0034

0034
  “If you don’t let me out this instant…”
    “Ma’am, please, you’re making this harder for yourself.”
    I spun around so quickly, I nearly bumped heads with Lucy.
    I had been trying to go see my mom at the hospital, but they wouldn’t let me leave the house. What the hell?
    “So I can’t leave this place? On whose orders? Oh, let me guess… Alex?” I asked, sarcasm dripping from my voice as anger bubbled up inside me.
    Who does he think he is? After everything, they’ve locked me in the same place where someone tried to kill me, and now I can’t even step outside?
    “Boss gave us strict instructions not to let you leave the house. Orbot isn’t around at the moment, so you’ll have to stay inside,” one of the guards said stiffly. “We’re sorry, ma’am. We’re just doing our job. We don’t want Boss to get angry.”
    With eyes blazing i focused on lucy. “can you see this?” I asked in disbelief.
    She kept her head bowed. “Ma’am, I seriously can’t do anything about it.”
    My voice cracked with accusation as I pointed at her. “Is that why Alex brought you back? So you could spy on me? Report everything I do back to him?”
    She showed up right after I got drugged, and now she was everywhere hovering.
    “What do you expect me to think?” I pressed.
    “Ma’am, please,” she pleaded. “Mr. Blackwood just wants what’s best for you.”
    I let out a dry laugh. “Oh really? Isn’t he the one who should be watching his back? He’s the one all over the news, not me If anything, I should be the one hiding from him.”
    “Ma’am, you’re still very much associated with Mr. Blackwood,” she reminded me gently. “Would you like to go upstairs? Or maybe take a walk in the garden?”
    I glanced down at my soft floral dress I’d planned to wear to the hospital to see my mother.
    “I don’t want to,” I said flatly. “I’d very much like to be in my room.”
    I brushed past her, my anger barely contained, stomping up the stairs. Once inside, I slammed the door shut behind me.
    In the dressing room, I sat at the vanity and grabbed a makeup wipe, furiously scrubbing the red lipstick off my lips. I was livid. I’d been locked inside this house for weeks bedridden. I needed air. I needed my mother.
    Grabbing my phone off the vanity, I called the hospital again.
    The same nurse picked up, her voice chipper. “Hello?”
    “Hi, it’s Mrs. Blackwood. I called yesterday.”
    “Oh yes, ma’am. One moment, please.” She placed me on hold.
    As the hold music played, I stared at my reflection in the mirror noting how dull my the skin around my eyes looked. I didn’t recognize myself.
    “Hello, ma’am? Are you still there?”
    “Yes,” I answered quickly. “Is my mom available to speak now?”
    A pause.
    “No, ma’am. She doesn’t want to take your call.”
    My heart dropped. “Are you sure?”
    “Yes, ma’am. She was very clear. I’m sorry.”
    The line went dead before I could utter a single word.
    I sat frozen, the phone slipping from my grasp and landing with a soft thud on the plush, rugged floor of the dressing room.
   She doesn’t want to see me.
   She’s angry at me.
    The thought echoed through my skull, loud and unforgiving. My eyes stayed glued to the vanity mirror, staring at the reflection that didn’t look like mine anymore.
    Lucy had styled my curls that afternoon, but now I raked my fingers through them, tearing the neatness apart in frustrated defiance.
    Deciding for the hundredth time that it was best to lie down, I walked slowly back into my room.
    A tray of orange juice sat quietly on my nightstand.
    No doubt Lucy had crept in while I was in the dressing room and left it there.
    With a sigh, I sat on my plush bed and looked out the window, just in time to see a small bird fly over and perch itself on the sill.
    It kept making these high-pitched, repetitive sounds that nature addicts love to record and romanticize but to me, it only triggered a pounding headache.
    “Shoo, shoo,” I muttered, standing up and walking over. The tiny creature didn’t budge. It just shook its little blue feathers and chirped louder, like it knew it was annoying me.
    “Why you little—” I paused mid-rant as something else caught my attention.
    There was a crack at the edge of the window frame barely noticeable, tucked in the corner I rarely looked at. But I was sure as hell that crack hadn’t been there before. Or had it?
    The damn bird, as if sensing my shift in focus, finally flapped away, but I was no longer interested in it.
    What had caught my eye through that crack had all my attention now.
    I turned to my dresser, rummaging through the drawers until I found what I needed and that was a needle.
    Crossing back to the window, I slipped the needle into the gap and began fishing something out. A strip of dark fabric peeked through the narrow space. As I dragged it further out, it clung stubbornly, but I kept pulling until I could use my hands.
    It wasn’t black, not up close.
    It was… dark red.
    A T-shirt?
    I lifted it to my nose, hoping for a clue but the second the scent hit me, I recoiled and dropped it instantly.
    It smelled like rot.
    “It’s blood,” one of the guards said quietly.
    I shook my head in disbelief. After my misfortune of sniffing that foul shirt, i had ran down to alert the guards as they followed me back up to my room.
    There were three of them in my room now as one crouched near the cracked window, using a flashlight to peer through it. Another stood beside the crouching guard, carefully dropping the foul-smelling T-shirt into a transparent leather bag.
    The third lingered near the door, like he was expecting something or someone to appear as he stroked his red beard gently.
    My room looked like the beginning of a crime scene… minus the yellow tapes.
    “Good heavens,” Lucy whispered as she stepped into my room, her eyes widening in horror.
    “Is that shirt really blood soaked?” she asked, though it seemed directed more at the air than anyone in particular.
    The red-bearded guard gave her a solemn nod.
    Lucy staggered back a little before dropping to her knees, arms crossed tightly over her chest like she was trying to hold herself together. Her face was pale with shock.
    I couldn’t bear it anymore i walked into my dressing room closing the door behind me as i picked up my phone from the floor.
    Glancing at the black card with the name “matin muir” inscribed on it, i exhaled as i typed in the digits on the card into my phone.
    Within minutes the call went through.
    “Hello?” I heard the unmistakable voice of my father through the end of the line
    “It’s isla….
    “Oh isla my darling are you feeling we…
    I cut him through as i spoke
    “Im calling about your offer… the one ...”
    “Oh yes yes..” he interrupted me halfway 
    “Have you finally agreed to come to your senses and enjoy whats rightfully yours” he asked playfully from the other end as i sighed.
    This was a thought decision for me but it was the right thing to do.
    “Yes… I accept your offer I’ll let you provide for me but that doesn’t mean im letting you into my life”
    “That’s fine by me when am i coming to pick you?”
    Ok that question rendered me speechless for sometime. I didn’t want to leave alex but i didn’t want to stay here either. I was scared.
    “Tomorrow…. Come tomorrow “