Chapter 5 The Bait

Mariah is shocked to hear what Adam just said. She can't process anything. Why are they letting her go when she witnessed Adam shooting Keith on his leg? Why are they letting her go when they know that she can contact police after she's out of here? All these questions flood Mariah's head.

Adam is standing right in front of Mariah and Mariah can feel her legs getting weak but she can't show any weakness now. Not at this moment but she hasn't eaten anything since yesterday. She hasn't even had breakfast that the maid came in with into her room. She decided not to eat as she still thought that they might have poisoned the food.

She doesn't have any energy and her head hurts. Mariah looses control over her body and faints. Adam is quick to catch her in his arms but he's shook at this sudden incident.

Adam places Mariah on the couch present in the room and indicates Mason to bring water. He does as asked and brings a glass of water. Adam sprinkles water on her face and he's relieved when Mariah frowns. Adam doesn't want a her to die in his mansion now that he knows she's innocent. Now that he knows that Mariah is the one who saved her.

..............................

It has been two hours since Mariah passed out. But she's not on the couch anymore , she's on a bed now. But the room is quite different from the she stayed in before. It is a bigger than the previous one with lots of details. Only two colors can be seen on the walls, black and brown. A small chandelier handing in the middle. There's a large glass window as well covered by brown curtains.

The light from the window falls on Mariah's eyes as it's still early in the morning. Mariah struggles to open her eyes but eventually she wakes up and sees Adam sitting on a bedroom chair. She's taken aback and realizes that what happened when she entered the room. Adam indicates the man standing right next to him to bring something in. He leaves for a minute and and comes back with two men pushing two different food trolleys and they stop when Adam raises his hand. Adam has people wrapped around his fingers. No one dares to contradict him. Adam speaks with a grin on his face,

"Dr. Mariah you should have known better. When you refuse to eat for that long, you eventually lose energy and faint."

One of the men places a bed tray in front of Mariah and then starts placing plates full of food on the tray. After setting everything, they leave the room. Now only Mariah and Adam are present in the room and it's quiet for a while.

Their eyes are locked like they're both trying to find meaning of their encounters. How they end up meeting each other in the worst circumstances. Adam snaps out of his trance and looks away when he realizes that they've been looking at each other for too long. Adam raises his one eyebrow and opens his mouth to speak,

" Are you not going to eat anything knowing you could faint again."

"I don't want to anything served by your servants," Mariah replies mockingly.

"You want me to feed you that badly, huh?" Adam replies uncrossing his legs and bending towards Mariah.

Mariah is caught off guard and she recalls the night before when Adam grabbed her neck, chocking her to death. So she immediately takes the fork and knife in front of her and starts to take bite of half-fried egg and bread. Her hands shivering while she eats.

Adam doesn't say anything and just watches her eat. Adam knows she wouldn't dare to do anything stupid so he allowed the knife that he normally wouldn't if it was someone else but he knows that Mariah is a doctor and after seeing her help Keith even when he betrayed her only makes his assumptions stronger.

After knowing everything about Mariah, Adam trusts her. He trusts her sincerity and he trusts her fearful eyes. Knowing that she saved her that night, Adam can't help but think about her as good person and that she really doesn't know anything about Keith or Ariak. He never felt gratitude towards anyone but something is different about Mariah that makes Adam want to protect her. Maybe it's just because she saved her life.

Mariah takes last sip from the glass that contained juice in it. She wipes her mouth with a tissue paper and looks at Adam who's already looking at her with a weak smile. But Mariah thinks of his smile as an illusion as person like Adam wouldn't look at her like that after what he did to her. Even Adam doesn't know that he's formed weak smile on his face.

"Hope you're full now, Dr.Mariah?" Adam says and Mariah only nods at his question. Mariah feels his stomach tighten everytime Adam calls her by name. And the fact that Adam keeps calling her Dr. Mariah makes her nervous.

"You didn't let me finish before but I'm only going to say it once. You're free to go now but my men will keep an eye on you. We know you're not involved in any of this but your still in danger. People will come looking for you as you've stayed a night here. I just want to make sure that you don't die so my men will keep a watch on you from afar," Adam explains her everything.

Adam didn't say anything about the night he met her. He doesn't want her to know yet. Maybe it's best for her not to know anything.

"I don't want any of your men to protect me. I have already seen your way of protecting people," Mariah replies as she recalls her everything. Her night here was no less than a nightmare.

Adam knew it would be difficult for her to accept it so he had already planned everything from the start. He takes the knife from the plate in his hand which startles Mariah. He traces his fingers on the sharp end of the knife and speaks,

"Dr. Mariah, maybe you have no idea what you have gotten yourself into. Those people won't just kill you, they'll torture you to death. Now it's your choice."

Mariah gulps after at Adams words. She never thought that it would get worse from here. She thought she already had enough of her bad luck but fate has different plans for her.