103. Mae

Four days now and there was nothing about Lade on the news yet. Beats me that no one knew he was dead yet. Did they even know he was missing?

Leo hasn't been around a lot since that day. The most I've seen of him is his walking out the tall doors at the entrance of the mansion.

I've been wanting to talk to him about when I could finally leave. Now that Lade was dead, I didn't have to be here anymore.

I went up to Leo's favorite place in the mansion, the balcony with the view. It was night and the city looked beautiful as hell from where I stood.

Soon, I would be out of here and back to my old life... a life I'm not sure I have anymore. Nina might never trust me again and the FIA may not be so willing to take me back.

"Perfect, I have more than one beauty to behold by coming up here." Leo crept up behind me, giving me a little jump scare but I made sure not to show it.

"You're here, finally," I smiled, happy to see him without Pete or some other assistant around him telling him when the next meeting was and all of that.

"You missed me?" I refrained from rolling my eyes at his question.

"I want to go."

"Go where?"

"Outside, to the city."

"You are in the city."

"No, I mean outside these walls. You said I could go if I kill Lade right? Lade is dead, so I can leave now."

"Yes, I did. I told you that you could leave if you killed Lade, but did you?"

"What?" What was he insinuating?

"Did you kill Lade, Miss Yrote?"

"..." Oh shit. I didn't. I didn't kill Lade. "Leo..."

"You didn't kill him, I did."

"If you didn't come, I would have..."

"No, you wouldn't have."

I stood still, all my excitement of finally leaving and going far from him gone. I lifted my eyes to meet his staring, probably waiting to see my reaction. But I had nothing else to say. I couldn't even decide if I was pissed at what he just let me know or not.

I decided to leave. I decided to walk away from him because my fucking hormones thought this was the right time to fuck with my wantings. The silence between us after his last words brought this tension... not in a bad way, and not in a good way.

I took my step, wanting to leave his presence but he pulled me back with just the grip of my arm. And there it was, my anger that was lost. It came back after he pulled me back to himself.

"Leave if you want to, no one will stop you."

"Fucking asshole!" I yelled at him after he spoke but wanted to bite my tongue when I realized he didn't say what I expected him to say to warrant my insult.

He let go of me and went down the stairs. I would be concerned about his decision to let me go because it was surprising but nonetheless, I was glad to finally leave.

***

Morning, the next day.

I opened the cabinet where I had left my important things like my locket necklace and Leo's ring. Leo's ring? It's here again, I thought it was taken from here before and I never got the chance to tell him it was missing, thankfully.

Taking the ring, I looked at the room one last time before leaving it and closing the door behind me. I was going to meet Leo in his study or chamber, wherever he was, so I could give his ring back to him.

I was knocking on his study's door when Pete came by. "He's at the company," he said to me dryly and walked into the study before shutting the door in my face.

I sighed and knocked again and waited for Pete to open the door. When he did, I gave Leo's ring to him.

"His. Return it to me when he's back. Thanks."

I saw a car waiting when I got to the door leading out. "Sir Vance ordered I take you wherever you want to go."

***

Sitting in the back of the car alone, a thought hit me. Leo wanted Lade to be humiliated before he died so when my killing him didn't work out well, he opted for using Lade's trusted aid to make him know what betrayal felt like.

The car stopped right in front of Nina's place and got down. I made sure my face cap covered my face well enough before I rang the doorbell.

The door was answered and Nina's little daughter was the one who opened it. "Mum! Someone's here for you!" She announced, not recognizing me.

I took off my face cap and smiled at her. "Aunt!" She jumped on me with a hug when she saw that it was me.

"How many times did I warn you not to open the door without letting me know first?!" Nina scolded her daughter, making her get off of me.

After that, Nina just stood and looked at me, no words at first, and then she asked me to come in. Only after she had closed the door did she hug me tight.

I hugged her back and it lasted for a while till she asked, "You escaped again?"

"No."

"He let you go?"

"Yeah," I nodded nervously. I didn't expect she would forgive me after the last time.

"What about the FIA?"

"I don't know yet. They've probably stopped searching for me. Have they?" I turned my statement into a question.

"I don't know. You could just stay without going out for a while and see..."

"Sorry, I put you in trouble last time."

"Yeah, that's true, I said I wasn't going to ever speak to you again," Nina remembered and made me worried for a second till she laughed.