Chapter 111: ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN

NICHOLAS’S POV

The next morning, I was already in the gym before Adrian had to come looking for me.

Usually, there was always something that distracted me during training. Most times, I was remembering Jayden’s issue. But today? Today I was actually concentrating. Probably because I needed to take my mind off everything that was happening and this was a welcome distraction.

When Adrian finally announced a quick break, I finally let myself think. My father’s name kept coming back to me, and I kept thinking.

Who was he before he died? Where had he worked? Who had he known? What had actually happened to him?

Adrian noticed eventually. He lowered his hands and looked at me when I started to mess up the exercise after our quick break. "Stop."

I immediately stopped and lowered my hands.

Adrian walked toward the bench and picked up a bottle of water before handing it to me. "Drink."

I took it from him and drank several mouthfuls while he watched me. He didn’t say anything until I lowered the bottle. "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing." I shrugged.

His expression didn’t change. "You’ve been distracted for the last ten minutes."

"I said I’m fine." I sighed.

"Yeah, I lowkey heard you." He folded his arms. "That doesn’t mean I believe you."

I looked away, rubbing the back of my neck. It would have been esiser to lie to him and tell him I was truly okay, but instead, I found myself contemplating. He wouldn’t let me rest until he had finally gotten the answer out of me.

Before he could ask again, I let out a breath and sat down on the bench. "I got a letter yesterday."

Adrian’s expression immediately became more attentive. "What kind of letter?"

"It was delivered to the penthouse. There was no one outside when I found it." I told him about the message written inside, about the person claiming to know my father and saying they knew how he died. I also told him about the messages that followed and how the person refused to give me any reasonable answers when I asked who they were or what connection they had to my father.

I left out nothing important, because if anyone was going to help me with this, it had to be Adrian. "I’ve spent my entire life knowing almost nothing about him. My mother only ever told me that he died saving us. Now someone appears out of nowhere and tells me they know what really happened. I’m very confused. And I’m also very curious."

Adrian listened without interrupting, his eyes fixed on me. When I finished, he was quiet for a few seconds before asking, "Do you still have the letter?"

"Yes."

"And the messages?" He raised a brow.

I straightened slightly. "On my phone."

"Then we’ll look into it." His voice carried a tone of finality.

I blinked. "You will?"

"Of course." He reached for the water bottle and took a drink before putting it back down. "You want to know about your father. We’ll find out what we can."

I felt some of the tension leave my shoulders. "Can you really find anything?"

"We can start with his name, records, workplaces, anything public that connects to him. If that isn’t enough, we’ll figure out where to look next."

I nodded. "I want to do it with you."

Adrian gave me a brief look before standing. "Of course, it’s your father after all."

The training ended shortly afterward because I couldn’t concentrate more again.

We left the gym and headed toward the sitting room, where the others were already gathered.

Elijah was stretched across one of the couches with his phone in his hand, looking so bored. "The penthouse is boring," he announced the moment we walked in.

Roman glanced at him from his seat. "You said that yesterday."

Cassian laughed. "Maybe you’re the boring one."

Elijah sat up immediately. "I’m not boring. There’s just nothing to do."

"There are books."

"I don’t want to read." Elijah huffed. "I don’t feel like singing. Ugh, it’s annoying."

"Games." Roman chirped in.

Elijah glared at him. "I’m tired of games."

Roman looked at Adrian. "Can we send him somewhere?"

"Please," Adrian replied without hesitation.

Elijah threw a cushion at him and I couldn’t help laughing as I sat down with Adrian and opened my laptop. "Ignore him. We have something to do."

Elijah leaned over the back of the couch. "What?"

"I’m researching my father."

That caught his attention, and he came closer. "Really?"

I nodded. "Someone contacted me yesterday and said they knew him."

Roman’s attention shifted toward us, but before anyone could start asking questions, Adrian opened the browser and looked at me. "What’s his full name?"

I gave it to him and he typed it into the search bar.

