She fussed with her hair until it hung down her back in a sleek ponytail rather than her regular braid. The nanomeds they’d treated her with had changed her hair back to its normal blond.
Did she really look like Portia? Dizzie peered into the mirror, searching for similarities. She didn’t see any.
Killian had.
She wished he were here.
Dizzie shook her head. Now was not the time. It didn’t matter whether she looked like a Tremaine or not. She’d never be one. She didn’t want to be one.
She’d thought a lot about the test results while she showered. How no one in the company had discovered the truth before. Whether she could use her newly discovered DNA to save herself. Based on the way Portia, an actual Tremaine, treated her, it was unlikely.
By the time she’d finished the shower, Dizzie had decided her best course of action was to stick to her plan. Fresh clothes had been the first step. The long shower had given her an idea about how to solve the wristband problem.
Satisfied that she had a starting place, Dizzie rolled up her leather pants as best she could until they hit her knees and slipped on her robe. The only shoes she had were the boots and the heels. She tucked the heels into the pockets with a grimace. Just the thought of wearing them again made her ankles ache, but the slippers would be noticeable once she left the hospital, and there was no way she could hide the boots under her robe.
Pulling the robe closed, she studied her reflection again. The clothes were for the outside world. Inside the hospital, she needed to look like a patient. Satisfied that she did, Dizzie took a deep breath and looked around the room.
Dizzie opened the door and found two guards standing outside. They weren’t a surprise. Betty had mentioned them on one of her visits. Since she’d been chatty, Dizzie had also asked a lot of questions about the hospital and whether she could leave her room for a walk. She was going stir crazy. In her normal life, she never spent this much time indoors in one place.
Betty had eagerly confirmed that Dizzie could take a walk when she’d mentioned the walls were closing in. Eager to help out a member of the Tremaine family, she’d cleared it with Dizzie’s doctor and the other nurses at the nursing station.
The guards, on the other hand, weren’t in on it. They immediately spun around when Dizzie opened the door. “Get back in your room!” one of them ordered.
She kept her eyes down and sagged against the doorframe. “Please, I want to walk around the floor. The doctor said I should try to put weight on my leg.” The statement was true, except for the weakness she injected into her voice.
“Ms. Tremaine said?—”
A passing nurse cut him off. “For pity’s sake. Where do you think the girl is going to go? She’s as weak as a kitten.”
The nurse turned to her. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”
Dizzie nodded, careful to look as tired as possible. “Yes, please.”
The nurse pursed her lips, then nodded sharply. “Okay, but I want you to use a walker, just in case.”
Dizzie could live with that. “Thank you,” she whispered.
The nurse waved an orderly over and instructed him to get a walker.
Once he brought it, Dizzie wrapped her hands around the handles. “Thank you,” she repeated.
She moved with a slow shuffle. It was harder than she thought to steer it with her elbows tight to her waist so no one would notice the shoes in her pockets.
As she passed a guard, he protested that he should accompany her.
Dizzie said a silent thanks when the nurse said, “Pfft, that girl won’t last five minutes, tops.”
They thought she was too weak. Good. That was what she needed for her plan to succeed.
The guards’ glares were like a weight pressing down on her shoulders. She used the feeling, hunching over the walker and fighting to not go too fast.
Shuffle, step. Shuffle, step.
Every slow movement brought her closer to the corner and the stairway that would take her to freedom.
Her optical implant hadn’t provided the hospital’s blueprint, so she’d gained a basic idea of the building’s layout from the nurses. She’d peppered them with questions, like how they evacuated the building in case of an emergency.
She turned the corner after what felt like forever. Despite her slow pace, her heart raced. If her monitor was reacting, Dizzie hoped they’d write off as overexertion. Until she got this bracelet off, she wouldn’t truly be free.
