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“These are dangerous times, Hil. Word has gotten out that I’m sick. Families are doing everything they can to take over our territory. You are not safe. Lying here, I cannot protect you.”
I stared at the withering man in front of me understanding something I hadn’t before. That was why someone had tried to run me off the road. Our family was in a middle of a war. They were doing what my father once had; they had gone for blood once they smelled weakness.
As long as we had something they wanted, no one would leave our family alone. I really was trapped here. There was nowhere I could go and be safe.
“Do you have any regrets, Father?” I asked him, considering my own.
He thought for a moment and then smiled.
“Not a one. We have a short time on this planet. You seize what you can while you can. I had your mother and I had my two beautiful kids. With that I created an empire and soon I’m going to pass it along to you two. What is there to regret in that?” my father said before becoming too weak to speak.
Leaving him to rest, I crossed the penthouse to my room. It was across the hall from my brother’s. From outside, I could hear the soprano from his favorite aria. He once told me it was his way of escaping.
If there was one thing I was jealous of him for, it was that he found a way to not be here even when he was. There were so many things about our two lives that were unfair. That had to be the most.
About to enter my room, I stopped. I knew that once I passed the doorway, it was official, I was back. Again, I was trapped. The weight of it prevented me from moving forward. With a mixture of sadness and anger, I spun towards my brother’s bedroom door and burst in.
Startled, Remy instinctually reached under his desk and pulled out a gun. Seeing it didn’t phase me. I was pissed and there was nothing he was going to do to scare me off.
Seeing me, Remy relaxed.
“Jesus, Hil. I almost shot you. Are you insane? Why would you burst in like that?”
“Why did you do it? Why did you take me from the only place I’ve ever been happy? How could you do that to me?” I asked on the brink of tears.
Calmly, Remy returned his gun to its hiding spot and faced his computer screen.
“Father wanted to see you.”
“And he gets whatever he wants? Is that it? None of us gets a say on our own lives?”
Remy looked at me confused.
“You say that like you’re new here.”
“This is unfair, Remy. I didn’t ask for any of this. You might like being a part of father’s crazy world, but where do I fit into it? I can’t live like this. You should have left me where I was. Whatever happened to me there, at least it would have been from my own choices.”
Remy’s eyes darted to me.
“What do you mean, ‘whatever happened to you there?’ What happened to you there?”
I froze as Dr. Sonya’s accident and the bomb flashed to mind. Remy didn’t know. So, he had retrieved me simply because father had told him to. If Dillon had told him where I was, wouldn’t he have also mentioned what had happened to me?
“What aren’t you telling me? You know I’ve always been able to tell when you’re lying. You’re not good at it. Don’t start now.”
I stared at him starting to panic. What would he do if he knew that there was already someone after me? The bars around my cage would lock even tighter. This conversation was a mistake.
“Nothing happened to me there,” I told him before turning to go.
“You’re lying. I told you, you’re not good at it.”
“Leave me alone,” I told him, exiting his room and entering mine.
Never being able to let anything go, Remy followed me. Behind my closed door, I locked it and stepped back.
“Hil?” Remy said, finding the door locked. “Are you serious? Open the door.”
“This is my room. Stay out of it. Leave me alone,” I said feeling a cold sweat.
