Ignoring his question, I sat up, cradling my head and pretending to be hungover. "Have you seen my phone?" I asked.
"It must be with Chad," he replied.
"What time is it?" I inquired.
"It's 2 p.m.," he responded.
"2 p.m.? Dude, why didn't you guys wake me?!" I exclaimed, surprised.
"I just said... Damn it," he exclaimed in exasperation, pausing briefly before adding, almost muttering to himself, "You probably don't remember a thing."
"Jesus, did I throw up in your bath?" I asked, concerned.
"You were in the bath?" he questioned, surprised.
"Ah, man, how much did I drink?" I wondered aloud.
"Too much, I suppose. I'm wondering why you did, though. It's unlike you, especially knowing you're not out of the woods yet," he remarked, his tone concerned.
"Any information about Vemon and Adolf?" I asked, groaning and running my fingers through my hair.
"The town is awfully quiet..." he replied. I met his gaze, understanding the underlying message that we needed to be on guard.
"I'm sorry I broke your rules and came here. I don't know what got into me. It won't happen again," I apologized.
Mark held my gaze for a moment, as if assessing my sincerity, before nodding and looking away. "It's okay. At least you didn't break anything," he muttered. I grinned, my face cast downward.
"Will you guys be safe here? You and your sister?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing with concern.
"We've been through far worse. We will survive," he replied, his look guarded. I nodded, acknowledging his response.
Letting out a sigh, I stood up, towering over him by a foot. "I should leave and get back to the estate before Victor Donovan starts to panic," I said.
"And we wouldn't want that, but you can call to reassure him of your safety and stay to have lunch with us," he suggested.
"Us?" I repeated, surprised.
"Adele cooked," he stated simply.
"She didn't go to school?" I asked, a frown forming on my face.
"She said she's not up to it today..." Mark replied.
"Hmm... that might be a good thing. Perhaps I should assign some of my men to watch over her. The last thing we need is for her to get snatched," I said, expressing genuine concern.
"I will watch her," Mark declared, his voice resonating with a fiercely protective tone.
Raising both hands in surrender, I said, "Mind if I clean up in your bathroom?"
"Go ahead, and join us downstairs. I'll ask Chad about your phone," he said.
"Thanks," I replied, watching him leave. A sigh of relief escaped my lips as I realized I had dodged a bullet.
As the unforgivingly cold water cascaded over me in the shower, my mind played back the events of the night with Adele. I stood motionless, my head bowed and my palms pressed against the cool tiles on either side of the shower faucet, contemplating just how screwed I was. My time with Adele had been unlike anything I had ever experienced. And for someone like me, that was saying something.
There was a burgeoning feeling within me—strange and unfamiliar—a desire to risk everything for her. To go downstairs and seek Mark's permission to be with his sister. To gather our things and escape from my twisted life, leaving it all behind and burying the persona of "Archer Donovan," evolving into someone entirely different—someone who wasn't a mobster, someone morally intact. But I knew deep down that it was an impossible dream. Just as impossible as holding on to her.
Perhaps I was merely captivated by her innocence, a little infatuated because she was undeniably forbidden, and I was drawn to the forbidden. I craved it. When something seemed unattainable, it fueled my determination to obtain it.
Yet, as these thoughts swirled in my mind, my heart ached persistently, contradicting my rationalizations. It seemed to say that I couldn't be with Adele, for so many reasons, but mostly for her own sake. Life with me would be entrapment, and that's assuming Mark didn't kill me first.
Unconsciously, my hand rubbed at my chest, attempting to soothe the unfamiliar ache within. I couldn't have Adele. She made me yearn for a life that was beyond my grasp.
A surge of irrational anger welled up inside me, a turbulent tempest of emotions threatening to consume me. It gnawed at my core, intensifying with each passing moment. The feelings Adele invoked in me were unsettling, a potent mix of desire and longing that I struggled to comprehend. It unsettled me, for it was the first time in Archer Donovan's existence that there was something beyond his grasp. And I despised her a little for it, a venomous seed of resentment taking root within.
Dressing up in a frenzy, my movements became jerky and abrupt, my hands trembling ever so slightly under the weight of my tumultuous emotions, most of which were a result of the painful realization of what I knew I must do. Stepping out into the hallway, her sweet voice drifted up from downstairs, a melodic cadence that tugged at the deepest recesses of my being. A searing pain constricted my heart, causing it to ache unbearably within my chest. In annoyance and frustration, a guttural growl rumbled deep in my throat, its reverberations echoing through the corridor.