Pain And Pleasure 18+✓

Seventy-one

Adrian searches through his jacket and produces a ring—the same ring of intrigue I saw the day he saved Jake in the warehouse. I sit straight, my curiosity piqued. Gently, he rubs his thumb over the silver surface, seemingly immersed in some old memories I wish I knew.

"It's like a royal crown but in a way a family heirloom," he says quietly. "There are only two of them in the world: one in silver, one in gold." He's talking about the ring, I fathom.

The gold one must belong to Roberto. I saw it when he visited.

Before I could utter a syllable, he simply says, "He came to me like God."

My gaze settles on him firmly. "You mean Roberto?"

"Yeah," Adrian replies. I swallow tightly, eager for more. "One day I overheard my mother talking to her bastard husband about leaving the country. It was a harmless eavesdrop. I didn't know what was going on but I knew something was off because the bastard was nervous for the first time."

I don't think I've been more attention to someone's story than I am right now. Silently, I hang onto every word Adrian says.

"Later on, I found out that he got involved in a shady deal that demanded his head in case he failed to deliver part of his bargain," Adrian adds.

"What deal?" I ask, curious.

Adrian snorts, and then he sighs deeply.

"He got involved with a dangerous mafia gang during some exchange. They were looking for him and everyone related to him."

"That includes you and your family. What happened?" I feel like I've forgotten to blink at this point.

While toying with the ring in his hand, Adrian explains, "Yes, he'd put all of us in danger but it wasn't on his list of concerns. The only option he had was to run away, probably to Bogota as I heard the name many times between his hushed whispers with my mother. He was Colombian."

All I can think of are those drug cartels and the streets of Colombia that I've seen in movies. I can imagine what kind of a man he was, the picture almost vivid in my head.

"I was extremely happy that he was finally leaving," Adrian states angrily. "That our mom was gonna be free from him. That she was finally going to be ours only, just as before! That we weren't going to share her with him anymore!" His teeth grit at every sentence he draws and it makes my heart race at the stir of emotions.

The fact that he was yearning for his mom's love and attention is what I gather the most from everything he says. Could this be one of the reasons why he's now very possessive in a grand façade of kinky domination? Could it be that his desire to love and be loved back, to own and belong at the same time is what drives him now? His thirst for control is somehow psychological.

Stop, Ara! You're not his psychiatrist! Be the girlfriend he needs and nothing more!

Without interrupting, I let him tell me more. It turns out that his mother chose to flee with her husband, leaving Adrian and his twin brother behind. The pricking semblance of our stories turns me speechless, almost numbing the ache of recognition as someone who understands the experience perfectly well. I'm awestruck. Is it fate that we were both abandoned or is it just a coincidence?

"Sooner we had a visit from a social worker... once, then twice, and at last they said we were to go with them because our so-called parents were not coming back," Adrian continues. "They promised to care for us until they found a family for us. The usual orphanage bureaucracy. I was way more intelligent than my actual age so I knew something bad would result from that. I knew that they would separate me from my brother and I wasn't ready for that." He stands up, too emotional to let me see him in the eyes.