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My flight response fully takes over when Owen stops speaking. I can’t breathe. The room is starting to spin. I make a lame excuse about making an important phone call — which may have sounded rude to him because his daughter is missing — and flee the office.
My heart is beating so fast against my chest, and I start to feel the panic and anxiety creeping up again. I can’t exactly allow myself to have a panic attack right now because I’m already in danger of losing my job. And I don’t know how to explain to them why I’m even feeling this way without implicating myself.
What the fuck? Have I just unintentionally kidnapped a general’s daughter? That doesn’t sound good in my head.
Fortunately, Joanne and Mary are not at their desks, and no one is near me. But I know someone is bound to walk by soon, or maybe the secretaries will be back. So I try to calm myself by breathing deeply and exhaling slowly. It is a trick that I learned from my father’s previous secretary. She has told me that it is the secret to calming myself in a plane. Sometimes, it works, and hopefully, it does again now.
After several deep breathes, my mind becomes clear enough to think of what I have to do next.
“Return Myah to her father, of course,” I say under my breath.
Then, I walk towards the end of the hallway and stop by the window near the fire exit. This is as far as I can go but still be close to Kane and Ashton’s office. I ring my phone at home and wait for Myah to pick up.
Fuck, why didn’t I talk to her parents on the phone? She lied to me.
The phone rings a couple of times, and the call ends. Why is Myah not answering the phone? Don’t tell me she left already! I can feel the panic rising again, so I try calling the phone once more. Three rings in, I feel like vomiting. Pick up the phone, Myah.
“Um. Hello?”
Finally! “Why didn’t you pick up the phone when it rang earlier? I was calling you.”
She hisses. “Well, how was I supposed to know that? This isn’t my phone, so I didn’t bother answering. Besides, I was busy.”
I can hear the sound of a movie playing in the background. Shit. I hope Myah doesn’t try to look at my purchase history. I sometimes get off by watching porn on my flat screen. Once again, I’m reminded why I’m not fit to be a mother.
I don’t bother trying to call the child on her bluff. Instead, I whisper, “Something has come up. I need you to be ready in thirty minutes.”
She must have turned off the television because her side has become quieter.
“Myah, are you still there?”
“Why are you even whispering?”
“Because!” I whisper a bit louder.
“Why are you picking me up? Where are we going? Are we going shopping? Ooh. I want to buy a new shirt!”
I sigh, exasperated. However, I remember being twelve once, so I know how insufferable pre-teens can be. But my neck is on the line, and I’m not in the mood to babysit a general’s daughter. That does not sound good to me at all.
“You didn’t tell me your father was General Owen Lewis.”
Myah begins munching loudly on something on the other line. “Well, you didn’t really ask. So, why should I bother telling you?”
I am so close to yelling at her. But I know that if I did, Kane, Ashton, and fucking Owen would immediately rush to me to see what the fuss is about. I can’t have that.
“Myah. Your father is in my office with my bosses. He is worried sick about you. So, I’m coming home to pick you up and return you to him.”
Return? As if the kid is just a property to give someone. I cringe. It reminds me of how manipulative my father is and how much he wants to just give me away to the wealthiest buyer.
Another moment of silence follows, and my trepidation sets off again. Don’t you fucking hang up and leave, Myah, I shout inside my head.
“No.”
Well, that was short. What does she mean no? “What do you mean no? Your father is worried sick, and you have to go back to him.”
“No. I’m not going with him.”
“Why, Myah?” Why are you putting me in between you and your father’s issues?
“I’m not ready to go to his house in Washington. And if you tell him where I am, I’m running away,” she explains, “for good.”
Now that is a scenario I don’t even want to think about. If Myah runs away, likely, Owen will not broker the deal with our company. And then it will only be a few days before I will be let go. This cannot be happening to me now!
