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“D’Arque had Chip and Belle. They’re here. Chip is upset. He could really use his big sister.”
“Chip and Belle are here? Were they hurt?”
Henri answers, “They aren’t hurt, but they’re scared.”
I’m torn. I want to make sure Chip and Belle are truly okay, but I will never forgive myself if something happens to Maurice.
“I’m going with you. Once we have Maurice, the four of us can come home. Is there someone to watch the kids?”
Luca nods. “We found Mrs. Lansbury tied up in the nursery. She’s here, too, looking after the kids.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
“You need to change first, little bird.”
I look down at my night clothes, realizing he’s right.
“Come with me. I don’t want you to leave without me.”
His lips lift in a small smile, but he follows me to his room where he helps me pick out all black clothes. Even though I have clothes in my own closet, he keeps some in here, too. When this is over, I’m going to tell him that I want the four of us to share one room. I need them to be as close as possible, and so multiple rooms just aren’t going to work for me anymore.
“To help us blend in,” Luca explains as he changes his own shirt to a black one.
“What is the asylum?”
“It’s exactly what you would think it is. Back in the 1800s, it’s where the mentally unstable were sent. Terrible things happened to them there. It closed in 1960. That’s when the D’Arque family bought it.”
“They mentioned a Monsieur D’Arque. Who is he?”
“Guillaume D’Arque is the head of their family. He’s the one I mentioned who thinks he can go against me and win.”
And now he has Maurice.
“Will D’Arque kill Maurice?”
“I don’t know,” he admits.
I nod. “Let’s go get our guy.”
18
Maurice
Pain.
All I feel is pain.
My thoughts are jumbled, making it hard for me to know what’s really happening. Is Grandfather back? He likes this kind of treatment. Always saying that I don’t belong. That I’m a disappointment to the Di Bello family. He’s right. I shouldn’t be a Di Bello. But here I am.
I’m suspended by my arms, my feet barely touching the ground. When they hit me just right, I spin like a piñata on a rope, but candy won’t fall from me, no matter how hard they hit me. The thought makes me cough out a laugh.
“Can you believe this freak? He hasn’t made a fucking sound and yet he’slaughing.”
Another man answers, “Maybe you just don’t hit as hard as you think. Let me try.”
More pain. More jumbled thoughts. All I see is Dove’s face. She’s safe. That’s all that matters. My sweet birdie. I won’t let her life end because of me, and she won’t end up in a box buried deep in the ground like my parakeet.
“Monsieur D’Arque is coming. He’ll get a reaction out of the freak. No one can withstand his punishment.”
