In Young Hollywood, Episode 7 – Twisted Mind, Adriana is spooked by the man outside her door, causing Zax to confront his ruthless uncle. Meanwhile, Frankie approaches Adrian with a business proposal.

The Recap

In Episode 4 – Young Hollywood, teen heartthrob, and Young Hollywood’s raising star, Warren Voss uses Adriana’s sudden bolt to fame to advance his own career.

In Episode 5 – The Artist, against his better judgement, Haze goes to see Adriana. He notices there is a man guarding her door and confronts Adrian who gives him no explanation.

Adriana’s suspicion rose when Haze didn’t return. When the door to her room opened, her heart pounded, the aide brought in her breakfast and before the door closed she glimpsed outside and saw the man again.

What did he do to Haze?

An hour later when the breakfast tray was removed, the man was in his usual position and still no sign of Haze. Adriana knew she needed to protect herself, if someone was trying to hurt her, she was not going to make it easy for them. She looked around the room for something that she could use as a weapon. She swung her legs to the ground and held on to her drip stand for balance, her head spun and the bile in her stomach rose. She wheeled the drip stand into the bathroom and frantically checked around for something, anything to make her feel safe. She froze when she heard the door to her room open.

Oh, my God, fear gripped hold of her as the footsteps got closer.

Then came a knock on the door that sounded like an amplified bass drum in her head. She hurried towards the back of the room and crouched down close to the toilet. Her heart raced and she could feel it vibrating throughout her entire body.

“Adriana? Are you okay?” It was Suiden, the candy striper.

“I’ll be right out.” Adriana’s voice trembled.

“I have your wheelchair, I thought we’d go up to the roof today. What do you think?”

Adriana wondered why the roof. What if Suiden was the one who came to cause harm? Suiden had always been nice to her, she’d have no reason to want to harm her, Adriana reasoned with herself. She breathed deeply, and as she was about to open the door a thought crossed her mind; what if someone hired Suiden to bring her to the roof and that someone was the one who wanted to harm her.

“Adriana?” Suiden’s gentle voice filtered through the door.

Adriana opened the door, her face pale and her body tired, Suiden rushed to help her to the wheelchair.

“There you go, you just need sunlight and fresh air.” She attached the drip to the chair and wheeled Adriana out of the room.

The man outside her room was gone. When Suiden stopped at the nurses’ station to attend to paperwork, Adriana swiped a pen from the counter and slipped it under her clothes.

Frankie dropped Zax off at the hospital entrance, “I’ll meet ya.”

“Thanks, man.” Zax secured the helmet and headed inside. His first order of business was to check on his sister and then deal with Adrian.

“Zax!” Adriana practically screamed when the elevator door opened and she saw him.

“Hey,” Zax wondered if her memory had returned. As if reading his mind, Suiden nodded no.

Adriana leaped into his arms. Zax noticed the warm look on the attractive candy striper’s face as he hugged his sister and sat her back in the wheelchair.

“I was just about to take her up to the roof deck to get some sun, if you want to spend time with her there you can join us.” Suiden eyed him appreciatively.

“Please, Zax.” Adriana said quickly.

“I can only stay a little while; I have to go back to school.”

Adriana give his hand a squeeze and he pushed the button to summon the elevator.

“I’m Suiden.” The candy striper introduced herself.

“Zax.”

“I know,” she blushed.

Frankie knocked on the door of Adrian’s office.

“Come.” Adrian replied without looking up from the file folder he was fishing through.

“Adrian.”

“Frankie.”

Frankie took that as an invitation to sit down.

“How do you plan on wasting my time today?” Adrian asked without looking at him.

“I want to work for you.”

“I’m a surgeon, you’re a pain-in-my-ass high school kid, go apply to be a candy striper.”

“In your other business.”

Adrian finally looked up from the file, “why don’t you tell me what other business you’re talking about?”

“The kind of business that Kevin does.”

“Well, I suggest you talk to Kevin then, what Kevin does in his business is no concern of mine.”

