Adriano

Chapter 53:

Adriano and Xuan have been placed in two separate sides of the house. Alora is upstairs with Rory as Mimi, Alessandro, Matteo and Zoya try to calm Adriano down.

Me, Amira, Lorenzo and Terzo are trying to calm down Xuan.

He lets out a cloud of smoke and looks at me.

'Dilara I'm sorry for pushing you.' He says. 'I was overcome by anger and needed you out of the way.'

'It's alright.' I smile.

'We know you and Adriano butt heads, but we need you two to be on the same side.' Terzo says.

'Yeah, but that's kind of hard when he's accusing everyone of doing some fucked up shit.' Amira sighs.

'He still needs to apologise to both Amira and Terzo.' Lorenzo adds. 'It's clear that there's no trust between us all.'

'If this shit carries on like this, then Dominico and Vittoria will have an advantage and destroy us from the inside - out.' I say. 'We all need to fucking fix up.'

'We can't afford to be split up like this anymore.' Terzo says.

Xuan puts out his cigarette in the grass.

'The house is a fucking mess,' he sighs. 'I don't want to be near Adriano for a while.'

We all nod and I look at everyone.

'I think it's best if I check on Adriano.' I say.

I walk through the house to one of the spare bedrooms where Adriano is being held.

He looks at me when I enter the room and Mimi smiles.

'Maybe you'll be able to talk some sense into him.' Alessandro says.

'Let's give them some space.' Matteo adds.

They walk out of the room, leaving Adriano and I alone.
I clear my throat as Adriano stares at a spot behind me.

'You should know not to trust Christianto.' I sigh, sitting next to him.
Adriano stays silent for a while after that.

'Pazza,' his voice is quiet. 'I'm scared.'

'What?' I ask, surprised.
I know Adriano, and it's not like him to suddenly open up about his feelings, especially feelings like these.

'I'm scared,' he says, his voice still quiet. 'Christianto told me their plan.'

I'm silent, my eyes analysing Adriano's face, the concern in his eyes.

'They're going to kill you Dilara.' He says. 'They're going to kill you and there's nothing I can do.'

'Adriano don't say that,' I reply. 'We can work this out.'

'Dilara they're coming for us.' He says, my heart breaks as I see his reaction. 'They will not rest until they have spilt both of our blood.'

'But why?' I sigh. 'Why us.'

The silence that follows tells me that neither of us know.

'Pazza, I will not let them lay a hand on you.' He cups my face in his hands. 'They'll have to kill me to get even close to you.'

'If we die,' I say. 'Who will-'

Adriano cuts me off and shakes his head. He movies a strand of hair behind my ear.