Chapter 665
Chapter 665
665 Do The Right Thing
“Jesus Christ!” Marcel exclaimed as soon as he woke up to see Adele right in front of him with a blank expression.
He groaned, wiping his face with his palm. Looking around, Marcel discovered that he had slept in his office and there were numerous empty bottles beside him. He had done a good job of drinking himself into a stupor. Wonderful. No wonder his head was throbbing like the third world War.
“What are you doing here this early in the morning,” He asked, his voice rough and tired. The past few days have left him more tired than he has ever been.
“You wanted us to meet, remember?” Adele reminded him of the meeting.
“You could have waited a few hours more for Christ’s sake, Adele. It’s still early in the morning”
“It’s eleven in the morning,” She corrected him firmly.
“Damn,” Marcel ran his hand through his hair, feeling disoriented. He was a mess right now and he had to get his shit together before he got booted out from this position.
He shook the hangover away, “Fine,” Marcel said, glancing up at her, “Let’s discuss then. Have a seat,” He gestured to the chair in front of him.
Adele looked down only to see an empty bottle on the seat. She sighed, yet cleared the chair and sat down. If she thought her situation was bad, Marcel definitely had it worse for himself. He was a wreck, and being in that state of mind was dangerous at the moment.
.....
She faced Marcel who tried to make himself presentable; running his hand through his disheveled hair and buttoning the rest of his exposed chest.
“Where were we yesterday?” He asked her.
“We were planning on how to kill my unborn child,” Adele didn’t mean to say that with much bitterness in her tone, it just came out that way.
Unfortunately, that tone made Marcel stop short and his brows raised in response, “You make it sound as if I’m eager to get rid of the child?”
“Aren’t you?”
Marcel blinked, trying to comprehend what was going on here. He sensed a lot of resentment targeted at him and so he leaned back into his seat, with his fingers crossed.
He said, “Is there something that I’m not aware of or am I mistaken?”
“Fine,” Adele decided to be frank with him. She came closer, holding Marcel’s gaze as she said, “I don’t know if this is the right decision?”
“What is...?”
“Ending the baby’s life?” Adele sighed, “I get your point and I know the elders of our family are not going to support this, but I thought about it last night and I don’t think that I can carry through it. I’m an illegitimate child, and I think it’s big hypocrisy on my part to kill my own child because of its father. ”
She licked her lower lips and continued, “So I’m thinking, the others don’t have to know. I could hide for a few months, get a fake or contracted husband or something. These are common nowadays and when I’m done with the act, we could divorce and the child still stays with me, and Elijah wouldn’t know. It’s a win-win right?”
Adele looked at Marcel hopefully, with her heart pounding in her throat, praying that he would accept her suggestion.
However, Marcel didn’t say a word for over a minute as if he was trying to digest her plan. And when he did speak, his tone was so grave that Adele knew instinctively that her plan was an epic failure even before he began.
“So,” Marcel started, “My underboss, my deputy,” He said with emphasis, “goes away for a few months and I tell the others what?”
“You can cook up something, Marcel, I know you can,” Adele was desperate.
“Really? You think Daniel of all people would take my word for it?”
“No, he wouldn’t, but Daniel wouldn’t make a move either. I know why you have me as your underboss aside from my capability. You would rather have me as your successor than my cousins and brothers because I don’t pose a real threat and with Victor as your consigliere, there’s nothing much that you can do. However, your father knows replacing me would only pose a threat to your position, so he wouldn’t blow my cover. ” Adele was sure of it.
“Really?” Marcel asked, “Are you so sure of it?”
Thanks to the intensity of his gaze, Adele began to stammer, “I – I -”
“Daniel is not called a madman for no reason and I’m not in the mood to play his selfish games the second time. He kidnapped Chloe, what makes you think that he wouldn’t blow your cover and have you removed just so he could remove you and make me suffer? While he sits around and watches how I fidget and get myself out of that position?”
She swallowed, “We can still -”
“You’re an illegitimate child, sure,” He affirmed, “But your mother is not an enemy to this family, she was just your father’s mistress. However Elijah...” He looked her in the eyes, “He would have to answer for his crimes.”
Tears slid down Adele’s eyes, the mask and composure she had put on this while finally crumbling down.
“Would you rather birth the child and raise him in this family where he or she would be maltreated as the enemy’s child forever with you ousted for birthing him?”
Marcel reminded her, “You’re an illegitimate child, I’m sure you know what that feels like. Elijah doesn’t even care about the baby, why put yourself through the trouble?”
“Only because he doesn’t know about the baby,” Adele wanted to argue but she bit back her words. Elijah had pretended to be Aziz and used her all along. To him, this was all a fling, and he probably wouldn’t care even if a baby was the result of it. Perhaps Marcel was right, she had to abort the child and do the right thing.
“You’re a smart woman, Adele and I’m sure that you would do the right thing,” Marcel told her, his gray persuasive eyes boring into her brown eyes and she nodded her head.
“Good,” Marcel sat comfortably in his seat now that one of his many problems was solved.
“The news of what happened has spread and my father must be on the move already to make my life miserable. You’d get rid of the baby silently and I would do my best to keep your spot for you.”
Marcel reached out and took her hand in his, squeezing it softly. He said,
“You’re right on one thing, you got this position through your hard work and no one is going to take that from you. I promise you that.”
“Thank you,” Adele told him with a smile even though her heart was slowly rending into pieces.
As much as she hated Elijah to the core, this baby she was carrying is proof of what they had shared. But then, she was going to get rid of it, alongside every memory of him. Adele wished to keep it, but she wouldn’t bring her child into this world to suffer. It was not worth it. Her child was better off without her or his asshole father and this fucked up family. Perhaps, the Luciano family was cursed because all they did was hurt one another.
“We should talk about how to -” Marcel was still saying when the door burst open and Chloe walked in, fuming.
“Hello -” Adele lifted her hand to say but her glaring look cut her off.
“What is the meaning of this?” Marcel referred to her interruption.
“I knew that coming back here was going to be a disaster, but to think that I’m going to be homeschooled now?!”
He gestured at her, “Can we have that conversation later, as you can see I am in the middle of -”
“I am not fucking off this place until you tone down your annoying protection wards!”
“Language young lady,” He cautioned her.
“You don’t tell me what to say and how to say it?”
“I hate to tell you, but I actually do, as long as you live under my roof.”
“Fuck you!” Chloe retorted to his shock. She thought things had changed, but it got worse and she was so furious right now. No, she shouldn’t have come back here. What had she been expecting?
Marcel breathed noisily through his nose, speechless for once. He gave Adele a polite smile saying, “If you would excuse me for a little while, I have to take care of this,” He got out of the seat and walked over to Chloe, and took her hand, dragging her along.
“Where are we going? Are you going to reconsider me -”
“Could you just close your mouth for a minute and let me concentrate,” Marcel cursed under his breath, “Fucking teenagers!” The girl became stubborn eversince she grew up.
“I heard that one,” Chloe reminded him of his language too. Well, guess who was her role model then?
With Marcel gone, the office was silent and things became real to Adele. She was really going to abort her baby? Thinking about her situation made her anxious and she decided to keep herself busy.
Since the office was messy, Adele decided to do a bit of cleaning up, and it was in the process that she stumbled upon a crumpled note. Adele should have ignored it, however, curiosity got the best of her and she wanted to know what was on it.
So she took it.