“But when we get on the land, you must never, ever speak about me ever again, you cannot tell them who I am or where I am. I’m a very bad man Emily, and I’m sure you can understand why I am telling you this.” I nod my head eagerly, hoping I can get off this boat to my parents and have a decent shower.
“Come On. We need to get ready.” I began to get excited, to finally feel the sand between my toes, to finally see other people and to finally see my mother and Father. They must have gotten worried sick about me.
The boat began to move. Fast and all I could do is just smile as me and Oliver sat by each other as the wind blew through our hair and hope blooming into my chest. The mainland began to come into view, the beach clear and only a few amount of people was on there. Greek music filled my ears and the smell of the close bay restaurants made my stomach growl with hunger.
The man steered the boat backwards, turning it so the side of the boat touched the wooden decking. My heart was thudding more and more until I could touch the wood myself. I climb off, falling to my knees and letting the tears fall freely. Oliver stood beside me, his hand on my shoulder as I sobbed against the ground.
“It’s okay, you will see them soon.” He whispered, glancing at his father so he couldn’t hear us.
“Come with me.” I whispered, wiping away my tears.
“I can’t, someone has to look after old man.”
“But he will ruin your life. We can protect each other and my father has his own boat. We could be captains!” I smiled while mumbling to him. I stand, seeing that he was just an inch taller than me. He pulls his baseball cap off, letting his blonde hair fall over his neck.
“Here, take this. Think of it as a treasured object found on an abandoned island that pirates had left behind.” I gasp with adoration as I hold his hat, he places it on mine and laughs a little to find it too big for me.
“See? Fits perfectly.” He smiled before looking down at the ground.
“Will I see you again? Maybe I can find you with my mommy and daddy?”
“Maybe. I think by the time you reunite with your family, me and Papa will be long gone.”
“I don’t want you to go with him. Run away with me, maybe we could live in a treehouse and scavenge the land from pirates and fight with swords-“
“You’re getting carried away.” He laughed, flicking the hat so I could pay attention.
“Do you know you’re way around here to find your parents?”
“Uhuh, we went on this beach every morning and I know the shop keeper who sells the best sweets.”
“Let’s get going.” His father said as he held a duffle bag, heavy over his shoulder.
“Okay Papa.”
“Listen kid, I don’t want you to move from this spot until we are out of sight, you hear me? I don’t want you following us just in case the police ask any questions.” Why would the police ask questions? Unless they know he is a bad man.
“Don’t say a word, you got it?” He warned, his hand flashing to his hip which held the gun he showed me earlier on.
“I promise.” He nods before tugging Oliver along with him.
“I will come back for you! I promise! We will protect each other!” I shout across the decking as he reaches further and further away from me.
“We will find each other again! You are my friend!”
“You’re my only friend!” Tears began to stream down my eyes again, and all I could do was pull off the hat and cradle it close to my chest. Out of all of the bad thing that had happened for the past few weeks, Oliver was my true friend, he hardly knew me and yet he trusted me and I trusted him.
I waited another fifteen minutes before walking towards the beach, there was an elderly couple with a dog but they were too far away to call out too. A woman, nursing a toddler by the sand castles glanced up at me and frowned.
“Excuse me?” I whispered, and her toddler came waddling along towards me. the little girl smiled a toothy grin before tugging me towards her mother.
“Mama! Look! Look! A girl.” I let the toddler pull me, too tired to get away and I let the tears fall again. The woman stood, brushing the sand from her knees and lowering to my level.
“Hey there kiddo, do you know where your mommy or daddy is?” She had a soft face and was English so I could understand her.
“”N-No..”
“Wait, you look like the girl from the picture.” She moves back to her spot, pulling out some papers before looking back and forth.
“Your Emily aren’t you?” I nod my head, glancing at the paper in her hands. I was on the front page, a family photo that me and my parents took last year.
“Yes.”
“I need you to come with me darling, can you do that for me?”
“Where will be going?”