The first results appeared, and we both leaned closer to the screen.

There were a few mentions, but most of them were useless. One was an old document that barely contained any information. Another was a page that listed several names without explanations. There were no detailed profiles, and no photographs that gave us anything useful.

Adrian clicked through several results while I read whatever information appeared.

"That’s him," I said when I saw his name attached to an old employment record.

Adrian opened it. "This says he worked here."

I moved closer. "What’s the company?"

He read the name and searched it separately, but the results were limited.

"Try another spelling," I suggested.

Adrian did that, but nothing substantial appeared.

Elijah was still standing behind us, watching the screen. "How long is this going to take?"

Adrian didn’t look away from the laptop. "If you’re bored, leave."

"I’m not bothering you." Elijah huffed.

Roman laughed from across the room. "Let them work."

Elijah dropped back onto the couch with an exaggerated sigh.

We tried to continue, but it became increasingly difficult. Every few minutes someone would make a comment, Elijah would complain about something, Roman would answer him, and Cassian would laugh.

There was quite the noise.

Eventually, Adrian closed the laptop. "We’re not getting anything done here. They’re annoying."

I nodded. "Your room?"

"Yes."

We went upstairs with the laptop and settled on Adrian’s bed. He opened it again while I sat beside him.

At least this place was quiet enough for us to focus. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

We started with my father’s early life, but there wasn’t much to find. There were no detailed records available publicly, and most of what appeared online consisted of brief references that didn’t explain anything about him as a person.

We moved on to his education, then the places where he had worked. Each time we found a company connected to his name, Adrian opened another tab and searched through whatever information was available about it.

"Here," he said after a while. "This one has his name attached to it."

I leaned closer.

It was an old company page.. My father’s name appeared among the former employees, but there was hardly anything else about him.

"Can you find out when he worked there?"

Adrian searched. "Not exactly. There’s an archived employee list from years ago. We can at least establish that he was there."

He opened another page and the more we searched, the more complicated it became.

My father had worked at several places, but none of them seemed to have much information about him anymore.

Some records were old, some companies had changed names, and others no longer existed. Adrian kept a list of every workplace we found, including the addresses where possible.

Then we reached the last place my father had worked. It was a civil rights organization.

I stared at the old page on the screen.

The company had once appeared to be doing well. There were articles discussing its projects, reports about its work, and several references to plans for expansion. It had apparently been involved in legal assistance and advocacy work, and there were enough old records to show that it had been gaining attention before it suddenly disappeared.

Adrian searched for the company and a different page appeared.

Permanently closed.

He clicked through several archived results. "That’s strange."

"What?" I asked, peering at the screen.

"The company was doing well before it closed." He muttered.

I looked at the dates. There was a noticeable gap between the last major report about the company and the announcement that it had shut down. "Why would they close?"

Adrian shook his head. "It doesn’t say."

We searched again, but nothing.

There were no clear reports about financial trouble or scandal and no explanation for why an organization that had seemed to have a promising future simply stopped operating.

I stared at the screen for a long time. "This was the last place he worked?"

"According to what we’re finding, yes."

I looked at the old articles again, reading through the few details available about the organization’s work.

My father’s name appeared in several places, but never in enough detail to explain exactly what he had been doing there or what had happened before the organization closed.

"We should go there," I said.

Adrian looked at me. "The company?"

"Yes. If we can find the address, we can visit. Maybe someone nearby knows what happened to it. Maybe some of the people who worked there are still around."

Adrian nodded slowly. "That’s what I was thinking."

I looked back at the screen.

Okay, good. This was something.

Adrian saved the information and closed the laptop. "We’ll go through the other workplaces first," he said. "Then we’ll deal with this one."

I nodded, still thinking about the closed civil rights company.

There had to be more information somewhere. A company didn’t simply disappear from a promising position without leaving anything behind, and my father had worked there before he died.

More importantly, I wanted to know what my father had been doing there before everything ended.