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Tired, I leaned against the windowpane and let the city glide past me again.
On West 125thStreet, Stephan turned right to stop at a red light shortly after.
Here in Harlem, even at this hour, the streets were very crowded compared to the Upper East Side. Men sat together infront of the houses. Partly at small tables on camping chairs and playing card games.
I used to love driving through Harlem. I had absorbed the colorful hustle and bustle, the life that prevailed here.
Suddenly I heard screams and the next moment a woman was dragged out of one of the houses by two men. A little further up in the building, I discovered the small figures of children at one of the windows. They stood alone, looking down at the street and knocking, crying against the windowpanes. A girl with two pigtails and big, fear-widened brown googly eyes was screaming in panic. Apparently, it was her mother who had been taken here.
As if in shock, I sat in the car, just a few steps away from the action. The woman struggled, wriggling in the firm grip of the two musclemen. As they passed right by me, she raised her head. A young woman about my age. Her left eye was blue and swollen, her lip bloody and split open. She had fought back and had been subdued. Tears ran down her cheeks, and although my glass panes were mirrored, I had the feeling for a brief moment she was looking at me for help.
“We have to help her!” I exclaimed in a panic, my eyes fixed on the woman who could have been myself. “Stephan, we have to do something. We can’t just stand by and watch little children being taken away from their mothers. How a young, innocent woman is abducted.”
Anger welled up in me, made me braver than was good for me. And more determined. Stephan didn't react to me or what was happening next to our car. He stubbornly looked ahead as if none of this concerned him. This was probably true because, after all, he was a man and less affected by the injustices of this world than we women. At the same time, he was a spy of the Knights of the Seals, which probably brought him further privileges.
Growling, I looked over at him. "Then I'll help her," I hissed defiantly, tugging at the door handle. But it would not open. "Stephan, let me out. I have to help her!" I shouted desperately at the butler. The two men had already taken their victim to a van. When they opened the large doors at the van's rear, my heart stopped briefly.
The van was full of young women. All of them my age. Some lay motionless in the loading area, and others crouched in the far corners.
One of the guys tied up their latest victim and pushed the woman so roughly into the van that she fell lengthwise. She quickly pulled herself up again. Blood ran all over her face. Laughing, the second man threw the doors shut and got in on the driver’s side.
A whimper escaped me as this monster started the engine, and Stephan simultaneously steered the sedan in the opposite direction. Helplessly, I slumped in the back seat.
"Why didn't you help her?" I whispered, not at all intending for Stephan to hear. Tears made their way down my cheeks. Trying to brush off my anger and powerlessness, I closed my eyes and took one deep breath. Still, I saw the look on that woman's face—the plea for help. No one had stood up for her. The men on the street had just kept playing cards.
She had fought and lost more than just this one fight. She had lost her life and that of her children at the same time.
CHAPTER 16
Ihardly noticed the rest of the way home. I was too busy processing what I had just seen. Had these women been the ones who disappeared? The ones Chris had told me about.
Suddenly, my car door opened with a jerk. Stephan stood patiently on the sidewalk in front of our house and waited for me to get out.
It took a lot of strength, but in the end, I got out of the limo, staggering, and wanted to walk to the front door.
"Miss," the butler said unexpectedly as he passed, forcing me to stop. Still annoyed at his passivity just a moment ago, I looked over at him. His gaze was blank and cold, as usual.
“Yes, Stephan?” I asked irritably.
"You have to learn to recognize when a fight is already lost before it even starts," he said coolly. The next moment, he turned on his heel, went back to the car, and drove it to the house garage. He just left me standing there. But at the same moment, the front door opened, and I recognized the outline of Aza, silhouetted against the light from the reception hall in the doorway.
Relieved, I walked toward her.
"Are you all right, Miss Myrina?" she asked worriedly. "You're all overheated."
"Yes, everything is fine, Aza. It was just very humid in the cathedral," I lied, feeling so uncomfortable that I had to lower my eyes. I couldn't look her in the eye as these words slid across my lips and coiled around my legs like a false snake.
“How about you put on something a little more breezy, and I'll bring you a lemonade to your room in the meantime?" The maid smiled at me so kindly that I would have liked to confess my lie of just a moment ago.
Instead, I returned her smile.
"Thank you." Hastily, I ran past her into the house and up the grand staircase to the second floor. Once in my room, I headed straight for the bathroom, where I first turned on the water in the shower before grabbing a fresh nightgown from the dresser. I quickly peeled myself out of the sticky wardrobe and jumped under the refreshing water jet.
I repeatedly stretched my thighs, calves, and triceps to prevent sore muscles. At the same time, I tried to push the thought of the young woman out of my mind. It gave me a real headache not to think of the children, who were now struggling alone, without their mother, for naked survival. I had not seen a father anywhere. Hopefully, someone could take care of the little ones.
Frustrated by the renewed feeling of powerlessness, I turned off the water and slipped into the freshly laundered nightgown after dabbing myself with a towel.
When I entered my bedroom, a large pot of lemonade and a plate of cookies were already ready for me. But Aza herself was nowhere to be seen. What a pity! I would have liked to talk with her because I liked her company.
