Heirs To The City: The Quartet

Chapter Twelve

As I sat at my desk I watched the stocks of the media company that had leaked the Ambrose Case and the information about Adrian's past deals. The stocks were plummeting in horribly sharp downward dips, and I had to try not to smirk at why. Adrian wasn't petty, but he hated people trying to peel past the persona of the ruthless billionaire CEO who never lost a deal. He was a control freak, and a very careful one.

Only Adrian would go from paranoid to cutthroat in a few hours.

The FTC had been going through everything and had left with the information copies they needed and had as I requested signed an agreement to not disclose it outside of their unit, and to keep my updated as it was company data and my company was private. All of us had private companies.

Though out of the women Ava had probably stood out in public the most. She had a real estate empire of hotels and condominiums along with casinos.

New York talked about the fact that the four of us men had done fanomimal in the world of business but yet the women that stood beside all of us were doing just as good, Olivia had a net worth of sixty-two billion, Kate twelve billion, Mia five point five, Ava two billion. Most of us hadn't hit twenty save for Adrian and I and everyone else had exploded their own success. It was impressive to see the eight of us had come so far in just a year.

Though I wished it hadn't been so dark of a rise.

Even as I worked I kept drifting back to one of the days the four of us boys had been sitting by the lake at Adrian's villa in Switzerland, and the first time we'd all been messing around in the garage that he had cultivated even if he wasn't supposed to drive, or even legal to drive in Europe.

Standing outside of the dorms of Rosenberg, I looked around as Hunter and Riley were sword fighting with sticks around one of the large trees in front of the schools before the sound of an engine flared through the trees and I looked to see a black G63 rolling up the path before stopping and the window rolled down revealling Adrian who looked years older then he was something he'd always looked.

"Get in, we're going to the villa I need to do anything but sit around and do work to please my father," he says resting his head against the headrest while R&B played from the speakers as he lip synced to the words. Adrian's darkness had always consumed him, and from and outside perspective it probably seemed like he didn't give a fuck and he certainly acted like it, but he was still a kid, and he had been through more then any of the rest of us. He didn't have anyone to rely on since he was always expected to be perfect, which was also probably why he taught himself how to drive, and also took vehicles whenever he wanted to. Illegally driving was just another thing his dad would be angry about at him.

Climbing into the passenger seat I buckled my seat while Hunter, and Riley climbed into the back seat while Adrian K-turned and began driving back towards Steinach and the home that his family owned and was given to him for his time here in Switzerland. I had a theory that his father gave him the house so that he could at least buy some form of love from Adrian but that wasn't how he worked. Adrian had completely lost any concept of love being a real thing, as he hadn't ever experienced it being so far from home, and that fact that the only other girl that was around us was Arianna Verille.

Hunter was usually shy to talk to her, while Riley never cared and was more then happy to do anything the bubbly girl mentioned. Adrian just hovered like a shadow and somehow Aria was often nearby when he was at school. I suspected she liked him, but Adrian had never really seemed interested in blondes, if he ever mentioned girls which he almost never did, it was about one of the dark haired brunettes in the school.

As we left the school premises Adrian sped up and leaned against the doorframe as he cruised down the highway looking more relaxed then he usually looked, and I wondered if he viewed being on the road as an escape.

Eventually we got to the villa and Adrian parked the car along side the five others that were more often then not used to chauffeur him around though the two coupes he drove fairly often even if he wasn't supposed to. Parking he let all of us out before climbing from the drivers seat and locking the vehicle so he could take the key inside.

Hunter and Riley then B-lined towards the pool that gave a view over the surrounding gardens and the beach that I suspected would be the first place Adrian would go once he had put the keys for the Mercedes back.

Wandering to the shore I found a patch along the white sanded beach where I could comfortably sit down without getting any into my pants and stared off at the water while sun cast flickering rays over it.

"It's serene isn't it?" Adrian's voice pieced the air and I glanced back at him as he wandered down to where I sat his sleeves rolled up on the dark shirt he wore while his pants remained tucked back up into the leg to not seem like they were bunched, the glasses abandoned and allowing light into his eyes where the shade provided by his hair didn't obscure it.

"Very, it's unfortunate that this is probably the last time we'll all be able to see this," I say and he nodded slowly.

"Likely, I doubt my father will ever allow me back to Switzerland, makes it pretty fucking stupid that I need to sit in my room and study all the bloody time," the raven haired boy muttered as he fished a flat stone out of the water rubbing the top of it with his thumb.

"What happened to deteriorate your opinion of him that you don't go home anymore. You haven't since you were ten," I point out and he gave me a look like he had expected me to have noticed, and not assume like the others that he just hid in the Marquand building.

"Nothing fucking important, just my father being my father. You know I have nightmares of being trapped with him, being forced to stay under his rules that have never had a single second of leeway for even the slightest of a convienience. The only person in that whole school that matches me is you, and I outperform our peers, it's stupid," Adrian remark before flicking the rock and watching as it skidded over the surface of the water before dropping out of sight.

"Don't let yourself become consumed by anger Adrian, it won't have any benefit for you," I say and he nodded while staring off at the lake.

"I'm not angry Nico, I'm annoyed that I have a father who couldn't give a damn about me if he tried," he says and I watched as a gleam came over his eyes but I couldn't tell if it was from the sun or not, and I didn't get to since he walked away at that moment leaving me to watch the water until Riley and Hunter came over to join me.

Adrian had remained like that up until Olivia, until a girl just as mysterious as him had walked into his life, and looking at New York I could tell that she'd had her effect. I truly believed that if there hadn't been an Olivia Thorne Adrian wouldn't have changed, and I definitely think he would have been dismissive the rest of his life, and never believing anything good could happen in this world.

Instead I watched him like his younger brother, make New York into a better place even if it was a small gradual change his company was behind most civil projects in this city, and even held one of the largest charities that was often mass donated to by various organizations trusts, and even Adrian himself.

Then my phone pinged and I glanced to the text from Riley which had an address, and I quickly realized it was a mass text asking all of us to meet at the house he and Ava had purchased in New Jersey, and if I had to guess it was to find a solution to the mess we were all being pulled one by one into.
   
   
So this was a standard chapter length, I hope you all enjoyed the peek into the past, which will happen a few times in this book, comment, vote, and share. Anyways

Peace✌️