by Holly Chavez
The Boss killed his wife. Well at least in Izabel’s dreams…
As chilling and revealing as it may be, the information is unimportant in the larger scheme of things. It happened too long ago to matter now and it only serves to prove that The Boss is every bit as vicious as everyone knows him to be. If the man can kill his own wife, then surely he has no morals. Still, I’ll pass it along, perhaps someone can do something useful with it.
With a loud bang the door is thrown open, causing me to nearly jump out of my own skin. Acting on instinct, I slip behind the nearest curtain, completely terrified.
Izabel is only an arm’s reach in front of me, having been awoken by the intruder, she jumped out of bed, using the bed as a barrier between herself and the door. I recognize the glint of a weapon in her hand. She keeps it close to her side, concealing it from the intruder. I’m surprised by her bravado, false though it may be, I wouldn’t have guessed she had it in her. Though I don’t admire it, it will only get her killed sooner. Best to leave the fighting to those who know what they’re doing. Her self-defense classes with a crippled man will serve her little good in a real world situation. She could never have survived all that I’ve been through.
Nothing happens until a lantern is lit. I peer between the curtains and feel a level of relief when I see it’s only Darick. Then I get a good look at him. He’s a complete mess. His hair is disheveled, his clothes look worn, he probably hasn’t changed since yesterday which would explain the bags under his eyes and he’s sporting a scrape across his chin. I begin to feel uneasy again. He looks very much like a madman with a crazed look in his eyes.
He starts in on Izabel. Throwing accusations at her about a bomb. Realizing the importance of the conversation, I listen to the best of my ability and do everything I can to not move. This is not a conversation I can be caught eavesdropping upon and yet I’m thrilled. This is just the kind of information I need to prove my worth to Liberty. This is what I signed up for.
After Darick leaves, I stay hidden. I stay hidden until Izabel falls asleep again. Still, I wait a little longer just to be sure. This time when she dreams I don’t even bother to listen. I have more valuable information now. Way more important than the dreams of a teenage girl.
I find Daytin just where he said he would be. Flirting with him is so easy, it helps that he’s single and very attractive. Catching his eye, I make a show of smiling at him. I saunter up to him, enjoying the attention I’m getting from the other guards.
“Why hello Daytin, what are you up to this fine morning?” I run my finger down his sleeve. I only receive a glare for my effort. I lean in closer. “What? You didn’t like the show?” He swings me out the door, telling another guard he will be back in a minute.
We walk just around the corner. “What was that?”
“You said flirt, so I flirted.”
“Yeah, flirt, not turn every eye our way. What’s wrong with you?” I shrug, feeling too giddy with information to care about his reprimand.
“Nothing, now listen! I have information.” His irritation slips away and he’s back to business.
“What did you find?”
Excitedly, I tell him about the conversation I overheard between the enforcer and Izabel. He seems less than interested, which is weird, because I know the information is great.
When I finish he asks the last thing that I would have in his shoes. “How did you manage to eavesdrop on their conversation?”
I roll my eyes. Men. Of course they underestimate a woman’s skills. “I was in there trying to listen in on some sleep talking when Darick stormed in. Afraid of getting caught, I jumped behind the nearest curtain.”
“I see.” I inspect my nails, waiting for a compliment about my amazing spy skills, but it doesn’t come. “Did she say anything in her sleep?”
I sigh. Of course, I share information about a private conversation between the enforcer and The Boss’s daughter, a once in a life time conversation, and here I am back to reliving Izabel’s dreams. I tell him everything I heard and finally I get a spark of interest.
“Excellent.” He looks pleased. “Do you think sometime soon you can take a look around the girl’s room? See if there’s anything interesting about?”
“Like what?”
“Just anything that might shed light on what she knows. It seems she knows at least a little about the people that have died by The Boss’s hand. I just want to find out if she knows more. Maybe she keeps a diary or something?”
“I can look. Give me a day or two. She’s usually gone for a few hours at some point over the weekend.”
Chapter 26
IZABEL
“They say revenge is a dish best eaten cold, but for most people, by the time it's ready to eat, they just don't fancy it anymore.”
-Jo Brand
~~~
I wake up with a pounding head and not enough sleep to feel refreshed. The previous night sapped all my energy and left me feeling a bit like the walking dead. To make matters worse, I have to inform Mirna of the awful circumstance that led to Justin’s death and my involvement in it no matter how minor it might have been. My only reprieve for the day is not having to sit through class since its Friday. Instead, I’m left to my devices as long as it’s beneficial in some way. Approved activities include painting, drawing, sculpting, horseback riding, dancing, reading, needlework, playing the piano, or taking strolls through the garden. Apparently they are all great activities for a lady…
Wondering where Margery is this morning, I draw my curtains for light. Since Margery is absent, I forego a full bath and instead wash up with a cloth and pitcher of water. I put on fresh clothes and twist my hair up, not concerning myself with how I look because I need to talk to Mirna.
Opening my bedroom door, I find myself face to face with a guard. “What’s the meaning of this?”
