by Riley Ashby
“Here she is, Meyer, as healthy and hale as the day you left her.”
My eyes watered, but I refused to shed tears as Meyer turned his head an looked at me, his face completely free of emotion yet covered in bruises and scabs. Someone had done a number on him.
He deserves it, I told myself, though I didn’t quite believe it.
He only held my eyes for a moment before looking me up and down, then turning to his father. “She’s lost at least ten pounds, Conrad. I’m not sure I’d call that healthy.”
Conrad shrugged as he looped the chain attached to my collar around a sconce near the unlit fireplace. Meyer looked at me again as he did so, both of us undoubtedly recalling the day he himself had tied me to as similar ornament in his home.
“Not my fault she wouldn’t eat for the first few days. I think she missed you.” He winked at his son before cuffing me on the chin, almost affectionately. I snapped my head away so hard the metal cut into my neck, and I couldn’t help but wince. Conrad chuckled, then walked to his desk.
With his back turned, I took a quick look at the length of chain holding me to the wall. He’d given me about five feet to move with, maybe a little less. My fingers felt around the edge of the collar and there, underneath the hole where it connected to the chain, was space for a key. The key I now held in my back pocket. But how could I escape when both Meyer and Conrad were sitting here looking at me? Where would I even go? I’d been so focused on finding out what the key went to, I hadn’t thought through what would happen when I got out. I didn’t have shoes or a coat, and through the windows I could see harsh winter wind pushing leaves through the air. Goosebumps rose on my arms at the mere thought of stepping outside.
When I looked up, however, neither of the two men were no longer anywhere near me. Meyer had joined Conrad near his desk, and was unbuttoning his jacket as he sat stiffly in a chair. Maybe one of them would lose their jackets at some point. I could grab it as I ran out; it might buy me some time outdoors before I froze to death.
“I heard about that mess in your car the other day. I think you understand it couldn’t be helped.”
What mess? Meyer went absolutely still. “I find that hard to believe. I think you could have avoided it rather easily, if you’d tried.”
“Well, let’s agree to disagree.” Conrad smiled as he opened a leather portfolio and pulled out a single piece of paper, which he passed to Meyer over the desk. “Look that over.”
Were they just going to ignore me completely? “I assume you brought me down here for a reason.” I rattled the chain a little as both of them raised their heads to look at me. “I’d hate to think you locked me up like this just for decoration.”
Meyer opened his mouth to speak, but Conrad beat him to it. “We’ll get to you in a moment, my dear. Please hold your tongue until then.” He smiled at me, sickly sweet and dripping with malice, before turning back to his son. “Read that.”
Meyer blinked at me once before looking at the document again. There was silence as he read, except for the clinking of metal as I paced in the small space allotted me. I wasn’t about to sit quietly while they sat there deciding where to bury my body. I needed energy if I was going to run. “While I’m down here, do you think I could get something with protein in it?”
“Hang on, Maddie.” Meyer held up one finger without looking at me. I gaped and came to a halt. He was going to call me Maddie in front of Conrad? More than that, he was going to shush me?
“I think we’re beyond you telling me what to do,” I snapped when I regained the power of speech. “Last time I listened to you I ended up with this goddamn chain around my neck.”
He set the paper on the desk and sighed, ignoring me. Conrad, who had been watching me with amusement, sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his stomach as Meyer spoke.
“How did you arrive at this solution?”
“You have her to thank for it.” He nodded his head toward me. “I brought Alexander over and showed him the byproduct of that night he spent with Eva. He was willing to do quite a bit to make sure her existence stays a secret. We thought about trying to somehow pin this on her, actually. But the risk of somehow exposing Alexander as her father is too great, at least in his opinion. You should thank me, really. He wanted to give me money for her. If I’d accepted, she’d have a bullet in her head right now.”
My mouth was dry. I swallowed, trying to understand their words. Were they talking about what was going on with the company? That’s what he’d asked Alexander to do. What solution had he come up with that fit onto a single piece of paper? Though I knew Conrad would never allow it, I wished Shawn were here. He’d at least show me some sympathy. Maybe work on getting me some food so my stomach didn’t hurt so much.
“And you think this will work?” Meyer tapped the paper for emphasis.
“Whether or not it does is up to you. If it doesn’t—”
“Boss.”
All three of us turned in unison at the sound of Joshua’s voice. He stood halfway inside the room, panting slightly.
“We have an issue.”
“I’m a little busy here.”
“This needs your attention. Immediately.”
Conrad sighed as he rose, displeasure clearly evident in the purse of his lips. “Can I trust you alone with her for a few minutes?”
Meyer sat back in the chair and tented his fingers. “I’ll be on my best behavior.”
Conrad squinted at him, clearly not convinced, but after a moment he followed Joshua out of the room. The door clicked shut, and we were silent for one heartbeat. Two.
Meyer leaped out of his chair and rushed across the room to me.
“What’s he done?” He reached for me as he spoke, but I slapped his hand away.
“It’s been a week, Meyer. A week!”
