CHAPTER 9

I and Thanes seemed like we didn't get along. But in actuality, we were starting to get closer than we were ready to admit. I also loved that he was always ready to help me in different ways.

Thanes and Thorne didn't quite get along, but their father insisted they both run the company. The mansion was outrageously beautiful. 

I could see a little glimpse of attraction in Thorne's eyes, but I dismissed that as the normal attraction I received from guys; I was gorgeous, so that was expected.

I guessed it'd all fade off with time, so to me, it counted for nothing. "Thank you so much, Gianna, for honouring my invite," I hear him say to me, casting his glance on us; he greeted them as well.

We had finally seen him after walking for minutes into the main hall. I noticed a slight decline in his exciting demeanour, and immediately, his eyes landed on Thanes. The party progressed beautifully.

We sat at our table, it was a sumptuous party, so much to eat and drink. But I noticed Thanes was now uneasy.

"Miss Gianna, may I please borrow you for a few minutes." I heard Thorne say, walking in the direction of our table. I ignored the queer eye signals Thane cast on me, for some strange reason.

"Sure, Mr. Thorne, what seems to be the concern?" I asked, walking towards him. We slowly made our way out into the balcony.

"I wondered how  I was possibly going to steal this beautiful, young lady away from her friends. I had to just take the bold move" he chuckled.

"Steal? You're not serious right now!" I exclaimed calmly, keeping in mind that he was wealthy. "Well, there's no point wondering, I'm here now. I hope all is great?" I chuckled lightly, placing my hands on the stair railing.

"I hope your friends are not offended?" He asked, pasting a therapeutic smile on his face. "Friends? The lady is my friend, the guy, that's my friend too." "Friend?" He blurted. "Yeah, you heard that right."

"Oh, I see.... I'll reserve my comments. What was I even thinking, thinking a gorgeous lady like you would be single?" He said I could already sense he wasn't pleased with what he made out of the information.

"Mind I ask, what the party is for." I chipped in, trying to diffuse the tenseness in the air.

"Oh, about that, my father is returning to the country this week." He mentioned, "That's amazing! It's a homecoming party." I stated.

"Exactly." He blurted coldly, "How about your girlfriend?" I asked, trying to strike up a difficult conversation. "Well, we-" he was about to say when a scream came from behind us.

"The building! Armed robbers! In the building! They're raiding the building!" Voices towered. "Oh my!" He gasped, as we headed quickly back to the table I had sat at with Vivian and Thanes..

We met them in the grip of 3 armed, masked men in all black. "What do you want from me?" Thorne asked, trying to sound courageous. 

"You already know what we want. Why ask unnecessary questions?" One of the men asked, the blaring sound of police sirens sending waves through the air.

It was too late, the men had escaped. It was a long and tiring night for everyone. The men were not thieves; they were workers at Thorne's' father's company; these men were sent by his father, who, contrary to what he told Thorne, wasn't out of the country.

Nox, the man Thorne had always known as his father, was his uncle and had always sought ways to bring him down. Hiding under the guise of a loving father, he sought to take Thorne out, just like he did to Thorne's father, his elder brother.

"What's the state of things?" Nox asked on the other side of the phone, "Negative, Sir." One of the men answered. "What do you mean? Negative?" He asked, getting angry.

"The police arrived before we were able to get it done with." The leader of the trio answered, "You'll be at the office on Monday; watch his every step, and get something concrete to work with!"

"You're getting on my nerves! This whole thing is getting tiring already. I expect better from you. If you can't give me then you'll have to walk the plank." Nox replied, dropping his phone abruptly.

Thorne made it to his room safely, but he couldn't stop himself from thinking about all that transpired at the party. From his disappointment upon finding that I came to the party with my friends, including Thanes, to the invasion by the armed robbers.

Thorne started to have suspicious thoughts towards his father, this had never happened. The security was very tight. It was impossible to penetrate that level of security, except if you had a connection to either Thanes, Thorne or Nox.

Everything was artificial intelligence and the mansion was tightly secured. Thorne wondered, how these men were able to get past the security and knew exactly where to find him.

They had even gone directly to the table he'd walked away from, some minutes before the time. So he knew, even now he could still be watched by the cruel eyes of whoever was behind all this.

He had slight speculations it could be his supposed father, but he trusted and loved him so much to believe that. As regarded the security, he excused it as a probable glitch in the security.

Not necessarily an involvement of his father. Thinking about the preciseness of these men, he excused that as well, it would be someone who knew him a lot. But not his father. He couldn't imagine in his wildest dreams that his supposed father would do that.

"What puts you to do much thought? You look bothered." A voice said from behind him.