Chapter 156 Beautiful Cage
“Don’t touch that,” Allison snapped, smacking Eden’s hand away from the expensive-looking vase at the end of the hallway.
Eden, seventeen and clearly on the verge of a breakdown after being locked inside this strange mansion for over a week, whipped around and glared at her older sister.
“What was that for? I wasn’t going to break it!” Eden snapped, rubbing the back of her hand.
Allison crossed her arms, eyes narrowed. “I don’t care if you were or not. Don’t touch anything. Everything in this place looks expensive enough to pay our rent for ten years. The last thing we need is to owe these people money on top of whatever the hell is going on.”
Eden rolled her eyes again, harder this time. “You’re such a control freak. Why don’t you go bother Ryan instead of breathing down my neck every five minutes?”
“Don’t you dare roll your eyes at me,” Allison warned.
“And what if I do?” Eden shot back, voice rising. “You’re not Mom. Stop acting like you run everything!”
“Enough,” Janette Foster’s tired but firm voice cut through the hallway.
Both girls fell silent.
Their mother stood at the entrance to the living room, arms crossed, looking exhausted but still trying to hold everything together. She was the only parent they had ever known — a single mother who had raised five children on minimum-wage jobs and sheer willpower.
“Both of you, stop,” Janette said, voice steady despite the weariness in her eyes. “Arguing and panicking is not going to get us anywhere. We’ve been here over a week and we still don’t know why. Fighting each other won’t change that.”
Allison let out a frustrated breath and leaned against the wall. “Mom, we don’t even know where Leroy is. The last time we spoke to him he said he was going to meet Avery’s parents to ask for permission to date her properly. That was almost a month ago. Nothing since then. No call, no text. And now Mathew is missing too? He was supposed to be at college.”
Janette’s face tightened with pain, but she kept her voice calm. “I know, baby. I’m scared too. But yelling at each other isn’t helping. We have no phones, no way to contact anyone, and those men made it very clear we’re not leaving. We just have to wait and see what they want.”
Eden threw her hands up. “Wait? We’ve been waiting! They dragged us out of our house, threw our phones out the window, and shoved us into a car like we were criminals. What if this is like one of those twisted game shows? You know, where they take random families and make them fight or do crazy things to survive? Maybe we have to kill each other or something to leave.”
Ryan, who had been quietly sitting on the stairs listening, shivered visibly, his eyes wide with fear. “What? Like… kill each other? Eden, don’t say that.”
Allison shot Eden a look. “Don’t scare him like that. I don’t think that’s it. It’s been more than a week. They’ve been feeding us good food, giving us nice rooms, even letting us watch TV and swim in the pool. If they wanted us to fight or kill each other, they would have started by now.”
“But none of it makes sense!” Eden’s voice cracked with frustration and fear. “We’re poor. We don’t have enemies. We barely have enough to eat most months. Why would anyone kidnap us? Unless… unless something happened to Leroy and Avery. What if Charles Hale did something to them? He never liked Leroy. What if he’s using us to—”
“Eden, stop,” Janette cut in gently but sharply, stepping closer to pull her youngest daughter into a side hug. “We can’t afford to think the worst right now. We have to stay strong for each other. Leroy is smart. Mathew is smart. They’ll find a way to reach us or the police will figure this out. Until then, we stay together and we don’t give these people any reason to change how they’re treating us.”
Ryan hugged his knees to his chest on the stairs. “Mom… what if they never let us go? What if this is our new home forever?”
The question hung heavy in the air. No one had an answer.
Allison rubbed her temples, the memory of her own recent heartbreak making everything feel even heavier. “I just want to know why. One minute we’re at home arguing about dinner, the next we’re here. No explanation. Nothing.”
Janette looked at each of her children, her heart aching for them. She forced a small, tired smile.
“We keep hoping. And we stay together. That’s all we can do right now.”
The sound of footsteps approaching from the main hallway made all of them tense. A tall, suited man appeared — one of the silent guards who brought their meals and made sure they stayed inside the main areas.
He stopped a respectful distance away.
“Mrs. Foster,” he said politely. “Your guests will be arriving shortly. Please make sure everyone is presentable. They’re coming to see you.”
Janette’s eyes widened slightly. “Guests? Who—”
But the man had already turned and walked away without giving more information.
The family exchanged nervous glances.
Eden whispered, “What if it’s the people who took us? What if they finally tell us what they want?”
Allison swallowed hard. “Or what if it’s bad news about Leroy…”
Janette pulled her children closer, trying to hide the tremble in her own hands.
“We’ll face it together,” she said quietly. “No matter what.”
She walked over and pulled Ryan into a hug. “So no more fighting or touching things that don’t belong to us. We stay calm and we survive this. Okay?”
Eden and Allison exchanged a reluctant glance, then both nodded.
But deep down, the fear remained.
They were trapped in a beautiful cage, with no idea who had locked the door… or why.