“I know that.” He pushed his hands through his hair, distress evident on his face. For a moment I wanted to go to him, soothe away the hurt as if I was somehow responsible for his pain.
But I wasn’t.
All of this was his fault.
“What did you think was going to happen? That I’d just hang out and have a fun sleepover with your sister while I waited for you to get your life together?”
He blanched. “You’ve seen Anita?”
“Well, no.” Come to think of it, it was strange she hadn’t been by to torture me. “Your fucking father has more than made up for her absence.”
He bit his lip, and for one second, the well of pain in his eyes was deeper than I’d ever seen it before. “I’m sorry, Maddie. There were … complications.”
“And do you know what happened while you were dealing with those complications?”
His eyes raked my body as if searching for evidence of the assault I’d suffered. He stepped forward, reaching for me, but I stepped deftly to the side even though I had barely any chain left to work with. The hard edges of the collar pressed into my skin. He grabbed at me anyway, fingertips light against my skin
“You’re too fucking late, Meyer!” I didn’t care that I was crying. We thrashed together as silently as we could, him trying to catch me and me fighting against him hard than I ever had before.
“Don’t say that.” His voice broke along with mine, giving me pause. “Don’t say I ruined everything in one moment of weakness. I’d never forgive myself.”
“You shouldn’t.” We panted, staring at each other, as he took in that. “You should live with this guilt for the rest of your life. Because I’m sure as hell going to live with the scars.”
He finally dropped his hands, and in giving me the space I’d demanded so passionately I felt the gulf between us widen even farther. I wanted to forgive him so badly, but his words meant nothing. Not while he stood there and let me hang off a chain like a dog; not while I slowly starved to death on a prisoner’s diet. I swallowed back my tears. He’d been suffering too, that much was obvious.
I swallowed back my pride and looked closer at him. “Wha
t happened to your face?”
“Shawn.” He sighed, looking away.
My anger at him transformed in an instant. “WHAT? He hit you?” I looked around the room as if expecting Shawn to appear out of thin air. “He can’t fucking do that!”
“Maddie, Maddie, it’s okay,” Meyer said as he grabbed my arms, forcing me to swing a little less wildly in order to avoid hitting him. “He was trying to help.”
“He needed to keep his fucking hands off of you!”
Meyer finally got his arms wrapped around me from behind, and pressed his forehead to the back of my neck. I stilled, not wanting to hurt him further.
“It was what I needed,” he whispered, breath tickling hair at the back of my neck. One of his hands slipped up my arm to grab my shoulder. “I was being an idiot, Maddie, and I’m sorry. Shawn helped me realize that.”
My eyes fell closed as I remembered the reason I had been angry at Meyer in the first place. His hands and arms pressed into fresh bruises on my skin, reigniting my nerve endings and sending fire through my body. I twisted again, pushing his hands away.
“I said it already, Meyer. You’re too late.”
He spun me slowly, holding me so gently that I could have escaped if I wanted to, but I didn’t move away. “What did he do you to?”
Tears sprung to my eyes, and I blinked them away. “Does it matter?”
“Of course it fucking matters!”
I screamed and kicked the wall, finally breaking free. “It mattered the first time too, Meyer, not that you ever fucking apologized for that.”
“Maddie, please.”
“Do you want to know what he did? He brought my father here. The man who raped my mother the night that she decided she had to leave you behind if she wanted to survive. He looked me in the eye while he talked about how much fun it was to break her.”
His nostrils flared. “I gathered that. That certainly seems like a move he’d have in his wheelhouse.”
“And what solution did he come up with for saving the company that you care about more than me?”
He opened his mouth, but never got the chance to speak as the door swung open and Conrad re-entered just as Meyer took a step back from me. His father’s deep laugh reverberated through the room.
“Couldn’t stay away, could you?”
“I still consider this my property.” With a final glance at me, Meyer walked back to his father. “She looks a little worse for wear.”
“Maybe she’s been hurting herself to get back at me.”
“I doubt that very much.”
They sat again, looking for all the world like this was a normal business deal. Meyer fiddled with his tie, eyes flicking back to me ever so briefly, before grabbing the paper on the desk.
“This should work, if it goes as planned. Which it probably won’t.”
“Alexander will handle those details.”
“Then why did you bring me in? I doubt very much that you care what I think about this plan.”
“You’re right. There’s another reason I brought you here.”
“And that is?”
I expected Conrad to smile, to bare his fangs at us like a tiger waiting in the bush. But he simply cocked his head and stood, buttoning his jacket.
“Let’s go have dinner.”
Meyer
I’d been the victim of bloody noses and broken bones since I was a toddler. I learned that ice was the proper remedy for a new bruise before I could say my alphabet. But I’d never known heartache like that of watching my father lead Maddie around with a chain at her neck like a dog. It was unique to any pain Conrad had ever inflicted upon me; worse than the time I nearly blacked out at the sight of my bone poking through my skin. This sat in the center of my heart, deep in the muscle, like a fatal wound. She glared at me over her shoulder as I trailed behind them, only to stumble forward when Conrad jerked at the lead.
