Chapter Four

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Kyle asked, looking at Adriana like she was about to drop dead at any second. Adriana had requested that they part at the corner of her street; she didn’t want the awkwardness of him walking her up to the gate, where the guards were. She wasn’t even sure if she’d go in that way herself. She didn’t want the questions that would come when they saw her face.

Adriana nodded, her head throbbing as she did so. She still had a headache from when her face hit the pavement, causing her to feel a tad dizzy when she moved too fast. Her right hand tried to stop the flow of blood from the cut on her cheek, while her left clutched her necklace in a death grip. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little shaky.”

“I bet,” said Kyle, trying to make eye contact with her. Her eyes were looking anywhere but his. He ignored her avoidance as he continued. “I think the bleeding is slowing down. You’re gonna have a nasty scar though. And a black eye.”

“Great,” said Adriana. “Just what I need.”

“Do you think you’ll go to school tomorrow?” asked Kyle.

“I have to,” insisted Adriana. “I have a huge physics test. Did you have Mrs. Myers for physics?”

“Yeah,” said Kyle, nodding.

“Then you know that she won’t take ‘I got mugged last night’ as an excuse for not doing my best,” said Adriana bitterly.

Kyle knew. Mrs. Myers didn’t take any excuses. A kid was out with mono once for three weeks, and she had expected to him to have all of his work done by the next day. A mugging wouldn’t even faze her.

“You’re sure you’re alright?” he asked again.

“I’m fine,” Adriana insisted. “I’m gonna go upstairs and take a nice, long bubble bath and try to forget that this ever happened.”

“Alright, then I’ll see you in school, I guess,” he said, starting to walk away.

“Wait,” Adriana called to him. He stopped and turned around. “Thank you so much for saving me. I might be dead now if you hadn’t decided to take a walk.”

Kyle grinned, his smile making Adriana weak at the knees. “Anytime. See you tomorrow.” And, with that, they both went their separate ways.

As Adriana started walking up her street, she tried to sort out the many emotions running through her head. First and foremost was fear. She should never have taken that shortcut. That guy could have killed her. She should have listened to Claudia and not gone down to the harbor at night. Adriana hadn’t had her nightmares in awhile, but she had a feeling that they might return soon.

The next feeling was embarrassment. Kyle had seen her at her weakest moment. She couldn’t even fight off a mugger, and she was supposed to be captain of her soccer team. She had risked her life for a necklace that, even though it meant everything to her, was not worth dying for. He probably thought that she was a complete idiot and would never talk to her again.

But, even though she felt incredibly embarrassed, Adriana had an almost giddy feeling beneath her shame. Kyle had come to her rescue. Her life was at stake and he had saved it. So what if he didn’t remember her name? He had risked his own hide to fight off that mugger and save her from a death by stabbing. He cared enough to do something like that. Maybe she did have a chance with him. Maybe there was something more.

Adriana finally reached the wrought-iron fence that lined the Zacchara estate. She started counting the vertical railings as she went. She didn’t want the guards to see her like this, so she decided to use the secret entrance that only she and Claudia knew about. Claudia had devised it incase a mob war broke out and their own guards turned against them. She stopped at the forty-second vertical railing, loosening it from its place. She quietly snuck through the hole, placed the railing back, and headed for the house.

As Adriana opened the large front door, she saw that the entrance hall light was off and a surge of hope went through her. Maybe Claudia had gone to bed. It was well past her curfew, but Claudia trusted her enough to come home on time. She had never exceeded her curfew before, and this time wasn’t her fault. Well, not completely.

Adriana closed the door behind her, making sure it didn’t slam. She tiptoed her way towards the stairs, and was almost to the top when she heard the unmistakable click of a light switch. Busted.

“What took you so long?” asked Claudia’s voice from the bottom of the stairs. Just don’t turn around, Adriana told herself. As long as she doesn’t see your face, you’ll be fine.

“Uh, Alexis had to work late and couldn’t give me a ride, so I walked home,” said Adriana, still facing the top of the stairs. “Look, I’m really tired and I have that physics test tomorrow—”

“Not so fast,” said Claudia, and Adriana winced as she heard her mother start to walk up the stairs. Her grip tightened on the railing. Claudia finally reached the step that she was on, wondering why her daughter was acting so strange.

“You walked home?” she questioned. Adriana had walked home from Kristina’s before, but she had never acted so suspiciously about it.

