook her head and sighed. Now they had a meeting with Robert McOwen, the notorious brother.

She felt a squeeze in her hand, watching Adam as he smiled at her. Eliana's lips turned upward unconsciously. When she had been figuring out her life with a child and Henrick, Adam came into her life and turned every belief upside down. Love is a powerful thing. It brings the best and the worst out of you. Adam did exactly that to Eliana. He popped the bubble she had been living in; a bubble Henrick created for her. And that sparked the new boundaries of emotions in her heart. The emotions she felt for Henrick and Teresa and buried deep in herself to never overshadow the false personality she had been living under. Jealousy, hurt, revenge and betrayal- Eliana could not even name the number of things she had felt all these years.

But Adam was there for her, and she had been grateful for that. Adam used to work in Henrick's company. At one party they talked, at the second party they kissed, and the toxic affair of Eliana's life started. It was of a kind affair where she felt free of the responsibilities she never even wanted the burden of.