“We just need to go round the corner to the police station.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“No darling. I tell you what, when we get there I can get us some sweets.” I hold the baseball cap in one hand as she offers me hers after packing all of her things into her bag, her toddler on her hip as we began to walk. My feet hurt, sore and hot against the pavement. I was still wearing my pyjamas from the yacht but now they were dirty and needed washing.
A big building came into view, and I had to gasp with amazement, the walls were see through so you could see everyone working inside, I glance at the door, frowning at the piece of paper on the front.
“I know him.”
“What?”
“The man in the picture. I know him.” The woman’s face suddenly paled and ripped the picture from the door as we entered inside. People worked across the cold floor, cooling my feet as we moved to the front desk. There was an aging man in the front, speaking in a language I could not understand.
“I need to talk to the officer in charge in the Emily Cooper case.”
“Very well.” He did not even glance up as he rang the phone. A few moments later, a warm face appeared through the door in front of us. He looked tired and stressed and began to speak to the nice lady who took me here.
“You said you have some information about this case.”
“I found her.”
“What?” He looked amazed and I was suddenly tugged by her hand in mine, I was standing in front of her and I look up at the harsh lighting.
“Oh my god, Officer Howard! Call Mr and Mrs Cooper! We found her!” He shouted across the room and many people turned to look. I was soon crowded and all I could do was shrink against the woman’s leg.
“Everybody, back away, let her have some room. Emily, can you tell me where you have been?”
“She said she knew this man.” The Woman interrupted, handing him over the piece of paper.
“..How do you know this man?”
“He is the one who saved me.” I whispered, pressing the soft fabric of the baseball cap to my chest, wishing I was in my parent’s arms and hoping that Oliver was okay.
“Officer? They are on their way.”
“Good. Emily I want you to follow me to the private room, someone is coming here to pick you up.”
“Is it mama and papa?”
“Yes. You have no idea how worried they have been.”
“am I in trouble?”
“No. no god no. You are not in trouble. Listen, this man in the photo, did he do anything to you?”
“No. He saved me from the water.” I shook my head, letting the man lead me to a private room and a seated by the metal table.
“Do you want anything to drink? A hot drink? Food?”
“Please. Can the nice lady stay in here with me?”
“It is against the rules…but I will see what I can do.” I wanted to thank the woman for helping me, I wouldn’t know what to do in this sort of situation. The nice officer leaves the room and I was left alone, I set the baseball cap on the table and look around, there was a big mirror across the room, big enough to see everything around me. I looked ill, afraid and my skin was dirty, my hair w
as matted and my clothes almost shredded.
“E-Emily?” I look at the door, seeing both my parents standing there. Everything seemed to slow down in time, my mother’s eyes looked empty, her face pale and streaked with old and fresh tears. My father stood behind her, his chest shaking from his own crying.
“Baby girl.” They ran to me, smothered me into a deep hold before checking my appearance, my face, my neck.
“Oh hunnie, we were so worried. So bloody worried.” I sobbed against their arms, letting my cries out.
“Where did you go!? We couldn’t find you!” My mother shook me and I have never seen her so frantic before.
“I-I fell of the boat, I tried to swim Daddy but I wasn’t strong enough, the boat was moving too far away from me.”
“It’s okay baby girl. Your safe now, your safe with us.”
That was the last time I ever spoke about it with them, I was taken to the place I was dropped off, answered so many question that half of them I didn’t even understand. But that event was not what broke me, A few months later, my mother had died. From my worst fear. She had drowned by the city lake near our home and there are still questions left un-answered as to why she was there in the first place.
“Finally! Sleeping beauty awakens!” I couldn’t tell who that voice was but all I wanted to do was go back to my memory, to go back to my parents and their loving arms. To ignore the aching pain blooming across my head. I open my eyes ever so slowly, confused to see a half dimly lit room. If I could call it that. The walls were bare and no windows, it reminded me too much of a cage. There was a steel door and a spring bed along with an open toilet.
