The table was silent as we ate. I ate as much as I could, stuffing my face until I was so full I thought I might puke. I didn’t know when I would be eating like this again, so I figured it was a great time to try and gain a few pounds of fat. Gregory should have food like that. Thought you weren’t going to think about Gregory ever again. I ignored myself and hoped Gregory had food to eat. And a place to stay. What was he thinking? Did he regret leaving me? Was he happy? A part of me—okay, a huge part of me—hoped he was rethinking his decision to leave me behind. I think you’ve obsessed enough about him already. He left. Without you. Now get over it! I rolled my eyes at my inner…voice? Subconscious? Was I officially going crazy?
“Mia,” Aedan said, interrupting my thoughts. “We were able to communicate with your father.”
My head shot up. Fortunately, I didn’t have anything in my mouth at the time otherwise I was sure I would have choked on it. Did that mean they’d talked to Kieran? Making deals without my permission? I took a bite of a piece of bread, swallowed, and felt the bread slowly making its way down my throat, the rough edges scratching along the way. Reaching for my water, I took a big gulp to help the bread further along. “You have?”
“Yes,” he said. “It looks like he's in terrible pain. He’ll be lucky to survive another day. We're thinking of everything we can do to get him out.”
I’d say let him rot, but everyone would frown upon that idea, so I just nodded my head. I wondered if they really believed they could get him out alive.
“I wonder,” Jake said, “if Mia has any ideas for how to help her father?”
My eyes shot to Jake. Jake’s face was content, but his eyes danced with mischief. I didn’t like Jake; something about him felt familiar. Even though I'd never met him when his parents came to visit, I knew I’d seen him before. “I don’t know.” When I peeled my eyes away from him, I focused back on my plate. I pushed my plate away and sat back in the chair. What I needed to do was get back to my room and wait for everyone to fall asleep before I could escape.
“No thoughts on how to help your father?” Jake asked. “Don’t you want to see your father again?” I looked back at Jake and glared at him.
“Jake,” Aileen said. “Leave the poor girl alone. She’s been through a lot. She doesn’t need any more hassle. Actually, I think we should let her get to sleep early tonight. She probably hasn’t had any decent sleep since the attacks started.”
I could have hugged her. “I would really appreciate it if I could be excused. I am exhausted.”
“See,” Aileen said standing up from her chair. “Why don’t you men discuss how to save Andrew, and I will see Mia to her room.”
“I can make it there on my own,” I said. “I don’t want you to go to the trouble of helping me.”
Aileen waved me off. “It’s no trouble at all.” She moved toward the door to the hall. “Come along, dear.”
I got up from my seat, ignoring the men, and followed Aileen up to the room. She opened the door for me then followed me in and closed it silently behind her. Curiously, I looked over at her, waiting for her to say something, but she just went to the bed, bent down, and started crawling under it. What the hell is she doing? Her long legs were the only things now visible. Every other part of her body was under the bed. “Umm…Mrs. Wibert?”
“One moment, dear.” Her words were muffled, coming from under the bed. A few moments later, she slowly moved out from under the bed, dragging a long, flat box with her. She got up and put the box on the bed, then wiped all the dust off her body. Intriguingly, I walked over to her and looked back and forth between her and the box. As she opened up the box, my mouth dropped open; I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
“These are for you,” she said, motioning to the box.
“Why?” I stared down at the contents in the box: two small handguns, four hunting knives, three stacks of money, and a few IDs. I picked up the IDs and went through each of them. On them was the same picture of me, but I had a different name and age for each. I didn’t understand.
“You and I both know you can’t stay here,” she said sadly. “You’re in more danger here than out on the streets.”
“Why are you helping me?” Putting the IDs back down and staring at the other contents, I didn't understand her change of heart. “Why all the stuff? Just before dinner you were all for me to stay here and said I was safe here. Why the change of heart?” The three stacks of money, plus what I had with me from before, could seriously buy me a new life.
