AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Where did you get that?”
“I forgot I had it.”
“I didn’t ask that. I said, where did you get it?”
“I found it in the attic. I know I wasn’t supposed to be in there, but I was just exploring like you said I could and I guess I forgot I picked it up. I remembered after you said about your sister just now.”
“Get out!” I roar.
She runs out of the room. I snatch up the toy and grip it tightly in my hand. If I was the kind of man who cried, tears would roll down my face. All I feel is anger. Sophie is dead because of Anna’s father. How dare she touch this?
Anna is his daughter. She’s the same as him. I will use her to get revenge. I won’t develop feelings for her.
I hate her.
She’s a thief, stole from the attic. She can’t obey simple commands. I can see I’m going to have to be stricter with her.
I feel a shadow falling over me. I look up and it’s Eva. She’s picking up the plates without a word. “I know what you’re going to say,” I tell her. “Just get it over with.”
“You going to yell at me too?” she asks.
“I might if you keep looking at me like that.”
“It’s not your fault that your family died,” she says, looking at the toy in my palm. “It’s a tragedy that it happened.”
“What’s your point?”
“It’s up to you how you handle her. Keep yelling and she’ll keep fighting you. You’ll never get her down the aisle.”
“She will say her vows if she wants to live. You get on with your job.”
“Of course, sir.” She heads through to the kitchen. I get to my feet and march up to the attic, placing the princess toy with the others. I stand for a moment, looking down at the collection. How dare she come up here when I expressly forbid it?
I’m still looking at the toys when an alarm goes off downstairs. God damn it. She’s trying to escape again. I’m going to have to keep her on a tighter leash than this.
I race back down to the first floor. The dining room. Of course. I never thought.
I had the shutters opened so the light could come in during breakfast. It never occurred to me that she might break the glass. Shards are sticking out of the frame and there’s a smear of blood on the sill. I look out. There’s no sign of her. Surely the window’s too small for her to fit between the bars.
I grab my cellphone from my pocket and look at the footage outside.
No sign of her anywhere. I check every single location outside, but there’s nothing. She’s better than I thought, managing to find blind spots out there when I thought none existed.
I run for the back door, unlocking it, and then dashing outside. I move around to the window she broke. No footprints on the grass. No sign of disturbance at all.
Then it hits me. I’ve been an idiot. I load the interior camera up that shows the back door. I rewind the footage. There she is, hiding behind that statue. As soon as I ran out the back door, she got out after me, sprinting away in the opposite direction.
Clever girl.
I look again at the outdoor cameras.
There she is.
The footage shows her running across the lawn, heading down toward the gate. She’s trying to escape after everything I told her.
I’m in two minds whether to take my gun and just shoot her. Send her body back to Piper. It would be vengeance for what he did to me. An eye for an eye.
I won’t do that. The thought of shooting her chills my blood.
