Douglas didn’t answer immediately, caught between his loyalty to the Blackwoods and the path he’d chosen. If he was being honest, he didn’t really know why he’d agreed to this, especially since it meant the end of his career – and possibly his life. When he’d agreed to it, he’d only thought about the money, but seeing Alyssia in so much pain made him think that he’d made the wrong decision. Too late now, though.
“We should get moving,” was all he said before gently helping her out of the barn.
Mercifully, the road to the main house was short and well lit, so it wasn’t long before they were inside and Alyssia could finally start to warm up. She folded the tattered blanket and gently laid it over the back of a chair before gently lowering herself into it, her bones groaning with every movement.
Douglas came into the room a short while later, holding a steaming mug of tea. It smelled like green tea, and she could tell he’d added a little sugar to it, just how she liked it.
“I know you can’t have coffee, so I made you some tea,” he said, doing his best to sound apologetic. “Figured it’s better than nothing.”
Alyssia took the mug gratefully, wrapping her icy fingers around it. Her hands slowly started to loosen, and she could feel her fingers once again.
Douglas watched her anxiously, hoping she wasn’t about to go into labour. That reallywouldput a spanner in the works, and Maria would be livid if her ace in the hole turned into a joker.
“Douglas?” Alyssia asked, looking up at him.
“Yeah?”
“Why are you being so nice to me? I mean, you’ve kidnapped me and my unborn baby, taken us out to the middle of nowhere, and it’s fairly obvious that somebody wants something from us, so … why?”
Douglas sighed, sitting opposite her and taking a deep breath. If he was being honest with himself, he was starting to hate every second he had to keep her hostage,but he didn’t dare tell her that in case she didn’t believe him.
“Look, I didn’t want to be any part of this to begin with,” he said hesitantly. “I didn’t think there was any substance to it. Then a few years ago, I was in Mr Blackwood’s office looking for some paperwork he needed when I saw your husband’s birth certificate. It was just … there, on the top of the desk, so I looked, and I saw, and I confronted Mr Blackwood about it all. He denied it at first, but when I told him I’d seen the birth certificate, he eventually came clean. When Maria got in touch about having an ‘in’ that could help me with somethingIneeded, I asked her to show me what she had, and she did. After that, I hoped that Antonio would just … do what she asked.”
“You mean …Mariais the reason I’m currently sitting in someone else’s house?” Alyssia gasped. “Because my husband didn’t know who she really was to him and is having a hard time accepting it? Jesus, Douglas, of all the dumb reasons to kidnap someone ? ”
“It’s not just that!” Douglas burst out, gripping the arms of the chair tightly. “Maria’s entire reputation went down the drain after Antonio was born! The only reason Tony married her was because she was seen as damagedgoods – nothing more than aputtanawho tried to get in with the boss and failed – and no respectable man would marry her. And let’s face it, how was David supposed to explain away a child? As it was, he had to claim that Antonio was abandoned at the fire station, and nobody who knew him believed awordof the story.”
“And how is that my problem? Or yours, for that matter?” Alyssia snapped, feeling tears well up in her eyes. “I wasn’t there when Antonio was born! I can’t speak for what’s right and what’s wrong, and I don’t see why I should be punished for it, let alone my baby!”
“Look, don’t tell anyone that I told you this,” Douglas finally let go of the chair. “Maria’s plan was to kidnap you and use you to force Antonio’s hand. She didn’t even know you were pregnant until she saw you at the meeting.”
Alyssia stared at him in angry silence, until eventually he looked down at the floor. Tears welled up in his eyes at the thought of what he’d done, the pain he’d caused, and the two lives that now hung in his hands. Eventually, Alyssia spoke again, the ice in her voice so cold it could have frozen Alaska.
“You betrayed my family, and for what?” she growled. “A pay-check? A woman? What did she offeryou, Douglas, that you’d betray the people who took you in and fucking helped you out of the gutter? You werenothinguntil you came to the Blackwoods, Douglas, and you know it. We could have quite easily turned you away, sent you back to whatever shithole you crawled out of, but no.Wehelped you,wegave you the home you so clearly don’t value, and you’d do well not to forget that!”
Douglas lifted his head and looked her square in the eyes. Alyssia glared back at him, her gaze unafraid, and eventually he lowered his gaze again, staring at his fingers instead.
“She offered me nothing,” he finally admitted. “It’s what shestolefrom me that matters.”
“What could Maria have possibly stolen from someone with no family, no belongings, and no free money?”
Douglas sighed and pulled out his wallet, flipping it open to show her a photograph of a woman. The woman looked exactly like him, just shorter and with blonde hair instead of his steel grey, and a heck of a lot younger. If Alyssia hadn’t known better, she’d have guessed it was his daughter, but Douglas had famously never had children.
“Who’s this?” she snapped. “Some secret wife we don’t know about? Another bastard child Maria’s givenbirth to? Oh wait, let me guess … you fucked Maria, and this is the result?”
Douglas laughed shortly, before putting his wallet away. “Not quite, although I do love the girl. She’s my niece. My sister gave birth two months before she died, but she couldn’t keep the baby, so she … gave her away. I wasn’t at the birth, or I’d have taken the baby myself, so after my family died, I went looking for her.
“When I found her, she was living with Maria and Tony as their adopted daughter. When I asked where they found her, they claimed she’d been given to them by a surrogate, and when nobody came forward to raise her, they took her home and kept her.”
Silence fell as the two stared at each other, Alyssia still not quite trusting him. Something about his story suggested that there was more to come, but she didn’t feel like pushing it just yet.
“So, is she still there?” she asked eventually.
“Yes,” Douglas nodded, his eyes growing weary. “She’s indebted to them until she’s eighteen, which is next April. If I can somehow rescue her from them, I’ll be free. If not … she’s stuck there until her eighteenth birthday, when she’ll be forced into the sex trade – if she hasn’t been forced into it already.”
“Have you told Maria who she is to you?”
Douglas nodded again, clearing his throat. “Maria knows. She refuses to release her to me, saying that Milania won’t know who I am, and that it’s a waste of time trying to introduce an uncle to her after seventeen years of calling her ‘Mum’.”