“Yes,” answered Adriana nervously, averting her mother’s eye. Claudia didn’t even believe her about that? How would she explain her face?

“Adriana, what’s going on?” asked Claudia, also nervous. What was Adriana hiding from her? “Where you doing something that you shouldn’t have been?”

“No!” said Adriana, finally facing her mother to deny the accusation. Claudia gasped and covered her mouth when she saw her daughter’s face. A long cut went down the side of her cheek, and Adriana was trying to stop the flow of blood with the sleeve of her jacket. Her left eye was starting to swell and turn a purplish color around its rim. She had various other cuts and bruises, and her top lip was swollen like it had been punched.

“Dear God, what happened?” asked Claudia in an almost-whisper. She reached out to touch one of Adriana’s cuts, but her daughter shied away from her hand, shame and embarrassment written all over her face.

“I, uh, I fell,” Adriana lied, her eyes on the ground.

“Into what, a weed whacker?” asked Claudia with a dry chuckle. “C’mon, what happened?”

“Nothing,” Adriana insisted, starting to head up the stairs again. Claudia was not letting it go that easily. She took her hand and grabbed Adriana sharply by the chin, forcing her daughter to look her in the eye. Adriana winced at the pain that shot through her head, but didn’t say a word as Claudia’s brown eyes bore into hers.

“Tell me exactly what happened to you,” said Claudia. Horrible thoughts raced through her head. Manny Catolli had already blown up a shipment. Would he go to such lengths as to send someone to rough up her daughter? Was this a warning? Was Adriana lucky to still be alive? Or was it completely random? Adriana had walked home by herself, and Port Charles wasn’t known for its model citizens. Whoever it was, Claudia made a mental note to beat the living hell out of them when she figured it out.

Adriana sighed. What had happened to her was so embarrassing. And she didn’t want Claudia to know that it had all happened just because she hadn’t listened to her. But she didn’t want to lie anymore. She wasn’t very good at it, and she had one of the guiltiest consciences on the planet. “I got mugged.”

Claudia was still in shock. “Mugged?”

Adriana nodded. “Yeah.”

Claudia didn’t know where to start with the question-asking. “Are you okay? Did they take anything? Did you know who it was?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Adriana said, trying to calm her down. “Just a few cuts and bruises. He tried to take some money and my earrings, but them back.”

“Well, you could’ve been a lot less lucky,” said Claudia. So, it had been random. Catolli was rich enough. He didn’t need to send someone to steal money and some jewelry from a teenager. That made Claudia feel a little bit better.

“I know,” said Adriana. “But I’m fine, and that’s all that matters.” Once again, she tried to go up the stairs, but, once again, Claudia was not letting her.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” she said, looking at the nasty cut on Adriana’s cheek. “Then you can tell me everything.”

*

“Okay, so, like I said, I had to walk home from Kristina’s because Alexis wasn’t there to give me a ride,” Adriana explained. She sat on the kitchen counter where the entire inventory of General Hospital was out and ready, holding an ice pack to her swollen eye. Claudia wiped the knife cut with a disinfectant while Adriana explained herself. “So, because I didn’t want to miss my curfew, I took the shortcut through the harbor—”

Claudia stopped her work to reprimand her daughter. “Damn it, what did I tell you about going through there?”

“I’m sorry,” said Adriana, feeling very guilty and extremely stupid. “Like I said, I didn’t want to miss my curfew—”

“You could’ve called me,” scorned Claudia. “I would’ve sent the car to pick you up from Kristina’s.”

“I did,” said Adriana bitterly. “You didn’t answer.”

Claudia remembered. She had been on a business call for an hour and a half. That was probably when Adriana had tried to reach her. “I’m sorry. It was—”

“Business, I know,” Adriana finished for her. Claudia sensed the hostility in her daughter’s voice. She knew that Adriana didn’t like her choice of “career,” but that wasn’t the issue at hand.

“What happened next?” she asked, going back to wiping Adriana’s cut.

“Well, this guy cornered me and told me to give him all my money and my jewelry,” said Adriana, wincing at the sting from the disinfectant. “So, I gave him the forty dollars and my earrings, but he noticed my necklace and asked for that, too.”

Claudia knew where this was going. She rarely ever saw Adriana without her mother’s ring around her neck. She would give anything for that thing, even, it seemed, her common sense. “I’m guessing you didn’t give it to him.”

