DANGEROUS

ADELINE'S POV

The entire day, Adrian though I was at work but in reality, I was at Dante's. I asked my secretary to cover for me in case anyone came looking for me and I'm a bit confident to say Adrian hasn't suspected anything so far. I still haven't talked to Liam, but I can't. If I do, it'll only give him more reason to suspect me.

As soon as I got back home, my personal maid, Martha took care of all of my things.

"Can you please come upstairs with me Martha?" I ask her kindly with a smile on my face. Her eyes stay fixed to her feet and she doesn't raise her eyes to look at me even once. It unsettles me because every single maid in this house acts like that. They act like they're slaves.

"I need to put some things in order and I need your help."

"Of course, ma'am." She says following me behind as I lead her towards my room. When we get in, she has a look of confusion on her face because my room is perfectly organized. I called her here for something completely different. The look of confusion on her face dissipates in no time and she's back to her expressionless look with her head down to her feet.

"Martha will you please look at me. You don't have to keep your gaze on the floor every second. Doesn't your neck hut from all that pressure." I say, taking off my jacket and walking towards my closet. I act naturally around her because I want her to feel comfortable with my movements. I let my hair down and sit down on my make up desk. I grab a bottle of micellar water and some baby wipes and start taking off my light make up.

"I'm not allowed to make eye contact ma'am." She says. "Mr. Wellington has always made it clear for us to keep our gazes lowered." She explains. I just hate that man even more.

"Well you don't serve my fiancé anymore Martha. You serve me directly and personally now and I'm saying to not keep your head on the floor. It makes me uncomfortable. You won't want Adrian to find out that you're making me uncomfortable now, would you?" I ask her with a raise of my brows and it wasn't my intention to threaten her with Adrian but I want to see just how scared she is of him.

She raises her eyes and stares at me. Her eyes look so empty but she's honestly so beautiful. I hadn't noticed it before because her face was always kept down. Her brown skin basically glows under the light in my room. Her black eyes look so sad and tried that I just want to take her away from her. Somewhere safe. Her hair is in cornrows but it's so long that it reaches her mid back.

She's beautiful but something tells me she doesn't even know it.

Her eyes move from side to side, looking for anything to look at except me. She acts like every other person in this house. They act like they are indebted to Adrian, as if they owe him their life. What did he have to do to get this kind of loyalty and fear from them?

"Where are you originally from Martha?" I ask her.

"Atlanta ma'am." She asks but her voice and body language tells me she's lying. I've worked with a lot of messed up people in my time and I have developed the ability to tell when someone is lying to me or when something feels off.

"Do you have any parents?" I ask her.

"None ma'am." She replies. Her answers are automatic and they feel almost robotic. As if she has been trained to answer everyone the same way. I sigh and stand up from my desk, walking towards her slowly so she doesn't feel alarmed or scared.

"Martha, I don't want you to be scared of me. I want you to know that you can count on me if you ever need anything. I want us to be friends you and I. You can trust me, okay?" I go straight to the point because beating around the bush with her will be for nothing. I want her to trust me out of her own will and I want her to know she has nothing to fear from me ever.

"Is there any other thing you would like me to do for you ma'am?" She asks, her eyes for the very first time holding a hint of emotion. I wonder the last time anyone has been kind to her.

"Just take the rest of the day off. I can take care of myself." I tell her and dismiss her from my room but I know she won't rest from fear of what Adrian will do to her. I know she'll just find something to do to keep herself busy.

Martha lied to me just now and I know it has something to do with Adrian. The fact that he has so many black maids in his house is suspicious and I won't rest until I find out why. Martha is not from Atlanta. That much I know.

When Adrian got back home for dinner, he looked stressed out of his mind and apparently it has something to do with the fact that he still hasn't found his bodyguard. At this point, Adrian is certain that someone killed him and the fact that he hasn't found the body yet or that he's not able to trace the murder to anyone in particular is outing him in a foul mood.

"I mean it's not like I cared about Xavier or even that I loved him. He has just been my bodyguard for the longest time and I trusted him. I can always promote one of my other guards to take his place but no one can replace Xavier. He was like my right-hand man and now he's gone." Adrian says as he paces back and forth in my room.

He hasn't shut up about Xavier since he got back. Whoever killed his bodyguard probably knew that Xavier knew a lot of things about Adrian. Someone who probably wants Adrian dead and Xavier was getting in the way because apparently, he was a pretty goof bodyguard.

But all this talk about death and murder is sending shivers up my spine. Xavier was a formidable bodyguard yet somehow, one of Adrian's enemies was able to get rid of him that easily. It makes me wonder who exactly is behind this and how dangerous they are. If Adrian has enemies, they might come after me too since I'm his fiancée.

This plan of mine just got a bit more dangerous for me and I have no one to blame but myself.