“I had to say that.” She sat down on the bed next to the box. “This house is constantly watched and overheard. I had to make sure no one knew what I was planning.”
“Wait, I’m confused.” I looked at her sharply. How could I trust her? “How do I know if you’re telling the truth?”
“You'll just have to trust me,” she said. “Aedan knows you were planning on running away, by the way.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My heart started thumping faster in my chest.
“There are cameras in the room,” she said. “He knows what you're planning, so he had men come in and confiscate your stuff while we were at dinner.”
I ran to the closet and went toward the back where I’d hidden my stuff earlier. Sure enough, it was gone. They were spying on me? I felt violated. Thank God I never got undressed in here. I walked back out of the closet, furious. “Why?”
“Why what?” she asked.
“Why spy on me? Why take my stuff? Why keep me here?” The questions spilled from my mouth, one after another.
“Keep your voice down,” she hissed. Aileen stood up from the bed and walked over to the bedroom door, leaning her head up against it with her ear pressed snugly to the crack of the door and doorframe.
“You didn’t answer my questions.” I crossed my arms over my chest. I was on the verge of panicking but tried to hold on to every string of anger.
“Shhh,” she said. We stood in silence, me with my arms crossed, and her with her ear up against the door. Finally, she breathed a sigh of relief and walked back over to me, standing right in front of me. “I want you to listen to me carefully, and if you respond, you will keep your voice down. Otherwise you will get us both in deep trouble. Do you understand?” She waited until I nodded my head before she continued. “My husband is a paranoid son of a bitch. When we heard things were getting rough out in the poorer regions, he put cameras up all over the inside and outside of the house. He at least had the decency to keep them out of the bathrooms. Anyway, he wanted to catch those who talked about what the rebels were doing. He became obsessive. Your father didn’t worry about it. He never thought anything like this would ever happen. Aedan kept telling him things would go terribly wrong if they didn’t stop it from the beginning, but your father never listened. This has been happening for months. With your father being captured Lorburn is in crises. So Aedan will do anything, and I mean anything, to get him back. Including sending you in place of your father.”
“He plans on giving me up?”
“Yes,” she said with a frown. “I disagreed with him, and he called me a traitor. I would never betray my husband, so when he called me that, I was so hurt. I just didn’t agree to sending an innocent girl to her death so that her father could live. Then again, we don’t know anything about how Kieran works so we wouldn’t know for sure if they would even let your father go if we sent you. So I told him I wasn’t a traitor and I would always stand behind him. He told me I had to prove it to him. So when I arrived to your room before dinner, it was all an act. He watched the whole thing.” She pointed to a small, round black device up on the ceiling. “And when I left, he had this smug, superior smile on his face that I just wanted to smack off. And that’s when I knew for sure I had to do the right thing.”
“Isn’t he watching now?” I couldn’t take my eyes off the device.
Aileen laughed softly. I looked over to her and saw her smile. “I was able to get it turned off.�
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“Oh,” I said. “How did you do this?”
“I had some help, and that’s all you need to know.” She moved back to the box, and leaned over to the pillows and pulled out my backpack from behind them. I was so relieved to see it. She looked over at me with a smile. “I had someone bring this back.”
“So what’s your plan?” I started to get excited. Someone was really helping me. I didn’t trust her, but I couldn’t say no to her help.
She raised her eyebrow at my excited tone. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled. I was going to leave this place and had a partner. Hope bloomed in my chest. “Well.” She started stuffing all the contents from the box into my backpack. “Around midnight I have someone coming to get you. You'll both sneak out of the house through a hidden passage. Aedan and his men have no idea where the path is so the two of you will be safe. There's a tunnel you will take that leads straight to the station. The individual coming to get you already has the tickets for a train ride to Minonia. There will be someone in Minonia picking you both up, and then you will bide your time before making it back to Gildonia. It is important you go back home. I know you’re only seventeen and you’re afraid you'll fail. But you won’t. I'll meet you in Gildonia in a month. Try not to alert anyone you're there. It's important you get back home and find that slip of paper I hid in a book long ago. Remember the night of the party?” I nodded my head. “That paper is very important. Find it and wait for me. There are fake IDs for you so you can travel without alerting anyone.”
