Chapter 56: I’ll Protect You! - part 2

I stopped in the middle of the hallway, holding my breath.

Adam froze too.

Abraham’s office.

My stomach dropped. They hadn’t broken in by accident. This wasn’t some random robbery. No one broke into a mansion that size shouting for people to search if all they wanted was to steal a TV and some silverware.

“Come on,” I whispered, pulling Adam with me.

We reached Abby’s room, and the door was closed.

I turned the handle slowly, stepped inside, and felt my heart stop when I saw the empty bed.

“Abby?” I called in a whisper. “Little one?”

Nothing.

My chest tightened so much it almost hurt.

“Abby?” Adam called, his voice breaking.

A tiny sob answered from under the bed.

I dropped to my knees immediately and lifted the bedspread. Abby was curled up underneath, clutching a stuffed unicorn, her eyes full of tears, her little mouth trembling, her messy blond hair stuck to her face.

“Celeste…” she whimpered.

“Shhh, sweetheart. Come here. Come to Celeste.”

She crawled out and threw herself into my lap so hard I almost fell back onto my butt. I hugged that tiny body, feeling her sob against my neck.

“I’m scared…”

“I know, my angel. I’m scared too, but we’re going to be okay.”

Adam looked at me. He knew I was lying just enough to keep Abby breathing.

“Where’s Daddy?” Abby asked, crying softly. “I want Daddy.”

My chest hurt.

“He’s coming.” I ran my hand over her hair. “But right now, you need to be very quiet for me, okay? Quiet like a princess hiding from a dragon.”

“I don’t like dragons.”

“Then like a ninja unicorn.”

She sniffled, too confused to argue.

“Okay.”

I picked Abby up with some effort because my legs were still shaking, and held Adam’s hand with the other. We left the room slowly, but now the noise from downstairs sounded closer. Doors slammed, drawers were yanked open, something made of glass shattered into pieces.

“The children are the priority!” a man shouted, making Adam flinch.

The beautiful mansion now looked like a dark maze ready to swallow us whole, but I couldn’t let it. I would not let them get near the children.

I needed to think.

I needed to hide the kids.

Brenda.

Her room was farther down, in the same hallway. If I could get there, maybe we could lock the door, maybe we could call the police, maybe Abraham had already alerted someone, maybe the guards were on their way.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Great, Celeste. Now you’ve turned into a maybe machine while people are breaking into the house.

I went to Brenda’s room and knocked lightly.

Nothing.

I knocked again, harder.

“Brenda,” I whispered. “It’s me. Open up.”

The door was yanked open.

Brenda appeared with her hair completely wild, eyes wide, and a lamp in her hand, raised like some medieval sword.

“Celeste! What the fuck is going on?” she whispered so low I almost didn’t hear her.

“Kids, get inside, quickly!”

I pushed Adam in first, then stepped in with Abby in my arms and closed the door behind me. Brenda looked at the children, then at me, then at the nightgown, then at the hallway.

“There are people in the house? They’re breaking in? Do you think they just want to rob the place?” she asked, her voice already almost out of breath.

I nodded.

“Downstairs. I heard glass breaking, voices. They’re looking for… something.” But when I said it, I looked at the children, making it clear what I had heard in the hallway without repeating it and scaring them even more.

“My God. My God!” Brenda brought her free hand to her mouth, still holding the lamp. “The police? Did you call the police?”

“The call with Abraham dropped. My phone has no internet, the messages aren’t going through, and there’s no signal either.”

“You couldn’t call the police?”

“Did you not hear me?!”

Abby started crying harder, and Adam tried to hold his sister by the shoulder, even though he was pale with fear.

“Don’t cry, Abby. Stay quiet.”

His maturity made me want to fall apart.

But I couldn’t.

Not now.

I handed Abby to Brenda.

“Stay with them.”

Brenda blinked.

“What?”

“Stay with them. Hide both of them in the closet, lock the door, and don’t open it for anything.”

“Celeste, no.”

“Brenda…”

“No!” she whispered, desperate, grabbing my arm. “You’re not leaving. Are you insane? There are men breaking into the house! The police must already be coming, the guards, I don’t know, your boss’s masked Batman! You are not going out into that hallway in a nightgown to play heroine!”

“If they come upstairs and search room by room, they’ll find you.”

“Then we hide together!”

“There won’t be time.”

“Celeste!”

Her voice shook.

I looked at Abby, crying softly against Brenda’s chest. I looked at Adam, who was trying to be strong but had tears filling his eyes.

My heart broke into so many pieces I don’t even know how I stayed standing.

“I’m going to buy you time.”

“No,” Adam said immediately. “You’re not! You can’t go!”

His voice came out low, but firm.

“Adam…”

“You said you were going to protect us, so stay here.”

Those words almost knocked me down. I knelt in front of him and held his face with both hands.

“I am going to protect you. That’s why I have to go.”

“They might hurt you…” he whispered.

I smiled, even with my throat burning.

“Hey, I’m Abby’s heroine, remember? Heroines aren’t very good at staying quiet in closets.”

Abby let out a loud sob.

“Don’t go, Celeste…”

My God.

I wanted to stay.

I wanted to crawl into that closet with them, cover my ears, close my eyes, and wait for Abraham to show up with that terrifying balaclava and a gun in his hand, destroying everyone.

I wanted that so much.

But if those men reached this room and found the children, I would never forgive myself.

Never.

I held Abby’s face too and kissed her forehead.

“Stay quiet with Brenda. Like a ninja unicorn, okay?”

“I don’t want to be a ninja unicorn,” she cried.

“Just today. Tomorrow you can be a princess again.”

She grabbed my hand.

“Promise you’ll come back?”

The air disappeared from my lungs.

“I promise.”

A lie.

Or maybe not.

I was going to try.

Brenda looked at me with eyes full of tears and rage.

“I hate this idea.”

“Me too.”

“If you die, I’ll kill you.”

I almost laughed. Almost.

“Fair.”

She pulled the children toward the huge closet in the bedroom. Adam went in first, still looking at me as if I were betraying something. Abby went next, clutching the unicorn, trembling.

Brenda grabbed her phone.

“I’m going to try calling the police if this shitty signal comes back…”

“Don’t talk loud.”

“I know, fuck.”

She stepped partially into the closet, settling the children in the back, behind some suitcases and blankets. Then she came back to me.

“Celeste…”

“Lock the door after I leave.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I know.”

“This is insane.”

“I know.”

For a second, we stared at each other. My best friend, wild-haired, shaking, holding a lamp as a weapon. Me, in a nightgown, barefoot, my heart in my mouth and a courage I had no idea where I’d gotten from.

Then she hugged me.

Fast.

Hard.

“Come back, please."