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“Do you give money—” I stop as I hear Leo laughing.
“No, I don’t give them money that easily. They have to come up with a brilliant idea before I say yes.” Leo moves back from me and leans on the wall. “Are you planning on staying awake all night?”
“No, I’ll go back to sleep soon,” I tell him, looking over to the floor where I sleep.
“On the bed?”
I want to say yes. I want to say Iwillsleep there, but I can't lie to him, so I shake my head. The bed, for me, isn't a place I feel comfortable to sleep. A bed for me is something that follows with a nightmare.
“Can I ask why?”
Shaking my head again, I wipe the tears from my cheeks as I think about the days, the nights that I laid on a bed, just thinking about whathedid to me.
Leo takes my face in his hands and turns me to face him. “Just tell me something, just something little for now,” he pleads with me. But I close my eyes and shake my head again. What do I tell him? Whatlittlething do I tell him?
“There’s so much... I…”
"Start from the beginning. Tell me...what was your room like?" I look at his face, and my eyes move to him, as my tears begin to build again.
“Uncle Jack kept me in the basement...a room about the same size as this bed.” I point to the one behind him. “There was a little room he built in the corner with a toilet and a sink. That was my cell for two years,” I tell him. I feel his hands soothing my cheeks as I tremble from the emotion tearing through me.
Leo sighs and clenches his jaw, as he shakes his head. I watch him for a moment; the silence around us is speaking the words we both want to say. “What about a shower or a place to wash?” I know he has more questions and he’s thinking of which ones to ask first and which ones will push me to the point where I shut down on him.
“I had to use a cup and cold water from the sink,” I whisper, moving my eyes away from him, to look at anything but the way he’s looking at me right now. There isn’t pity there, it’s more hurt, pain.
Kissing my forehead, he says, "Get some sleep, Hope."
He gets up and leaves my room. Leaning back on the wall, I look over at the door. Is tomorrow going to be a day when I feel I can open up a little more to him? I need to push the rules out of my head. I need to get thembothout of my head, but the second I think about them, the rules appear at the front of my mind.
* * *
The next morning I hear Leo and Jackson in the kitchen, they got downstairs before me. I didn’t hear Leo wake up.
I run down to the kitchen to get breakfast ready for them. "I'm sorry," I say quietly to Leo, but as I walk past Jackson, I put my head down.
“Don’t make anything, Hope. Jackson picked up a few things from the bakery on the way here.”
I stop in my tracks, placing my hands on the counter. I’m not sure what to do now that I’m not needed to make food.
Leo slides the box toward me and gets off the stool. “But you can warm these up and bring some coffee to the table, please.”
“Can I get some coffee too, please?” Jackson asks as they walk over to the table. I know what Leo is doing; he knows I have a routine that I follow and he’s going to try and break me from that. He’s going to try and get me to live a life where I can be myself.
Opening the box, I look at the different pastries. I’ve never had food from a bakery or a restaurant before. I’ve always had to make my own food, but these look really good and smell incredible.
I hear them talking about something but Jackson seems angry with Leo. All I can hear is that Leo should have told him.
After putting everything in the oven to heat, I get some coffee ready. Whatever’s happening between them Jackson isn’t happy about it. Leo seems to be his normal self, doesn’t seem to show much emotion but what can I say? What emotion do I show him?
I walk over to the table to put the coffee down, and Leo takes my hand and starts stroking my skin which is peeling. "Your skin doesn't look like it's improving, how about the pain?" He leans forward, so he can see my face, my eyes move away to the side where Jackson is sitting, then back to the table.
"It's fine," I tell him but it's not okay. My bones hurt a lot, but I thought I would give the medication some more time before I say anything.
I go back into the kitchen to get the food and get myself some water before joining them back at the table.
“The buyer has to have a shit ton of money if the price is that high just to enter the site!” Jackson shouts.
What are they looking for?