I was speechless. I’m pretty sure my mouth was hanging open, but I didn’t care. I didn’t know what to say. “What’s on the paper?”
She smiled. “You don’t need to worry about that right now.”
I already knew I’d obsess over it. But if she wasn’t going to tell me, I’d just have to wait. “So, who’s supposed to help me?”
“You can’t know until the moment they arrive,” she said. “I can’t tell you, just in case the plan doesn’t go through. I need you in escape mode and thinking only in that mode. It’s the only way you’ll survive.”
I nodded my head. “I understand.” I actually didn’t, but whatever. “Are you sure this plan will work?”
“I’m hoping it works.” Tears formed in her eyes. “It worked one other time, and I’m hoping the results are the same.” She wiped away a tear and zipped up the backpack. What the hell was that about? Setting the backpack behind the pillows, she slipped the box back under the bed and then made her way to the door, turning back to me. “You leave in a few hours, so you should probably get some rest. It will be a very long night for you.” I nodded my head. “Be safe, my dear.”
“I will,” I whispered to her disappearing back. Walking over to the closet, I rummaged through clothes that were hanging up until I found a pair of stretchy black pants, a long-sleeved black shirt, and my black leather jacket. I changed into the clothes, put on my white sneakers, and slipped into bed.
The room was dark, and the only thing visible was the red dot that was flashing at the top of my ceiling. Looks like the camera’s back on. It took awhile before I could fall asleep; I was too anxious to get out of here. The house was completely silent and I wondered who Aileen had gotten to help me. My heart kept hoping it would be a certain-person-I-wasn't-going-to-think-about, but I knew that was unlikely. That person was long gone by now. I looked back up at the camera and counted the red flashes until my eyes finally closed.
I woke with a start. I wasn’t sure what had woken me up. My heart pounded painfully in my chest, begging to be let out. Rubbing the dew from my eyes, I looked around the quiet room. I didn’t remember much about the dream, but what I did remember was running for my life. I was constantly running away from something, I just didn’t know what that something was. Sweat dripped down my face; I used the bed sheet to wipe it off. Slowly, I slipped out of bed and had to wait a few minutes before I could walk: my head felt light and dizzy. It took a few minutes and deep breaths to help push the dizziness away.
I didn’t know what time it was, but I was parched. Quietly, I opened the bedroom door and made my way downstairs and into the abandoned kitchen. A light would have helped me locate a cup, but I didn’t want to meet anyone in the middle of the night. After opening and closing a few cupboards, I finally found a cup. Filling it with ice from the ice box and water from the sink, I made my way out of the kitchen and headed back to the bedroom. On the opposite side of the stairs, in large bright red colors the numbers read 1:37. Carefully, I made my way back up to the room, trying to figure out what was wrong. Something at the back of my mind kept nagging me and I just couldn't put my finger on it.
Softly, I slipped back into my room and shut the door behind me. As I leaned my back against the solid wooden door, I took a sip, the ice-cold water trickling down the back of my throat. It felt amazing, so I gulped the rest of the water and headed back to bed.
I sat the cup down and started to get into bed when I realized I was wearing sneakers. Why would I wear sneakers to bed? Think, Mia, think. Then it hit me. It was one thirty-seven in the morning. Aileen’s mystery person was supposed to come get me at midnight. Something must have happened. Hurriedly, I pulled back the pillow and sighed in relief when I saw the backpack. What happened to the person coming to get me? I tried not to panic. Maybe they were delayed? Or maybe Aileen lied to you. I shook my head. I didn’t trust her, but my gut told me to. I decided I would just have to escape on my own. And how exactly? You don’t even know where the secret tunnel is. I willed the voice in my head to shut up—I really needed to stop talking to myself. Sitting on the bed, I closed my eyes and tampered down the brewing panic. There was no time for me to lose my head, because I had to stay focused on getting out of the place.
