Chapter 38 : Rosella...

Part 5

*“Go Rose, run, get out of here!”

The first words from my parents when I remove the tapes. I walk around to stand in front of them with a frown. Take in their tear stained faces in confusion and concern.

“What? Why?” I ask, baffled.

“Get out of here, Rose. Now!” Dad insists, urgently.

“But why, dad? Who did this to you? Are you both okay? Why are you worried about me? And why were you both bound like that!? What the hell was that robotic guard doing when all this happened!?” I grab my purse and take out my phone. “I'm calling the police right now.”

But before I can dial in the number, dad snatches it out of my hand and pulls me down to his eye level. “Listen to me, Rose. I didn't call you in the morning. I was forced to do so. I was never going to call you, believe me.”

His words feel like a slap to my face, my cheeks burn without the real impact. I stare at his desperate face in shock. He still doesn't want me.

“But know that I love you. We both love you so much.” Dad wraps me in a tight hug as well as my mom and I gasp in surprise. What…? Confusion clouds my relief at their admittance.

“There's a reason why we were keeping you away from us, Rose. A reason we can't tell you but it was the only way to keep you safe from them. We were running out of options as you grew up, so we had to send you away. We were worried that they'd find out about you.” He wipes his nose on his sleeve and looks at me with pained and fearful eyes.

“Just know that I'm really sorry, 'cause I couldn't keep you safe. What I had feared the most has happened, they have figured it all out and they visited me yesterday. They had forced me to call you this morning, to get you back here so that they can take you away. I managed to somehow get them out of here but we don't have much time. I can't tell you more than this, it'll only get you in more trouble. Just trust me and leave. Don't go back to Nana. Disappear. Book the nearest flight right now and get out of the country. Go anywhere and lay low.” He sobs in my neck one last time before finishing his sentence. “Never come back to us. Never.”

“Why?” I ask, my voice desperate and weak. Tears have already joined in my misery. “What is it you're afraid of? Who are they? Why would they take me? Can't the police help us?”

“We can't tell you, honey. It's for your own good. Police are with them.” Mom responds to dad when he continues to sob in my arms.

“Mom!” I cry out and turn my head in her direction.

“Go, honey. Just leave. Don't look back and never let anyone find you.”

“But—”

“No, Don't. Run, they'll be back soon. And remember not to use your real name. Always go by a fake identity.”

I stare at my mother with rolling emotions. She has always been the stronger between dad and her. Whenever dad would fall apart, she would piece him back together.

I smile, my chin trembling. I'm so proud of my mother. I can't fathom just how much I love her.

Dad pulls away from me with a deep breath and stumbles up to his feet. I get up with mom and stare at both of them through loving eyes, wiping the tears when my vision gets blurry.

“I don't know why you both want me to disappear or from whom you're trying to save me. But if this is what you want then I'll go.” I hug my parents then grab my bag. “I would have never come back if I knew what was going on here but I'm glad for one thing, I now know how much you both love me. Please stay safe, for my sake.”

I walk over to the door and pause before stepping out of the threshold to see their devastated faces one last time.

“I love you both. Nana misses you both too.” They give me a wry smile.

“Sneak out from the back door. The guard who is downstairs, I've not hired him. I trust electronics more than humans.”

He hasn't changed.

I smile wistfully and with a quick nod, I turn on my heels and disappear.

~

“Let me up! Mom! Dad! Help me. Get these men off of me!” I struggle in their unforgiving grasps while trying to look at my parents who are still sitting on that damned couch.

Why aren't they doing anything? Can't they see what these people are doing with me? “Dad!?”

“Shut up, girl! They no longer have a say in what I do with you.”

It all happens too fast. The elderly man raises his hand and slaps me before I can protest or brace myself. My face wipes to the side, evoking a thousand emotions which rise and fall inside my chest like tidal waves, a million questions threaten to crack me open from within.

“Rose.” I tilt my head back to look up at my dad through shocked eyes, who's standing over me with an unreadable expression on his face. I'm still going through the aftershocks of the slap and I don't think I'm capable of processing anything at the moment but I want to know what my father has to say.

“When I had told you to disappear, you did. If I tell you to give up fighting and go along with Mr. de Lucas without any protests, will you do that? For me?”

This is what he had to say!? Just how many more times am I going to have my trust crushed by my own parents!?

“Why would you tell me to do that, dad?” I ask, my voice cracking at the end. “Why!?”

“Because I don't want to see you get hurt, honey.” I flinch away when dad uses that endearment. I've started to loath that endearment now.

He kneels in front of me, a pained look in his eyes and tugs the escaped tendrils of my hair behind my ear before cupping my cheeks and staring deep into my eyes. “You are so beautiful, even more than your mother, Rose. I don't want to let you go but if I didn't hand you over to him...” Dad pauses, looks away then meets my eyes again, his eyes filled with remorse now. “Then he'll take away Caroline and I'm ready to let you go but not her.”

What!?

“Why? What have you done to him that he's going to make you pay by taking someone from you? Three years ago, you had told me to run and hide from these people only, hadn't you? ” My voice is frantic now.

