Chapter 4 - Great catch

For exactly forty-eight hours, the hunt was opened. The tabloids had only one question: where was Adrien? The press was overturning with speculation and theories. But no one knew where the little guy was.

While Adrien slept, she read all the news about the deaths of Fabien and Elodie de Bourbon. And, of course, the excited search for the heir of the Bourbon Empire.

She begged, pleaded and negotiated with the god she knew. Promise him she would never doubt him again, if only the world would forget Adrien.

But the world would never forget Adrien. Not as long as he had that bunch of money and power.

"Lily I'm hungry."

Her heart stopped spinning. She whirled around.

She shoved the phone under the covers quickly, before she moved beside him. Somehow she manages to bring out a smile.

"I'm hungry too. What should we eat? "

Thoughtfully Adrien put his head on his shoulder and looked at Lily with a cute smile on his lips. "Spaghetti?" He whispered questioningly.

"Spaghetti, then!" The girl chuckled.

Lily first combed his hazel hair, then helped him out of his pajamas before helping him into his new street clothes.

She looked out the window. It rained. A gray film had spread across the sky, as if this world was mourning the loss of MC and ML with her.

Lily decided she would eat at the hotel restaurant and smoothed her gray summer dress before reaching for Adrien's chubby hand.

Quickly she threw her bag around her shoulder and left the room with Adrien.

✿

"Could we have a table for two, please?" She asked the waiter.

But before she could take another step further with Adrien into the restaurant, a second of the waiters rushed up. His black and white uniform looked nobler than his colleague's. He looked like one of those emperor penguins she had seen as a kid in the zoo. He softly whispers something in his colleague's ear, which Lily naturally could not hear.

A strange feeling spread in her. She suddenly had a desire to grab Adrien, turn around and run as fast as she could.

With a fluid movement, the waiter turned back to her. "Miss, please follow me."

Lily tried to suppress her paranoia. After all, it was against all reason that someone had already found her, that someone was waiting there.

The waiter took them to a second floor with some private rooms.

Every alarm bell in Lily shrilled.

Terrified, she took a step back.

Even Adrien closed his arms around her leg. Cramp his little hands in the fabric of her dress.

Lily patted his head reassuringly. Stroke gently over the brown hair.

"Um ... excuse me ...", the waiter turned questioningly to her. "I think we want to eat somewhere else," she stuttered uncertainly.

"The waiter gave her a questioning look. "But your husband is already waiting for you."

A fire bomb exploded inside her. Which husband. She did not have one. Pascal? Had he finally found her?

She stumbled back a few steps. But behind her she hit a firm breast. As if in slow motion, she stretch out her elegant gooseneck and found the hard-eyed look of the security man whose chest she had hit. "Mademoiselle de Clermont, please. The Master is already waiting for you." Carefully, Lily took another step forward. Behind the bull stood eight more of his men in black.

A door opened as if in slow motion.

Her heart was up to her neck. She looked around anxiously. There was no way out. Only this one way to the open door. Protective, she took Adrien in her arms. The little boy suddenly wrapped himself around Lily like an octopus and buried his face deep in the crook of her neck.

"Lily." Adrien's voice was quite fragile. His breathing was faster. She had to be strong for both of them. "Everything will be fine," she whispered encouragingly into his little ear.

She could not be scared now.

She stomped into the room with her head uplifted.

A man in a tailor-made black suit lifted smoothly from his chair and arranged a chair for her.

Smooth, like a panther, Alexandre reached for the chair across from him.

Not only did his movement resemble those of a predator, but with his gaze he seemed to devour people alive. Like a hungry black panther.

It took only seconds to caught Lily with his gaze, but it was enough to let Lily know what danger meant.

An icy shiver ran down Lily's back.

There was a smug smile on his lips. "I'll call you if we want to order." He turned to the waiter.

Lily's legs were frozen. She did not know this man. But she knows that he was the most dangerous man she has ever met.

The young waiter sneakily disappeared from the room and left her alone with this predator. Adrien meanwhile played dead. He lay quite still and motionless in her arms, his bony head buried in her hair.

"Lily. Can I call you that? Sit down, please. The little one is certainly heavy." His words sounded like a caress and at the same time, like a curse.

Her mouth became dry. "Only my friends call me that." She blurted out. She stared at him uncertainly. She did not know what had gone into her, which brain cell now danced out of the line.

"I hope in the future we are closer," he replied coldly and fixed her with his steel-gray eyes. "Come sit down." He pointed at the chair.

As if on stilts, she stacked up to him and let herself fall on the chair with Adrien. Suddenly she was out of breath.

Opposite her, he elegantly pulled out his chair and slid leisurely into it. While he was still studying the face of his future wife.

She looked like a frightened bunny. He liked it.