“No!” said Adriana. Didn’t Claudia understand how special the necklace was to her? She started twirling it again, the diamond from the ring glinting in the light of the kitchen. “How could I possibly give this up? It’s the last thing I have of my mother.”

“Adriana,” sighed Claudia as she stopped disinfecting the cut again, “I understand how much that necklace means to you, but I can’t believe you risked your life for it.” Adriana rolled her eyes. Claudia would never understand.

Claudia noticed the eye roll and stopped her advice-giving to address the attitude she was getting. “Don’t roll your eyes at me! I’m not gonna sugarcoat it—what you did was stupid. You have to start thinking with your head, not your heart.”

“But—”

“No,” scolded Claudia, cutting her off. “I don’t want to get into this with you. Just tell me what happened.”

Adriana let out her breath in a frustrated huff before continuing. “So, I didn’t give him my necklace, and it kind of pissed him off—”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Claudia interjected.

“He came at me with his knife and…” Adriana trailed off. She didn’t want to think about it. She wanted to go to bed, get up in the morning, and go to school like nothing had ever happened. The night had just been a bad dream. When she woke up, her scars and bruises would be gone and Kyle would still remain oblivious about her existence.

Claudia noticed her daughter’s hesitancy, and didn’t want to push the envelope, but she still had so many questions. “Okay, you don’t have to tell me the whole story,” she said, looking at the items spread over the kitchen counter, trying to find the gauze bandages. “But I just want to know one thing: how did you get away?”

Adriana didn’t mind telling this part, even if it was a little humiliating. “Kyle just happened to be taking a walk on the docks—”

“Who’s Kyle?” questioned Claudia, finding the gauze bandages and taking one out of the box.

“This senior in my Spanish class,” Adriana said a little too quickly. Claudia noticed the change in speed of her daughter’s voice, and knew immediately that there was something more to it than what Adriana was saying. But she kept her curiosity to herself and let her daughter finish. “Anyway, he lives near the harbor and he was taking a walk when he heard what was going on. He came over and beat the crap out of the guy who was mugging me. Then, he walked me home.”

Claudia placed the gauze bandage to Adriana’s cut, securing it on with surgical tape. It would have looked funny if it wasn’t so serious. “That’s the best I can do,” she said. “The bleeding should stop by tomorrow morning. You’ll be able to cover up all your cuts with makeup. I don’t know what we can do about your black eye, though. I still think we should take you to the hospital, make sure everything’s okay.”

“I’m fine,” Adriana spat, sounding like a broken record.

“Are you sure?” asked Claudia. “I’m no doctor, but that cut looks like it could use a couple stitches.”

“I don’t need a hospital,” Adriana insisted. “A couple bumps and bruises never hurt anybody.”

“Are you sure?” Claudia asked again, still thinking that Adriana needed a real doctor.

“Yes,” Adriana groaned, hopping down from the counter. “Thanks for cleaning me up. I’m going to bed.”

Before she could make it out the kitchen door, Claudia grabbed her lightly by the elbow. “No you’re not.”

Adriana turned around to face her mother, frustration written all over her battered face. “What?”

Claudia leaned against the kitchen counter, hungry for information. Childish it may have been, but it had been so long since she’d been in high school. “Tell me about this Kyle guy.”

Adriana felt her cheeks grow red under her scratches. “There’s nothing to tell. Before tonight, he was just some guy in my Spanish class.”

Claudia wasn’t buying it. “No he wasn’t. You’re blushing just talking about him.”

Adriana cursed her inability to lie. “Okay, so he’s a little more than that—”

“I knew it.”

“But it’s not a big deal!” Adriana implored. “I don’t understand why everyone thinks it is!”

“Okay, don’t get upset,” calmed Claudia, holding her hands up defensively. “We don’t have to talk about it. But if he hurts you, I’ll squash him like a bug.”

Adriana had to laugh. “He’s the one that saved me tonight, remember?”

“Maybe I should send him a thank-you card, then,” said Claudia smiling. Adriana smiled back.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you,” she said, not meeting her mother’s eyes. “I’m just really scared.”

“From tonight, or is it these feelings you have for Kyle?” Claudia questioned her.

Adriana didn’t know how to answer her. Of course she was scared after what she had just been through. Anyone would be. But was it more? Having traveled around the world for the past two years of her life, she had never really had an opportunity to have feelings for anybody. Was this little crush on Kyle more than she thought it was?

