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“I saw the phone over there on the sofa. I knew it was purposely left there and that you or your security was watching to see what I would do, but I had to check on Amerie.”
“Who did you call?” he asks again, his voice even angrier if that’s possible.
“Amerie. I swear. Only she didn’t answer. Some guy has her phone?”
He leans down closer until he is nose to nose with me, his teeth gnashed. “You got one time to get this right so it behooves you not to fucking lie to me. Had she answered, what were you planning to tell her?”
I won’t lie. I’m damned if I do, and I’m damned if I don’t. Things are already escalating. “Honestly, I didn’t get that far. I was going to ask her if my father knew she was responsible for letting me sneak away. I couldn’t have done so without her help,” I reply, trying to create some distance between us, but he isn’t having it. “I would have tried to get her to help me get home through someone she trusted that wouldn’t rat me out to my father.”
“Are you goddamn insane or just dense? What means would she have had to find you without telling your father?”
He finally lets go of my tank, and I duck as his arms move toward my face, but he only runs both hands through his loose hair. “Don’t hit me,” I yell.
“Why do you keep saying that? I’m not going to hit you. I have other ways to punish you. Now tell me, how did you get access to this phone.” He opens the phone and looks through it. “This is Mr. Doyle’s phone!”
“It was just sitting there … I swear.”
“How fucking convenient. Am I supposed to believe that he just came into you room and left his phone for you to find? Even being fired, he would never betray me. He knows the hell that would rain down on him and his family if he ever did that. That man was loyal to a fault. The reason he is no longer in my employ is because of you. I had to set an example for the staff when you make careless mistakes that could jeopardize my home and my plans.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t steal the phone. I thought it was a test. I wouldn’t lie.”
“Why? Because princesses don’t lie? You’ve been a fucking troublemaker since you got here.” He raises his hand again, and I flinch. I can’t help it. “Who’s put their hands on you, Aurora?”
I tense at the question. How does he know? “And remember you wouldn’t lie,” he throws back at me.
“How are you going to punish me?” I ask, fear still having me in a chokehold. My attempts to change the subject are futile.
“I won’t ask you again.”
“Good,” I reply. I’d rather let him beat me than snitch on my brother. I didn’t even tell my own father. “Because there is nothing to talk about.”
“I’m going to play the footage. If I waste time figuring this out myself, you won’t like the consequences. Maybe I should just fire the entire goddamn staff and start over.”
I reach for him, unsure why, but he backs away all the same. “Please don’t fire anyone else because of me.” I don’t care about their erected hatred for me, I just don’t want to be the reason he let them go.
He pushes off the bed and storms off. He left the door unlocked, but I don’t run—couldn’t even if I wanted to. I can only wait until he reviews the footage. Time seems to drag on as I wait for him to return. What will my punishment be? Mid anxiety, a thought formulates that I initially didn’t contemplate. Once Lennon came through that door, I was distracted on how this would play out. Amerie is in danger. I just know it. That man on the phone called me by name, and that wasn’t one of our house staff. Someone took her phone, and I’m petrified that it was my father. Does he know the part she played in all of this, or is he just having her phone monitored in case I call. I pray for the latter. My father knows how close Amerie and I are. If I could reach out to anyone, he must have deduced that it would be her. I have to hold on to that narrative because the former would be devastating. She has to be okay. They just have her phone in case I call.
Lennon returns, his murderous look constant. What did he find out? “When did you last eat?” he asks as soon as he crosses my threshold. I wasn’t expecting that question. He must have reviewed the lack of activity to this room. His eyes scan past me to the half open drawer next to the bed, noticing the food for the first time. I hid it in case they came to actually do their job. I didn’t want one of them to take it back from me.
“I haven’t been very hungry?”
“Yet you wouldn’t lie,” he retorts. “Get up!”
I ease off the bed, reaching for my crutches, but Lennon has other plans. He throws me over his shoulder and tracks his way downstairs. He runs into Mona first and instructs her to gather the others and meet him in his office.
“Please don’t fire anyone. I will take their punishment.”
“Even if that means getting fucked?” My mouth goes dry. I’m not a martyr. I can’t give him that. “That’s what I thought.”
He stands me in front of his desk before standing beside me with his arms folded. The maids enter his office with Mona leading them. Their panic is evident, but Mona is a little harder to read. Once they’re standing front and center, Lennon reaches back and retrieves a knife from the top of his desk. In an instant, he has maneuvered behind me and now has the blade at my throat. I begin to hyperventilate, each breath allowing the knife to caress my neck. The burn ignites as a trickle of blood seeps down my neck. Oh God … he’s going to kill me and make them witness it.
“So it seems my prisoner managed to get her hands on a phone—Mr. Doyle’s phone. Any of you know how that’s possible?”
“I don’t know, sir.” Fiona is the first to speak up. “Maybe Mr. Doyle put it down somewhere, and she got her hands on it. She has been to our living room and dining room plenty of times.”
“That may have been more feasible if I didn’t have footage to review with my security. Don’t insult my intelligence.”
“Anyone else have a theory?”
