Chapter 53. WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST

SOPHIA CASTILLO

I watched as Adrian took in a deep breath and exhaled for the umpteenth time as he prepared to tell me about his parents.

We had returned after eating dinner like twenty minutes ago and Adrian called me to join him on the bed.

He clasped his fingers with mine and has been inhaling and exhaling.

"I don't even know where to start," he managed to say after a while.

"I already told you that you do not have to force it if you are not ready to say it yet. You do not have to work, I'm not mad at you," I assured him.

"You don't get it, do you, Sophia?" He asked and I shook my head.

"I don't," I answered.

"Have you ever witnessed people being killed in from of you before?" He asked and I stared at him frantically not understanding where the conversation was leading.

"No..." I shook my head.

He exhaled deeply. "Fourteen years ago, my parents were both killed in front of me and I barely survived," he said and I gasped.

"What?" I couldn't believe my ears.

Nobody knew this story about Adrian or the Castillo family at all.

"My father and my mother were both shot in front of me. I got shot too but I barely survived and it was because they missed a vital spot in my body," he informed me and I had not realized it when lone tears rolled down my cheek.

"You see this spot over here," he pointed at the side of his stomach.

"That's where I got shot and my grandfather has made sure I survive through any means. I thought I had died but I didn't die. I woke up after a month."

I understood now why he didn't want to talk about his parents. It left a huge scar on him. Seeing his parents being killed in front of him and him surviving because of grace was something anyone would never be able to forget.

It was a painful memory for him.

If he had his way, he would have removed the entire memory from him.

"Do you want to know why I felt your father was after what I owned and why I had my guards up? It was because of my past. My parents were both shot by the man my father considered his brother. My father and that man went grew up together. My grandfather trained that man as his own but he was just a bitter and ungrateful bastard. He has always been envious of the things my father had," Adrian took in a deep breath and exhaled.

I could tell he was struggling to keep going from the way he clenched his fist.

I held his hands, opened them slowly, and intertwined them once again. I wanted him to know that I was here with him.

"My grandfather treated that bastard as his own after he graduated, he gave him a job at the company. Turns out that the bastard was in love with my mother and he blamed my father for stealing everything that should have belonged to him. He said he saw my mother first and was the one that introduced my mother to my father but my father stole that from him. The reason why my grandfather had sponsored that ungrateful bastard was because he was the one that tutored my father and helped him grow academically and he wanted more than enough credit for it. He planned to steal the company from my grandfather and so he began to change files and met with other rival companies. His plan was almost successful until my father caught him and told him to back off or else he would have no choice but to report to my grandfather."

"One faithful Sunday..." I saw how Adrian's expression changed once again.

It was the day he lost his both parents.

"One faithful..." He trailed off again.

He was struggling.

"It's fine. It's alright," I whispered to him.

"On the way back from a math competition I went for, we were surrounded." Adrian cracked his knuckles.

"That ungrateful bastard had the guts to show his face up. My father was disappointed and asked him why he was doing all of this and all he had to say was that my father stole everything from him," Adrian let out a small sarcastic laugh at the end.

"Could you believe it? He said if he can't have his way then he would rather not make way for my father. He said my father should be great because he made him. He shot my father first and then he accused my mother of leaving him because he didn't have as much money as my father and shot her afterward."

"I was crying and begging him. He didn't shoot my mother once but also twice and even with my cry and plea, he shot me, and the only reason I survived..." His voice broke in-between and I noticed how red his eyes were now.

The memories were haunting him and he was trying hard not to cry.

"My mother had struggled and covered for me but I still got shot."

I moved closer to him and wrapped my arms around him. Who would have thought that Adrian Castillo, the man who looked cold on the outside, went through this much?

I couldn't even imagine all that he had just told me because hearing it alone was painful.

"What happened to the man?" I asked him.

"My grandfather was able to find him and he was sentenced to death because my grandfather wanted him to pay. That was why I had to live with my grandfather and away from so many people. I have to isolate myself too because I lost trust in everyone. Nobody could be trusted not after what happened to my father," Adrian said.

"I am sorry for what you had to go through," I told him sincerely.

"It's fine. It's not like you were the one who did that," he replied.

Now I understood why his grandfather was very protective of him. Having to lose his only son and then his only grandson must have left a deep scar in their hearts.

Adrian pulled me closer to him. "You are the only one I have been able to open up to. I refused to go for therapy because I didn't want to talk to anyone," he informed me.

I pulled back from him and kissed him on his forehead.

"You will be fine."