If what I'm thinking is right then I've made the biggest mistake of my life by coming back to my apartment.

“It's not my fault, honey. You were born to be given away, Rose. I tried to keep you out of this but I should have known, this was inevitable. You're the first female in centuries that has taken birth in the Danforth family. It's the way it is. From now on, there's only one purpose of your life, pay the debt for your great grandfather's sins by giving up yourself for the first heir of the Lucas' family.”

“What are you saying, dad? I don't understand. Hear yourself, do you make any sense? How could you just hand me over and ask me to give myself to a stranger? And even if your intentions were to just give me up then why did you ever tell me to disappear years ago?” I'm crying now.

Nothing makes sense. I'm the first female in centuries…. What the hell does that mean? And what kind of payment is this? Why are we even wasting our time on this rubbish? Is there even any proof of this bloody debt? Screw my great grandfather! I'm not going anywhere.

“You don't need to understand anything, honey. Just know that you don't have a life of your own any longer. I've let you live as much as I could but now, it's time. Time for you to pay your great grandfather's debt.” He straightens up to his full length. “Take her and end this here. I want her to be the last one.”

“Alright. Roma, bring me the suitcase.”

“Dad! Dad! You're just going to hand me over to him? You're going to let him take your daughter away? How can you even trust him? Anyone will just come up and say you have a debt to pay and the payment is one of your family members, you'll just hand them over? Without digging out the truth? What if he's lying?” I try to reason with dad while my tears fall down on the floor. I'm panting now but my tears aren't running out.

Please Lord… Let this be a nightmare, just like the other ones I'm used to having.

I stare up at dad with pleading eyes.

Dad looks at me coldly, the remorse totally gone from his eyes, replaced by annoyance. “I know you're trying to manipulate me otherwise, Rose but let me tell you one thing, he has got the legal paperwork to prove the debt. It's out of my hand now.”

I must be dreaming. This has to be a nightmare. I want to wake up. This is the most terrifying dream I've ever had in my lifetime.

My whole world is falling apart around me but I still can't grasp it. I don't believe it, I can't believe it, I will not believe it. My parents can't just hand me over like I'm a piece of property. They just can't!

I turn my head to stare at my mom, desperate in my pleads. “Mom, why aren't you stopping dad from doing this? He's going to just let these people take me! Stop him!”

“I can't help you honey. They'll take me if you'll not go with them. Do you want them to take me instead?” Her response shocks me to my core. How could she even think like that...!? We can fight together. Why do we have to let anyone be taken away?

Slowly, when I don't get the response I want, my shock starts transforming into rage as I keep staring at her beautiful face.

“That's the reason why…? I see.” I say through gritted teeth. “And it's okay if they take me away, right?”

My voice is as sharp as a knife, cutting through her bullshit. They simply had a choice between themselves and me. As evident, they chose themselves over me. They don't think I'm worth the fight.

My mom averts her eyes and concentrates on her cup of coffee.

I used to think that she's the bravest woman in this world, but looking at her right now, I think that she's the biggest coward. She can't even look me in the eye! I don't even want to remember the reason why I'd been so proud of her. Why I loved her.

But really, I don't know why I'm so surprised. I should have known something like this would happen. Nothing remains stable in my life, ever. The more I run for finding peace, the more my fate drags me back to the chaos.

My own parents don't want me, not enough to fight for me. They never wanted me, just used me as they saw fit. I'm nothing more than a piece of property for them.

All the fighting and protests, disbelief and betrayal, leaves me hollow from inside out.

Suffering is written in my fate, I'll be paying for someone else's debt now. Could I've been assigned to a worse fate? At the moment, I don't think so.

I watch with defeated eyes as my parents sign some documents and leave me alone with the elderly man to do as he pleases.

My parents have just handed me over.

My whole world has fallen apart in front of my wide open eyes.

I've lost everything in a matter of seconds.

My mind wanders back to the restaurant. I should have stayed with Jonathan, accepted his proposal. I would have been in his arms right now, safe and secure.

If only I had shown some courage and set aside all of my baggage for a second, I might have not been here.

Oh God! What have I done? And what am I supposed to do now?

Should I fight? What will that get me?

I struggle in the men's hold one last time before they can shove me out of my apartment. I don't get away from them but yes, I get a hard blow in my gut.

This is what I'll get for fighting, Pain so… I give up.*

~

One thing I will never get used to is being kept in the dark.

I spent my entire childhood yearning for the love of those parents who weren't mine. My teenage years were wasted in running from an inevitable and inescapable destiny, as it was already set by my so called "parents".

It was all so exquisitely planned and executed. I fell into that monster's trap so easily.

After my intentional kidnapping, I spent the rest of my time in his captivity with the hope that I'd escape one day and pull off the blindfold that Balthazar had wrapped around their eyes.

But that hope was taken away from me as well.

I didn't just lose hope; I lost everything.

But…

Somebody wasn't ready to lose me.

And now that I've found a new reason to live for…

I have every intention to not lose it again.