After sliding the backpack on my shoulders, I made my way to the door and tried to breathe as quietly as I could as I leaned up against the door, trying to hear any noise. It was silent. With my ear pressed up against the door, I stayed for five very long minutes, just in case someone was walking around. I didn’t need to be caught.
Finally, I opened the door—thanking the heavens that it made no noise—and made my way to the stairs. Stopping, I listened: nothing. My heart pounded away painfully, and my hands were slick with sweat. I can do this, I repeated over and over again, before taking a deep breath, and started walking down the stairs. Every time a step creaked, I cringed.
When I got to the last step, I let out the breath I’d been holding, and walked slowly and quietly toward the front door, and peeked out the window next to the door and almost groaned out of frustration. Six men perched outside the front door talking and I definitely wouldn't be able to sneak by them. Turning around, I walked slowly back toward the stairs. Where to now, smart one? I bit my lip and tried to think. Maybe I could try the kitchen? Silently, I walked past the stairs, on my tiptoes, toward the kitchen.
“Where do you think you’re going?” a deep voice asked from behind me. I jumped and turned around quickly, running into the hall table. Something fell off and smashed to the ground. A light turned on, and Aedan and Jake were standing in front of me.
“I…ah, I was thirsty,” I finished lamely.
“With a backpack?” Jake asked, amused.
“I always sleep with a backpack,” I said. “Since I’ve left home it’s become a habit. You can’t trust people out there.”
“Sure,” Jake said, raising his eyebrows.
“Didn’t you already get something drink?” Aedan asked, squinting at me like he had a hard time seeing me.
“I wanted more?” I said, hating that it came out more as a question than an answer.
“Jake,” Aedan said. “Go get Mia something to drink.”
Jake licked his bottom lip before walking past me. Aedan and I stood in silence. I kept my gaze away from him, but I could feel his branding my skin. I wrinkled my nose.
“Nervous?”
I looked at him. “No, just tired.” I think it’s time to get away from
him.
“You shouldn’t be roaming the house so late,” he said. “Never know when something might happen. I figured you would know that already, seeing how you barely escaped in the first place.”
“I thought you said it was safer here.” I pushed my hands into my pocket to keep Aedan from seeing them shake.
He ignored my comment. “How exactly did you escape?”
“What do you mean?” I tilted my head to the side. I knew what he meant, but looking stupid would be the only way to stall him.
“Everyone is trying to figure out how you escaped,” he said. “We were all in your father’s office when the attacks started, but you weren’t. Luckily, a few of us were able to get to safety. How did you manage to leave without being noticed?”
Agathy never told anyone? Smart woman! “I was with Tyler in the library. I was helped out of the house,” I said. I wanted to ask what had happened to Tyler, but I didn’t think he would’ve told me.
“How?” he inquired.
“How?”
“How did you get out without anyone noticing? I would assume someone would have been noticed smuggling you out.” He stepped closer to me and narrowed his eyes even further while his brow wrinkled.
I stepped back an inch. My hands clenched my stomach. I could feel the sweat start to pop up on my skin. I swallowed nervously. “Someone made a diversion, and I was able to slip out the back door unnoticed. I guess I was lucky.”
“I don’t think you’re being very honest with me,” he said, taking another step closer to me. “But I doubt you’ll tell me. Why is that?”
I looked over his shoulder to see Aileen walking silently behind him. She had a finger pressed against her mouth. “Why is what?” I asked, looking back at Aedan.
“Why won’t you be honest with me? I’ve never been dishonest with you.”
I snorted. “Yeah, okay.”
Aileen picked up a large vase, lifted it up, and slammed it against Aedan’s head. His eyes rolled back, and he dropped to the floor like a sack of flour. I looked up at Aileen’s calm face. Did she really just do that? Maybe I can trust her after all.
The Divide (The Divide Series Book 1) Page 19