“You really gonna play it like that?”

“I don’t know what conspiracy theories you’re conjuring up in your pea brain, but I don’t have time for this. Get out.”

Frankie stood up, “I could be an asset to your business.” He leaned closer to Adrian, “I have resources. Just give me a shot, I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Oh, you have resources.” Adrian mused.

“I have money, connections, what do you need?” Frankie sat back in the chair, feeling pleased that he had Adrian’s attention.

“Here’s what I need,” Adrian leaned closer to Frankie, “I need you to take your assets out of here.”

“You know where to find me.” Frankie tried to save face as he walked out of Adrian’s office with his head held high.

On the roof deck, Adriana told Zax how someone was trying to hurt her, and that his friend Haze came to see her and then he disappeared. She told him that the man outside her door might have done something to him, she even told him about her suspicions about Suiden.

“Adriana, Haze is fine. In fact, I just spoke to him a little while ago.”

“Are you sure it was Haze? I feel something bad is going to happen.”

Zax pulled out his cell phone and called Haze. “Hey, I’m at the hospital.”

“Did you find out what’s going on?”

“Not yet. But she’s concerned about you, you left and didn’t say goodbye.”

“Cuz psycho uncle didn’t want me to go back in.”

“I’ll fix it.”

“Yeah, don’t bother, I shouldn’t be seeing her anyway. It’s for the best.”

“Let me talk to him.” Adriana stretched out her hand for the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Adriana.” Haze tried to sound casual.

“Why did you leave?”

“I was late for class.”

“Will you come back?”

“It’s … um … probably best that I don’t.”

Adriana handed the phone back to Zax. “Ok man, I’ll keep you posted.”

Never one to ignore a pretty face, Frankie headed straight for Suiden the minute he got to the roof deck. Adriana thought she recognized him … her mind flashed back to him pinning her against a bathroom wall and trying to kiss her.

“Who is that?”

“Frankie Malone, he and I have been friends since kindergarten.”

“Do we get along?”

“Yep, he’s like your big brother from another mother.”

Something about Frankie made her uneasy. “I want to go back to my room now, please.”

Moments later, Suiden helped Adriana back into her bed and Zax stood around until she left. He noticed the pen had fallen from Adriana and he put it on the table.

“Can I have that, please?”

“Do you need paper?”

“No.”

Zax handed her the pen and watched as she slipped it under her pillow. “Dad will be here soon; he went home to get a change of clothes. Do you want me to wait until he returns?”

“No.”

“Look, Adriana, I can’t imagine what you must be going through right now, but it will get better.”

“Will you call Warren for me? Tell him I miss him and to call me.”

“He’s on location, I don’t know if he’ll be receiving calls.”

“Please, Zax.”

“Okay.”

With Adriana safely tucked in her room Zax headed off to see Adrian.

“Why the hell do you have a guard outside my sister’s room? It’s freaking her out! She thinks everybody is out to get her! Does my dad know about this?”

While Zax ranted, Adrian pulled up Warren Voss’s sound bite.

“Here, play it.” He jammed the phone into Zax’s hand. Adrian leaned against his desk and waited for Zax to finish.

“That’s why there’s a guard outside her door … to keep the pests out.”

“Haze is a friend.” Zax handed the phone back to his uncle.

“Family. Only. So, tell the half-breed prince that he’s not getting in to see her.”

“How do you expect her to get her memory back if you keep her locked in a box?”

“I’m just trying to protect her, Zax.”

“You’re no better than Voss. You’re using her to get back in with the family. She’s gonna get better soon…”

“Well, we know who the real doctor in the family is.” Adrian interrupted sarcastically.

“And when she does, I hope you get lost, and stay lost!” Zax marched out of his office.

Look for Episode 8 on September 28. Missed Episode 1? Read it now.

Look below to find previous episodes.

In the meantime, learn more about The Family Portrait series. Or get the box set which contains books 1 through 5.

Copyright ©2018 Gillian Felix. All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the author, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, email the author Gillianfelix23{AT}Gmail.com