Adrian was completely distraught, her career as a talent manager was over. For the last two days she had been detained and questioned by the police for her role in a recent scandal.
Matt was arrested as the prime suspect for the murder of a rival actor during a major PR event, the television awards ceremony that she had been preparing the press conference for. Adrian, who had discovered the body, was eventually proven guilty of tampering with the crime scene in an attempt to frame him.
Though she risked getting herself convicted with the murder, her involvement allowed the authorities to gather enough evidence to put real mastermind behind bars. Soon the court proceedings publicily revealed Matt as the culprit who hired a hitman to commit the crime. As for Adrian, she would await her secondary trial to receive her sentence.
Matt had antagonized her best friend with his womanizing and ultimately caused her to kill herself by ruining her engagement with her fiancé, who also happened to be the murder victim.
Originally she had planned on building up Matt's acting career by having him take on as many PR opportunities as his schedule would allow. As Adrian slowly fed his ego she would covertly help his business rivals on the side, forcing him to overwork himself until his competitive paranoia consumed him completely. It wouldn't be long until the media grew sick of seeing his face and moved on with their next victim down the list.
Adrian always knew Matt was obsessed with keeping ahead of his competition, but she didn't know just how far he was willing to go to beat his biggest rival. Winning awards apparently wasn't enough for him anymore. When she found the corpse, she was absolutely sure Matt was behind it somehow.
There was no way he was walking away scot-free for what he did. A few months in prison was nothing compared to the life sentence he'd have to serve, or so Adrian told herself.
The temptation to end his career then and there was too great for her to resist.
Time in the slammer still meant she broke the law but it weighed on her conscience for settling her score with him in that manner. It made her feel dirty for even thinking for a moment she was in the right. She would be no better than Matt if she ruined his career and had gotten away with it.
After giving herself another hard stare in the mirror, Adrian's thoughts wandered over to Shoe. She'd done everything she could to make him feel loved; she should've taken him to an animal shelter when she had the chance, as unreliable a friend as she'd ended up being to him. It wouldn't surprise her if the poor thing went back to eating bugs again.
As she forced herself to sleep, she desperately hoped he was smart enough to run away on his own. She couldn't begin to imagine how Shoe felt waiting for her this whole time.
...
Life in a huge empty mansion hadn't changed much since Shoe grew more acquainted with Adrian Andrews.
He had missed everything about her: the way she stroked his head and tickled his ears, the way she laughed when he rubbed his paws on her stomach, the way she always brought in enough food so he didn't have to eat insects at night.
Despite her best efforts to visit him as often as she could, Shoe knew it wouldn't be long before she had to go away like his owner. Everyone he knew could come and go as they pleased except for himself.
One day he decided that it was only fair that he should visit Adrian for a change.
Though he failed in his many attempts to steal into her car by jumping into her canvas bag or hiding underneath the seats, he was determined to find a way to track her down even if she stopped visiting altogether. As the days and nights dragged on, Shoe took it upon himself to exercise his hunting skills when no food was available in the kitchen. It was a good thing he was getting better at taking care of himself; Shoe had no idea what the world outside would have in store for him.
For the first time in a while, a new guest came to the mansion a couple days ago: an old butler with the funny-looking baseball face came in through the doors quietly and walked around in brisk footsteps. Shoe watched from afar as the man stopped in every room to inspect the premises before taking it upon himself to occupy the master's den. Alarmed, Shoe began to run towards the door and before he could do anything to stop it, the kitten was powerless to resist the smell of gourmet cat food he was baited with and blissfully gobbled away at his dish in the kitchen.
Between bites, Shoe puzzled over the old man's generosity before finally deciding he can't fight on an empty stomach.
He snapped out his reverie when he saw two more guests come through the doors, a little girl in a weird bathrobe and a blue man with a spiky head. While Shoe thought he'd love to bat at those pointed protrusions, the two of them spoke briefly to the butler then left, prompting Shoe to recall his earlier task of driving out the stranger in his master's den. Bursting through the pet door, he was about give that geezer a piece of his mind until he was distracted by bouncing balls of yarn that steered him into the back corner.
The butler had gotten the better of him again.
It took an unimaginable amount of time and willpower for Shoe to tear his eyes and paws away from those tempting fibers. Turning around to face the old man, preoccupied with the glowing screens and the mobile device in his hand, the kitten ran and pounced on his shoulder.
Irritated at himself for being caught off guard, the old man dropped everything he was doing to catch the blasted feline who then engaged him in a high-speed chase around the house with a monocle in its little jaws.
It didn't take long for Shoe to realize that for an old giant, the butler was deceivingly quick for his age; all the hiding places in the mansion couldn't stop the butler from closing the distance each time he ducked out behind every nook and cranny. If any those gloved fingers had touched him, Shoe would've been caught for sure.
This was easily the most exciting game of hide and seek the kitten had ever played!
Just when he thought the coast was clear, Shoe was deftly plucked from the ground by the scruff of his neck and the butler retrieved the lost item, unceremoniously dropping him into a laundry basket filled with dirty clothes.
Before walking off in the other direction, the old man savoured a few scant moments of victory to watch Shoe claw his way up and tumble out of the basket, desperately licking the stench off his fur and grimacing. When the kitten looked up, the butler had vanished.
Shoe was as wrathful as a yellowjacket wasp when he silently tracked the man past the backyard towards the master's warehouse stocked full of racing cars. He stopped just behind the wheels of a black Volkswagen Beetle to watch an unconscious girl being put into the trunk. Shoe crept out to climb up onto the bumper and carefully padded towards the roof of the car just as the driver's door was being opened.
Coiling himself back slightly, he pounced on the old man from behind.
Almost instinctively the butler whirled around to catch Shoe in mid-flight and immediately incapacitated him with a handkerchief doused with a small amount of chloroform. Throwing Shoe into a large black case full of heavy equipment, the butler calmly stowed the case in the back seat and started the car.
The last things Shoe heard before he finally passed out were the roaring flare of the engine, the sounds of broken glass and the screech of burning rubber.
The kitten had somehow succeeded in escaping from the mansion.