“W-Where am i?..” My throat was scratchy and sore, and I try not to speak to much but I needed answers.
“Your somewhere no one will find you.” I look across the room, Oliver was leaning against the wall, but he was different. He wore a very expensive suit and a designer watch, his hair was styled and he wore a look I have never seen on him before. He was not the butler anymore; he was someone else I could not have recognised.
“Oliver?..Why..why did you take me here?” I sit up, only to feel pain spread down my forehead and neck.
“Easy there, don’t want you conking out again.” He took a step and I flinch, making him stop. His arms by his side and his chest expanding.
“Why are you afraid?” He was fucking with me. He has got to be. This is same joke, it had to be.
“Why do you think!? You fucking drugged me!” I let my legs fall over the bed, only to find the floor freezing cold.
“Calm it. There are reasons why I drugged you, I didn’t think you would come willingly with me, not since you have fucked Henry.” He spat the last part, almost as if he said smoothing crude and disgusting.
“What I do with Henry is none of your damn business.”
“It is when you are flaunting it right in face.”
“What are you talking about? You’re his butler, you shouldn’t care what we do.” His face drops, and he stands before me, his hand gripping my chin forcedly.
“I’m not his fucking butler. And I’m very surprised that you have forgotten all about me. In fact, I’m a little disappointed.” His fingers let go of me and I push away from him. He was no longer the caring friend I thought he was.
“I…don’t understand…why are you doing this?” I was confused, a friend, Henry’s butler had taken me like some sort of caged animal.
“Why!? You woman are really clueless. Havant you been listening to a single word I said? We both promised each other that we would protect each other, well I am doing my end of the deal. I am protecting you from Henry.” He sneered, his blonde hair still perfectly in place.
“Henry protects me just fine, I hardly know you Oliver so why intervene?”
“Hardly know me? You have known me for the last fourteen years.”
“What the fuck are you talking about!?” I stood, ignoring the throbbing in my boy from the pain and stand my ground.
“I’m Ollie!” Ollie?...Ollie..Shit!
“Ollie?...But..your-“
“Different, I know. That’s what death does to you.”
“I thought you had disappeared along with your father.”
“Now that is a subject for a different time.”...No…Its too much…there is too much happening all at once.
“Why would you take me away from Henry! I was perfectly safe!”
“He’s a murder!” He shouted, his voice echoing around the room.
“So are you!” I argued back, a knowing look in his eyes.
“oh don’t look surprised Ollie, I have seen enough shit for the past few days, It’s not hard for me to figure out things and guessing with how your father was, he pulled you strait into the family business.”
“You damn right I am.” He was no longer the charming boy who helped me, now he’s a…Monster. A word I am very known with.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Life. Having a father as a criminal has its perks, the protection, the fire arms and the power but it changes you. I’m not the little boy you once knew.” No, you’re a man who has begun to be as crazy as his father.
“No, I thought you would be better than this. Why do this Ollie? Why kidnap me!?”
“I’m protecting you.” I was getting frustrated, this man, no...this stranger…he wasn’t Ollie, he’s a man Jon Zelena has created to be just like him.
“I want to leave.” I walk towards the door, but Oliver stands in my way.
“No one is going anyway. You are staying right here.”
“I have to go home. I need to get back to-“
“To what? To Henry? You think were Henry is your home!?”
“I…I love him.” I whispered, frowning at my own confession.
“Like hell you do.” He growled before opening the door and leaving me, he shuts it quickly and I could hear it lock from the outside.
I’m trapped.
Caged.
Forgotten and alone.
Henry…please…save me..
…………To be continued…………….
Acknowledgement
I want to thank everyone who has helped me through and through from the very beginning! Thank you for purchasing this book and I do hope you stay in tune for the second book of the Drowned Series! Which will be coming out soon!
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Thank you and I love you all, Caitlin Sharratt. Xox
Stay in tuned for Drowned by His love (Second Book.)
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Seduced By Him (The Drowned Series Book 1) Page 14