“I don’t know,” she finally admitted. “Give me a little while to figure it out?”

Claudia nodded. “Sure.” She finally left her post next to the counter and put her arm around her daughter’s shoulder. “C’mon, I’ll walk you upstairs. You need some rest.”

“I know,” said Adriana, letting herself be led out of the kitchen and to the entrance hall. “I need to be ready for that physics test tomorrow.”

Claudia looked at her daughter like she was crazy. “You don’t have to go to school tomorrow. You should stay home, get over what happened.”

Adriana shook her head. “No. I have to take that test.”

Claudia laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a kid who was told that they didn’t have to go to school and insisted on going anyway.”

“I guess I’m just different than your average teenager,” said Adriana, and they both laughed.

*

Kyle slammed the front door of his family’s estate, pissed as hell about what had just happened. How could his father do something like that? Adriana hadn’t done anything wrong. Why had he even agreed to go along with this? Adriana could’ve been killed over something that didn’t have anything to do with her.

“What are you trying to do, wake the whole damn neighborhood?” a gruff voice shouted from down the hall. Kyle shook his head, ignoring it. He was tired, and just wanted to forget about what had happened.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” the voice asked, coming closer as Kyle started up the stairs. “Don’t walk away from me when I’m talking to you!”

“Why not?” Kyle yelled, finally turning around. His father stood at the end of the stairs, still in the suit he had had on that day, a glass of brandy in his hand. “You don’t deserve anything more than that!”

“Don’t talk to me like that! I am your father, damn it, and you’ll treat me with respect!”

“Respect?” Kyle questioned with a cruel chuckle. “Just because everyone who works for you worships the ground you walk on doesn’t mean that I do!”

“Do not start with me!” his father shouted. “You gave me no choice! If you hadn’t messed up today at the diner, than this wouldn’t have been necessary.”

“Look, I like Adriana,” Kyle admitted. “I agreed to this because I didn’t think she’d get hurt. I’m sorry I messed up at Kelly’s today. I was nervous.”

“Nervous?” his father spat. “Over a girl? A Catolli is never nervous over something like that! You should be ashamed!”

“Of what?” Kyle retorted. “Of letting you send that guy to beat the crap out of Adriana because I screwed up? Yeah, I am ashamed of that, but I’m not ashamed of the fact that I have a conscience!”

“A conscience?” questioned Manny. “You agreed to go to Madison Prep under the assumed name of Kyle Cabalo and work that little Zacchara until we got in deep enough to take the entire business down from the inside!”

“First of all, I’ve been Kyle Cabalo for two years, ever since we moved to Port Charles and you wanted to protect me from your enemies,” argued Kyle. “Because of you, I can’t have any real friends, because they might find out who I really am. And now you want me to sit back and watch while you send your men to go and mug people for no reason? She could’ve been killed, Dad!”

“But she wasn’t,” reasoned Manny. He walked up the stairs to get closer to his son, to make sure that he understood. “When you inherit this organization, you will learn the most important rule of business: take advantage of every opportunity. Claudia’s long-lost daughter comes to town just when I’m about to give up on the Zacchara organization. What do I do? I take advantage of it. I have you, my son, my legacy, use that Zacchara to get the information we need to take them all down. When you get all tongue-tied over a girl, what do I do? I have her followed and mugged so that you can save the day and get yourself back in. Don’t you see? You saved her life. She trusts you now. Everything is going perfectly because I know when to use what I’m given.”

“I refuse to go along with this unless you promise not to touch Adriana again,” said Kyle, disregarding his father’s entire speech.

Manny sighed. “I can’t promise that she won’t get caught in the crossfire. No one can promise that.” Kyle looked at his feet. They were talking about his mother now, who had died from a gunshot wound to the head a little over two years ago, back when they lived in Queens. That was why they had moved to Port Charles—to start over and fight for what they deserved. “But I will promise that it won’t be by my command. She’s not who we’re after.”

Kyle felt a little bit better. Despite what had happened tonight, he trusted his father. Manny wouldn’t have done anything if he didn’t think it was necessary. Besides, it was Kyle’s own fault. If he hadn’t gotten so nervous today at Kelly’s and just asked Adriana out, she wouldn’t have had to go through such an ordeal. But he was determined to do his job right, because, ironically, it was the only way to keep Adriana safe.