The Don’s Reborn Lover Chapter 03

The Don’s Reborn Lover Chapter 03

I wrote another note, [What else do you want?]

All at once, something wild flashed in Adrian’s eyes. He grabbed me, dragged me onto the hospital bed, pinned me beneath him, and kissed me.

I struggled.

He lifted both my hands over my head, pinned my wrists down, and deepened the kiss over and over, our lips and tongues tangling as he poured all that violent hunger into it.

He looked completely insane.

He scared me so badly I started to cry.

Adrian lifted his head and looked at me. His eyes were red.

He was the one hurting me, and yet the look in his eyes was unbearably sad.

Blood had started to seep through his bandages.

A drop slid down his lashes like a bloody tear and landed on my cheek.

He smiled, but it was an awful, broken smile.

“So what did your brother tell you? That I was sneaking upskirt shots of girls at school, that he was some hero dishing out justice, and I was a filthy pervert?”

“Fine. I am a pervert.”

“Can you feel it? I’m hard. I want to fuck you.”

My breathing turned ragged. Very slowly, I mouthed the words so he could read my lips.

“Let my brother go, and you can do whatever you want to me.”

Adrian stared at me in disbelief, then let go of me and shouted like he was breaking apart inside, “Get out. Just get out!”

I ran out of the hospital room and realized the bank card was still in my pocket.

He hadn’t taken my three hundred thousand dollars.

He had only taken my plush keychain.

Adrian dropped the charges.

He and I were in the same class, and after he recovered enough, he came back to school.

He couldn’t hear the teachers anymore, so he had no choice but to teach himself.

I never spoke to him. I avoided him every single day.

When the first round of test scores came out, I asked one of our teachers about Adrian’s grades.

The teacher sounded genuinely sorry. Adrian’s class participation grade was very low, because once he lost his hearing, he could hardly participate in class anymore.

But his written exam scores were excellent and pulled his average back up.

I bribed the teacher and found out Adrian was still ranked first.

That month’s academic newsletter praised him again, just like always, as the top-performing student in the entire grade.

I was happy for him.

But that also meant we were screwed.

My father funded our school, so he had ways of getting hold of everyone’s grades.

That was how he knew Sebastian had come in second.

And I had dropped to ninth.

My father demanded that my brother and I take the top two spots.

Every time we lost to Adrian, he beat us.

We knelt in the study.

My father whipped us with his belt, his face twisted with rage.

“You two have every advantage money can buy. Private tutors, elite prep, every resource in the world. And you still can’t beat some broke loser who has to work multiple jobs?”

“Adrian is deaf now, and you’re still losing to him!”

“Worthless trash! Idiots! Garbage!”

The belt burned every place it landed.

But my father’s words cut even deeper.

Sebastian took all that hatred and dumped it onto Adrian.

Then he did something even worse.

He destroyed Adrian’s life completely.

Adrian’s mother, Nora, had been trafficked to the backwoods hellhole of Iron Pine Ridge when she was young.

Her tongue had been cut out by Adrian’s biological father, Earl Cline.

Earl Cline kept her chained in a basement, raped her, and tortured her until her mind broke.

Then Adrian was born.

When Adrian was ten, he escaped that hell with his mother.

He didn’t let the place he came from poison him. He grew up brave enough to protect her.

Sebastian tracked Earl Cline down and told him where Adrian and his mother were living.

Earl Cline brought a pack of relatives to Adrian’s diner to drag them away.

The moment Nora saw Earl Cline, she lost her mind and ran straight into the road.

A semi hit her head-on and killed her.

It happened the day before the SAT.

Adrian and I were assigned to the same testing room, and when I saw his seat empty, I couldn’t understand why he hadn’t shown up.

Sebastian and I both did very well on the exam, so my father threw a lavish celebration dinner for us at a five-star hotel.

I wore a dress and high heels, had my hair curled, and did my makeup.

I was happy, ready to welcome what I thought would be a brand-new life as an adult.

Back then, I had no idea Adrian’s life had already fallen apart beyond repair.

“Elena Vance.”

I heard him say my name.

And the instant I did, I knew danger had arrived.