Chapter 35

2nd October 2015: 1:12 am.

I didn’t want to go inside, not without Ted. I had to talk to him first, before he saw exactly what we had done. He would judge me and get the wrong idea, and I had come so far to make sure that the plan came together. I had to make him see that everything was going to be alright before we saw Zhang. I was worried that Zhang had gone off the rails. Zhang was a man of few words and he was calling me every minute. I had to put my phone on vibration otherwise he would know that I was standing outside, too scared to enter. I’d even parked my car down in the woods and walked down here.

Luckily, I had a change of clothes in the car, so I put on my leggings and trainers to meet him. It was late and I had come straight from the office. My coat had managed to keep away some of the cold, but with the trees and the creeks underneath my feet, the whole place felt creepy and I couldn’t wait for him to arrive. I needed Ted to know that I was stable, that my love for him was true and nothing was going to change that. I was so relieved when I saw his car pull up. I knew that he was on his way. He wouldn’t lie about that, but I was still worried that maybe, just maybe, he would think twice about coming here especially this time of night. As soon as he turned off the ignition, as quiet as a mouse I crept to the side of the car.

“Ted,” I whispered. My feet were a bit frozen I wasn’t sure how long I had been standing there. I’d left everything in the car. I knew that the morning sun would rise around eight and then we would put our plan into action. Everything was going to be okay, there was no reason for it not to be as long as Ted saw sense and didn’t do anything stupid.

Before he opened the door, I saw the guy at the office in his car. Ted just jumped up as if he had seen a ghost when he turned to see me knocking on the window.

He rolled down the window. “Li, what the fuck are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”

That was a stupid question, seeing as I was the one that had called and told him where to meet me exactly.

“I gave you the direction. I was waiting for you,” I explained, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

He nodded. “I know, but why not inside? Why were you stalking the car hanging outside in the woods in the dark?”

“Can we just discuss this inside?” the guy asked, and then Ted rolled up the window. He grabbed something from inside the car before stepping out. My attention turned to the left where the guy from the office had appeared by the edge of the car. He used his phone, or maybe he had a torch, to look me up and down.

“What is he doing here?” My head tilted towards the guy as I used my phone to see the reaction of Ted as he came out of the car. “You never said that you were bringing a friend?”

I was nervous about this guy’s presence. He was the type that said nothing, but had everything on his mind.

Today I felt drained as if every last piece of energy that was in me had been sucked out, and the person that had done that was behind bars. Ted had brought someone. This guy. Which meant that he was suspicious, which wasn’t good news.

“Why did you tell Ted to meet you here?” the guy asked; I was trying to remember his name. It was something simple, yet forgettable.

I ignored him as I hugged Ted, “You took so long. I thought that you weren’t coming.”

“Where’s Elizabeth?”

“And Barbara?” his friend spat out as if he knew exactly what was going on. I tried to act innocent as I said, “Barbara? Why the hell would I know?”

Ted pulled me back and said, “Stop playing games. Where’s Barbara?”

They knew!

Shit!

His friend grabbed ahold of my hand, “You better start talking bitch if you want to live another day.”

I was scared, his grip was so tight.

I begged for mercy, “Ted, why are you letting him talk to me like this?”

The guy let go of my hand as I saw Ted’s eyes just narrow down on me. I rubbed my wrist as he said, “We’re wasting our time. We need to get inside. He must be in there with her.”

They had it all figured out, so I didn’t need to pretend. There was no reason to act innocent anymore. I didn’t have time to react as they both started heading towards the front door.

“Just remember I did this for you!” I said as I ran after them. Ted held on to the frail wooden door before he opened it with the guy by his side and me behind them. I wanted to speak, warn them about what could be inside, but it was too late as the dim light that shone above it made his expression very clear to me. He wasn’t happy, “No, Li, you did this for yourself.” Then he opened the door and I knew that everything was about to change.