“Sorry Principessa, but there was a disturbance last night so your father has requested an armed presence outside all family member’s doors until the issue is resolved.”
“I see.” I leave him to guard my door, there’s nothing I can do about it right now anyway.
I pass Darick in the halls, he sees me and stops. He’s still dressed in the same clothes as yesterday, probably hasn’t had a break in over twenty-four hours. My heart tugs with sympathy. His face, drawn with guilt, looking like he’s about to apologize again. I don’t give him the chance. “Is it in the papers?”
“It is.”
“Okay, I’m going to talk to Mirna in a moment.”
“Iza…”
“Don’t.” I put my hand up to stop him. “It’s all forgiven.” I leave him standing in the hallway, thinking that perhaps I should have said more, but I can’t offer him any comfort for the things he believed last night. He has to figure it out for himself.
I find Mirna already eating breakfast, her face glowing with happiness. I nearly talk myself out of telling her, but she will find out at school today either way.
It’s just her and me at the table this morning, everyone else is already finished. A maid makes a move to bring my breakfast, but I call her off. I’ll eat later.
“Izzy, what’s up? You seem moody this morning.” She’s so bubbly this morning, it’s hard for me to saying anything. She continues, not noticing that I haven’t said a word yet. “Did you get the information you needed at the party? And did you see the fight I started? All it took was tripping one guy into a girl with a boyfriends, then punches were flying!”
“I did, but Mirna that’s not important right now. I need to speak with you alone.”
She calms a bit and uses her fork to indicate the empty room. “Okay, well, we are alone, so go for it.”
“No, some place more private. How about your room?”
“What’s this about? I need to leave for school soon.”
“I’ll tell you after breakfast, but hurry.”
“Uh, okay. Just give me a sec.” She gulps down the rest of her orange juice. “Sorry, it�
��s just too good to waste. Let’s go.”
I follow her up to her room. It’s on the second floor like mine, but on the other side of the house. Walking through her door, I’m met with floral wallpaper and pink everything. The room’s so bright it’s nearly blinding.
“So what’s up?” She plops on her bed.
I open and close my mouth a few times trying to figure out how to start. I pace the room for a moment before coming to stand before her. I try and find the best way to say it, but there is no best way. Finally, it just spills out of me. I tell her everything I know, which isn’t much. I think it takes a while before my words begin to sink in because she just sits there, unmoving for a long while after I finish.
I take a seat next to her. “Say something!” I’m afraid I’ve put her in shock. She doesn’t say a word. Instead, she burst into tears, her sobs shaking the whole bed. I hold her, letting her cry against me. This is the most helpless I’ve felt since the murder of my mother.
Chapter 27
MIRNA
“Family is supposed to be our safe haven. Very often, it’s the place where we find the deepest heartache.”
-Iyanla Vanzant
~~~
After Izzy leaves, I remain on my bed too physically ill to move.
Justin is dead. The truth sinks further into my soul, piercing me deeply with every passing moment. The longer I sit, the more real it becomes. The room is so quiet I can practically hear my own heartbeat, a reminder I’m still alive.
I race to my washstand, throwing up the contents of my stomach into the large bowl. I’m regretting the whole glass of orange juice I guzzled this morning.
A maid walks in with some of my freshly pressed dresses. “Miss, are you all right?” I grab a towel and wipe my eyes and mouth.
“I’ll be fine. Just let my father know… I have the flu. I won’t be going to school today.” It’s the first excuse that came to mind and the lie made even more effective by the contents of my stomach sitting in the bowl.
“Oh, you poor thing. I’ll have someone bring you tea and crackers… and a clean bowl.”
“Thank you.”
“One more thing…” she seems nervous, “some of your laundry is missing…”
I wave her off. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it will pop up somewhere.”
She nods, seeming relieved. I don’t care about missing clothes. I just need to be alone. She hangs up all of my dresses and leaves.
Sitting in one of the chairs facing the empty fireplace, I let my tears run free. I think of everything that’s happened and everything that could have been. About my father’s role in these evil plots. About a boy who won my heart through jokes and silly pranks, who will never see the sun again. And the friend, who continues to try and protect me even from the darkest of moments. I finally know just a little of how Izzy felt after her mother died and I hate it; the helplessness and the all-consuming despair. It’s enough to make anyone want to quit and withdraw.
I couldn’t understand her drive before; why she would let anything consume her like that. Why she couldn’t be a regular teenager while still being The Boss’s daughter. I wondered how she could just shut herself down cold. Sometimes, I find myself across from her at the table and wonder if Izzy is even there anymore or just a shell; if she’s been completely overtaken by the Girl of Shadow.
Now, I get it and I want it for myself. I’m not Izabel. I’m not able to kill anyone, nor do I have the physical strength to take someone down, but I’m smart - the smartest person in our group and at school, and I can help. I need to have a purpose, something to drive me through these moments.
Having made the decision, a weight lifts off of me. Wiping my eyes for the last time, I decide to make my first move as the unofficial spy/assistant of the G.O.S. I will find out why the boy I loved and his family had to die. I won’t ignore the ugliness around me, I’ll change it.
