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Flat battery.
I moved into the bedroom to plug it into the charger and moved out of the apartment again. I headed into the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor. She was either in the back office of the hotel or at the town planning office. As I headed to the front counter, I saw someone familiar standing to the side.
Hannah.
Zane’s wife.
I avoided eye contact, even though she had no idea who I was, and headed to the woman on the side.
“Paisley,” she gasped in surprise. “I haven’t seen you in weeks.”
“I know,” I replied, hoping no one else noticed I was back. “I was wondering where my mother was.”
“It’s Friday, child,” she said as if I were crazy. “She’s at the town planning office.”
“Right, sorry, I’m still in a vacay state of mind.”
“Silly girl,” the woman named Joyce said. “Should I call for a car?”
“Uh, no that’s okay, I’ll walk.”
She nodded and went back to her computer. I happened to catch a side glance at Hannah who was watching me like a hawk, her black Chanel sunglasses perched low on her nose as she took me in.
She’d never paid attention to me before. Did she somehow know what had transpired when I was with Halen? Did she know Zane had come down to claim me again?
I didn’t look back as I headed out the double sliding doors and onto the street. It was so loud being back up here in the city. Down under the city, it had been peaceful, quiet. I could walk around whenever I wanted and know I’d be safe. I could never let my guard down here.
The town planning office wasn’t too far from the hotel, luckily, and I wasn’t exactly expecting a quiet return. As I opened the front door, I was blasted with an air conditioner that was turned down so low, I could feel ice chips on my face. The office was nearly empty, just my mother working away in the back, and obviously entering into one of her hot flashes.
Her head moved to look over at me and her face changed. Relief flooded into her features and she ran over to me. Pulling me into a hug, she squeezed tight.
“No..oxy-gen.”
She finally let me go and sighed. “You’re home. Are you hurt? Did that monster do anything to you?”
“Relax, mama. Halen’s not so bad.”
She relaxed a little, cocking her head to the side, as if she were assessing me. “So you know he’s not the monster Zane claims he is?”
I almost didn’t know what to say in response. She had warned me away from him before he’d taken me. How did she know he wasn’t a monster? “You do too?”
“Of course I do, child. Let me tell you, when Zane told me you were with Halen, I knew not to be too worried. I didn’t show Zane that but I knew Halen would not harm you.”
“Do you know why he took me?”
She looked away, acting as if she needed to pay attention to her computer. “Zane said Halen had taken you to punish him.”
“So you knew…about me and Zane?”
She sighed. “I’m not a fool, Paisley. The second I saw how beautiful you had become, I knew it was only a matter of time before he would swoop in and claim you for himself.”
“So you knew what he did to me behind closed doors, the way he would treat me and you did nothing.”
“Zane is a man of particular tastes, especially sexual ones, but if you’re giving it up to him, you should know this. You’ve only yourself to blame.”
I felt the words like a slap across my face. “You could have warned me.”
“And have you be with him anyway? Don’t worry, child, he’ll be done with you once you grow older or a younger, prettier one comes along. He always moves on.”
