Page 58 of Care: Part 1

"You were three when you saw a masked man who put in a car and drove you off to your grandmother's house where you never seen or heard of him ever again," Johnathan said, which managed to leave Avelina to stop right in the middle of her tracks. Her heartbeat exhilarated before she turned around to look at Johnathan.

"How do you know that?"

"After that day, your grandmother spent every waking moment with you. She was helping someone protect you until she passed away. Police say the cause of her death was by suicide, but the question is—Is that true?"

She walked back over to the table where she eyed Johnathan curiously. She needed him to continue. She needed to know more.

"What do you mean?"

"Sit down," he smiled.

She wanted to slap him. More importantly, she wanted to slap herself. Her eyes were on the chair before flashing back to him. As much as she wanted to walk out of there, she knew her heart would always regret missing the chance to know everything.

"How do I know you're not lying to me? I don't trust you, Johnathan.”

"When I'm done telling you everything, go ahead and ask your boyfriend. I'm not stopping you.”

She swallowed hard. Then, she sat back down in the chair before awaiting his next words.

"You said my grandma was helping someone protect me. Who was she helping protect me, and why was she protecting me to begin with?" She asked, her brows pulling together.

"Avelina, be patient," he chuckled.

She watched as he used some tool to cut open the lobster. Her foot was tapping impatiently at the ground as she watched him. Suddenly, she got an alert on her phone. It was a text from Adrik. Her eyes gleamed down at the word.

[Adrik: I know you lied. What are you doing with Johnathan, Avelina?]

She bit down on the bottom of her lip while her fingers hovered over the letters of her keyboard. She tried to figure out what to say. Every time she began to type something, she'd just delete it and start over. There was nothing she could say.

Turning her phone off, she slid it back underneath her thigh before looking over at Johnathan.

"You aren't eating?"

"I told you that I wasn't hungry,” Avelina seethed out.

He shrugged his shoulders and just continued to eat his food. Avelina’s eyes moved away from him to look around the restaurant where she noticed someone. It was a man. The man had glanced over at her before slowly turning back to look out in front of him. Something was chilling about him—something strange.

When Johnathan finished, he wiped his hands on a napkin. "Let's get back to the story. What did we leave off?"

She turned back over to look at him. Any emotion shed away from her features.

"I asked why she was protecting me, and who was helping her?

"Oh right, the protection of the dead grandma," he chuckled out, which only managed to piss her off.

"After she received you, Vincent told her that she couldn’t take you out of her sight. He had done something terrible, and ever since that moment, the Russians were after him and everything that he ever loved. Vincent already lost so much because of what he did. The last thing he wanted was to lose you too. Your grandma understood her duties to protect you, which is why she cared for you for so many years.”

Avelina had so many questions, but before she successfully asked them, he brought his finger up to his lips in a 'shush' motion.

"Let me finish telling you what happened, and then you can ask questions," Johnathan chuckled. "While you were in your grandmother's care, the Russians couldn't find you for years. When they did, they hired someone—a girl—to get your grandmother to tell them where you were, but your grandmother wouldn't budge. Next thing you know, your grandmother pops up dead. When Vincent found out, he ordered his men to take you far away, where you ended up in a group home with many other teenage girls. Then, when you turned eighteen, and you were let out into the world. Vincent lost you, and he didn't know where you had gone. It wasn't until he saw you helping an elderly man at the grocery store when he found you again," Johnathan explained.

Avelina remembered that. She remembered helping a man at the grocery store. He was old and could barely walk, but he loved grocery shopping.

"He made sure never to lose sight of you again because he had to protect you. So, he found out where you worked and what college you attended. He bought HomeCare, where he upgraded it and made it better just before making me the owner of it to keep his identity hidden. At the time, I didn’t know of Vincent. I was handed this job, and I never understood why until now.”

Suddenly, he gripped her hand hard just before she attempted to pull away from his grasp.

"I need to make this right with him by telling you everything, or he'll kill me.”