I’m sorry, I mouthed at her when she looked at me again, but she only shook her head at me. I knew what she was thinking.
You need to do better than that.
Three places were set at the long dining room table where I’d had every meal as a child. Regardless of whether Conrad was there to eat with me, Eva always made sure we sat down together three times a day. I could almost see her ghost leaning across the table, serving me a scoop of ice cream as a reward for a good grade on a test, then washing the bowl and spoon herself before returning them to the cabinets so Conrad never found out she’d indulged me. In the later memories, she held Anita’s tiny body in one arm as she helped me with my homework, doing her best to soothe her while still paying attention to me. Anita had been fussy from the beginning; I thought it was because even as a baby she resented being left on our doorstep like a metaphorical flaming bag of dog shit. Eva never held it against her, except to abandon her here with me to grow up with Conrad as our only parent.
I took my normal place at the table as Conrad sat Maddie across from me, then unraveled the long length of chain to attach it to a sconce. She reached immediately for the knife sitting at her place setting, but Conrad tutted as he grabbed her wrist, then squeezed her hand until she had no choice but to drop it. The knife clattered against the wood table with a dull thump.
“The instructions were clear—no knives for you.” He patted her on the head as he slid the knife down the table, far out of reach, then took his own seat at the head of the table. “Meyer, would you ring for the staff?”
I dutifully reached for the antique brass bell that sat halfway between Madeline and me, ringing it twice before stifling the sound against the table runner. Before the sound could dissipate, the doors to the dining room swung open and three servers entered with our food. For Conrad and me, rare steaks, pools of blood soaking into the mashed potatoes piled beside the meat. Madeline had a steak as well, medium rare, already cut into small bites. She glared at him, but not for long, before diving into the food.
“Manners,” Conrad said as she piled a huge dollop of mashed potatoes into her mouth while still chewing her steak.
“Bite me,” she muttered around a mouthful of food.
A piece of my own steak wedged in my throat, sending me into a coughing fit. But Conrad just laughed and shook his head fondly, as if spoiling a self-indulgent child.
“At least take the time to enjoy it, my dear. That might be the last thing you eat for a week.”
I braced myself for another retort, but the threat seemed to sober her a bit. She paused her ravenous chewing and swallowed slowly, then picked up a smaller bite on her fork.
For a few moments, the only sound in the room was that of our silverware clinking against the plates. It was easy enough to believe it was a normal family dinner except for the collar around Maddie’s neck, and the gentle sway of the chain stretching behind her to the wall. Even in the blessed quiet, I couldn’t bring myself to calm the anxiety running through my system like a persistent drug. The food was sawdust in my mouth, punctuated by the briny aftertaste of the rare meat or the overwhelming garlic in the potatoes. He knew I hated garlic. I was surprised it wasn’t in my water.
“What exactly is my incentive for agreeing to this solution that Alexander has come up with?”
He shrugged “Whatever you want—within reason.” The latter half of his sentence punctuated the swing of my head toward Madeline. Of course not.
“I want to leave.”
“Sure.”
“I mean it.”
“I was never stopping you.”
Bullshit.
Maddie spoke around a bite of potatoes. “What’s the solution?”
Conrad winked at her as he cut off another sliver of steak. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head. It was rude of my son to discuss business matters at the dinner table.”
“I thought you never talked about anything else.” She tapped her fork against the plate as she studied him. Trying to see how far she should push before he snapped.
“Sure we do.”
&nbs
p; “Like what? The children you’re kidnapping off the street and keeping as pleasure slaves?”
He set aside his utensils and wiped his mouth slowly, deliberately, before dropping the napkin to his lap.
“That’s an excellent segue to what I would like to talk about, actually.” He reached into his jacket, rustling around in the inner pocket. “I would like for someone to explain how this letter came to be hidden in Meyer’s house.” He held up a piece of paper by one corner, as if afraid of touching it too much.
I was past not being able to breathe; my lungs felt like they’d been removed from my body entirely. He had the letter Eva wrote to Madeline. The letter that told of all his crimes against her, what happened after she left, and of course her visit to me in the hospital.
Conrad was still looking at Madeline. “Did you know, it actually wasn’t when my son made his dramatic little suicide attempt that I found her. It was pure coincidence—a private investigator finally dug her up. I can’t believe she buried herself so well when the only person she had to help her was a high-school dropout working for minimum wage at a paper factory.”
“You had no right to read that,” I finally managed to choke out. I hadn't even gotten to read it. I didn't dare. Conrad regarded me impassively.
“Everything you have belongs to me. That includes her, and it includes this letter. What I really want to know is how this came to be in your possession in the first place?”
I exhaled too loudly, but didn’t speak.
Madeleine spoke, giving me precious time to think. “Maybe your security isn’t—”
“Hush!” He didn’t look at her as he brought his hand down on the table, silverware and glasses rattling all the way to the far end. “I’m speaking to my son.”
“She gave it to me.” I swallowed, stilling the tremble in his voice. “Eva.”
“And how exactly did she come to see you?”
I shook my head, looking down and away. “I misspoke. It was mailed. I never saw her.”