24. The Secret

Adrian watched the sleeping girl on the princess bed gently wake up and he reached forward to pull back her hair. "Hey there darlin'," Adrian said softly.

"I couldn't do it. No matter how hard I tried. I wanted to kill her but I couldn't," she whispered placing her hand over her eyes and tears slowly slid down her face.

"Can I ask you a favour darlin'?" he asked softly. "Let me do it for you. If you really must kill her I can do it for you but I request for time."

"I want to do it myself," she said.

"Your wish is my command it will always be," he said, "Just like the black butler I will always be by your side. I promise you love, always."

She reached for his face, "I don't want you to be my butler," she said softly.

He smiled, "I will be the man who adores you and the one who protects you from the monsters. I will be anything you want me to be, a monster, an angel, the devil, an assassin or a normal common man." She smiled up at him with something akin to love in her eyes and she closed her eyes because for the first time she felt safe.

****

"I could not find any information on what you asked. Whatever the secret Angela is keeping it is very well guarded?" Adrian's grandfather, Hilary said. "Everyone who even found out half of it died immediately."

"I am not surprised," Adrian said, "She killed her own uncle to keep it."

"All this just to keep that young girl safe," Hilary said.

"She is innocent," Adrian said and his grandfather laughed. "You can stop the investigation I will find out the secret myself."

"What do you plan to do?"

"Don't worry grandfather I will be perfectly all right," he stated extremely confident as he opened the car door and exited leaving his grandfather without a word. His sight fixed on that evening he planned to break into Angela's home office where she kept all her valuable artefacts and documents hoping that one will lead her to her secret. The breaking in was easy indeed considering his skills now the looking was the hard part. Angela had a walk-in safe room that was an actual safe in her office that required a scan of her hand, her left eye and a pass code. Breaking into the safe was virtually impossible considering it was monitored by Pandora, the all-seeing, all powerful computer that listened only to Angela. Adrian sat on her office chair and slowly looked around the office trying to find a clue. He remembered Angela always touched a single drawer whenever she sat behind her desk and he went for that very drawer. It was closed requiring his lock picking skills. He found the false bottom and carefully raised it finding an album carefully hidden within the drawer. Nervously he opened it and at first the pictures did not make sense until suddenly they did and he blinked once, twice and then thrice then suddenly it hit him like a ton of bricks and he closed his eyes digesting what he had just found out. The lights in the room went on and he looked up to find Angela watching him in her night gown. "Oh Adrian," she said softly, "Curiosity killed the cat."

"Why?" he asked her looking at the album.

"Why do you think?" she asked him and suddenly he understood her choice.

"I will keep your secret this I swear to my loyalty as the heir of one of the five families," he said bowing. At his vow they both knew nothing not even death could make him break his promise.

"I believe you," she said walking in and taking the album from him. "I should not have put that there. It was careless of me," she said caressing the hardcover. "I needed the motivation to become as cruel and unbending without faltering. I needed the motivation to keep going without looking back and without feeling guilty of the people I had to sacrifice to get to where I am and who will be sacrificed in the future." She moved to the safe hidden behind a full-length painting from ceiling to floor. The painting slid away and her hand and eye were scanned and a pass code entered. The safe slid open mechanically. She walked inside leaving him at the entrance looking inside. It was not only a safe but also a panic room as far as he could tell considering the monitors in place. In one corner stood piles of unopened gifts. She placed the album on one shelf as if it was precious a fact he could now attest to after seeing the photos inside. In the wrong hands it could be a weapon that could be able to control the most powerful woman in the continent who has in her possession a potential world threatening technology. She moved out of the safe, "Close," she said softly, and the safe door slid closed the safeguards in place. "If anyone tried to get to the contents of the safe it will self-destruct," she explained turning to leave. "Now you know why? You must keep it from everyone including your girlfriend. I hope you forgive me for using you as a sword and a shield. Goodnight Adrian."