Marching down to my father’s shared office, I come up with a plan. Since he believes I’m sick with the flu, he’ll probably want me back in my room, but I can buy myself a few minutes if I mope around a bit. He might even let me hang out on his couch. He’s always been very lenient with me because my mother died in childbirth. From the stories I’ve heard, he loved her deeply and has never been able to bring himself to love another. To make up for her absence, he tries to be everything I need. Because of this, I have never taken the time to really find out who my father is. Of course, I’ve heard stories from Izzy about the activities of her father but never have I fully considered my father’s connection to all of the terrible incidences that have occurred. I’ve never wanted to. It pains me to think of him in this way, but after this morning, I feel like I can finally see.
The door to his office is open. Peeking inside, I find it completely empty. So much for planning… Slipping through the door, I take my time, walking by The Boss’s desk looking for anything useful. Nothing. His desk is clean. I leave it alone.
Unlike The Boss’s desk, I dig into my father’s. I can come up with some plausible excuse if I’m caught, but nothing could explain my snooping through The Boss’s things.
I read paper after paper; nothing makes sense out of context. I frequently glance at the door, knowing the longer I’m in here, the more likely I’ll get caught. In the bottom drawer, I find a stack of letters, addressed to my father. The envelopes only have his name written in tall slanted cursive; no return address. It’s while reading these that I discover my world, everything I know, is a part of one big chess board. Suddenly, I begin to understand how a few pieces of the puzzle fit. What does it all mean? I don’t know, but this is not the kind of thing I thought I would find. This is game changing information.
I begin putting everything back the way I found it. I can’t afford to alert my father or The Boss to my presence or new found knowledge. Putting the letters back in their place, I change my mind and take them. I have read some of them, but Izzy needs to read them all. She knows more about this stuff than I do. She can identify the important information in the letters and maybe understand what I can’t decipher. Either way for something this big, proof is required.
Stuffing the letters under my shirt, I slip from the office unnoticed. As far as anyone knows, I was never here. Not bad for my first day as the unofficial spy/assistant of the G.O.S.
Back in my room, I hide the letters in the bottom drawer of my vanity, beneath the embroidered handkerchiefs I’ve never used.
Now I only need to find something else to keep my mind occupied for the rest of the day… otherwise, I might break down again.
Chapter 28
DARICK
“If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”
-Khalil Gibran
~~~
Having just woken up from a long nap after bathing and changing clothes, I feel much better. Cook put together a nice meal for me, making up for the meals I had to skip or eat in a hurry these last few days. It was nice to just sit and enjoy it.
Now my minds clear and I’m ready to get my meeting with Daytin underway. Our meetings are always so easy. Since he’s the supervisor of security for the front entrance of The Boss’s house, there is no need to hide my meetings with him. It only makes sense we would regularly communicate because I’m his boss. Our meetings take place in a variety of locations, but this morning we meet in a small conference room at the front of the house where I usually meet with other security personnel.
It’s mid-afternoon and I wait eagerly for Daytin to arrive, wanting any news on Izabel he might have. I left her this morning in a bad way. I’m not sure what I was doing. It probably didn’t help that I approached the situation while running on empty.
I wasn’t thinking, just reacting and Izabel paid the price for my anger.
Before the party yesterday, I felt like she and I were separated by a deep emotional ditch and then last night she let me in. It was the first time in a long time and it felt so goo
d to be the one to comfort her. The bridge I had imagined we’d built doesn’t exist. It was probably all in my head anyway. But now, instead of a ditch, I’m faced with a wall; a really thick one. One I built when I threw my accusations.
Daytin walks in looking tired. He just finished his shift. Unceremoniously, he heaves himself into a chair. Outside of a very brief conversation a few days ago, we haven’t spoken about anything resistance related in about a week.
I slide a cup of water his way and give him a moment to gulp it down before beginning. “So what do you have for me?”
“I have a lot for you today sir. Not really sure where to start though.”
“Let’s start with Izabel first.”
“That’s the thing. It all has to do with Izabel.” I raise my eyebrow at this. It’s really rare for me to receive anything more than the usual about Izabel. In fact, I’m not sure if anything has ever been out of the ordinary with Izabel.
“Okay, start from the beginning.”
He tells me everything he knows, starting with the information Samuel was able to gather from Margery. All of which I’ve heard from Susan but haven’t had time to follow up on. What he found on Daniau is interesting but irrelevant in terms of Izabel. As far as Daytin could gather, Daniau was the first person ever killed by the Girl of Shadow. How Izabel is connected - he doesn’t know. There’s no possible way she could know the Girl of Shadow since she hardly goes out and never unsupervised. It’s possible she just heard about it from her father since it was never put in the paper. I push the information aside as unimportant and wait to hear what else he has found.
He moves along to tell me about Margery’s spying this morning. Feeling uncomfortable, I shift around a bit in my chair. By the time he’s done describing what he was told, I’m barely able to keep a check on my anger. Although I know my anger is displaced, I hate knowing someone else, especially Margery, was privy to that conversation. I have to tell myself over and over again she was just doing her job.