1
It was the longest journey of my life back to civilization.I was being punished for something, yet my father refused to tell me what I had done wrong. My eyes stayed fixed on the horizon, too alert and anxious for sleep to take hold. After the train left Castlehill, I swore I heard motorbikes in the distance, but with no roads nearby, I figured it was a chainsaw hacking through trees in the woods.
When the train arrived at Morrisville Station, no one was there to pick me up and drive me home. I messaged my father butgot no reply, then contacted his PA, who said Peter, my father’s driver, was stuck in traffic and would be there soon.
As dusk crept up, bringing with it a chill making my skin prickle, I sat on a bench in the station alone, hungry but unable to eat because my stomach was twisted into knots, with no relief until I found out what I had done wrong. Peter finally turned up an hour later with a kind smile, “Back home already?” he stated, “It seems you have only been gone a few weeks.”
“Not even that,” I told him. “I don’t suppose you know why my father wants me home?”
He led me to the sleek, black limousine and opened the back door for me with my overnight bag on the seat beside me. “I was only informed of you coming home earlier today, Adina,” he answered, shutting the door. Then, once he climbed behind the wheel, he added, “I prefer to stay out of your family dramas.”
“Me too,” I chuckled under my breath, even though his words rang in my ears, noticing the steeliness in his tone, and I wondered if the evil stepmother had been on his back for no good reason. “How’s your family, Peter?”
“Happy, healthy. They’re good,” he paused to start the engine, “I’m going to be a grandfather,” his face lit up in the rearview mirror.
“Oh, that’s wonderful news. Congratulations, Peter. Have you told Dad?”
“Yes. He’s arranged for my daughter and son-in-law to go on a paid shopping spree at one of those stores that sell baby supplies,” he said proudly, and my heart lifted a little. On the rare occasion, my father does things to remind me he’s human, which takes the edge off the cold, harsh character created in my mind.
“That’s wonderful,” I smiled in glee.
“Your father is a very good man, even though many do not agree with me,” he asserted, and I suspected he was referring to our enemies, most of all, the Warwicks.
“Yeah, I guess,” I sounded unenthused, then added, “Yes, he is a good man…when you don’t piss him off.”
We fell silent as night claimed the last of the daylight, and my eyelids grew heavy, staring out the window at the bright orange lights. I nodded off, and I don’t know how long I slept before I heard Peter state sternly, “Are you belted, Adina?”
My eyes flicked open just as the vehicle increased speed. “I’m belted,” I assured him.
“Good, because I think we’re being followed,” he said calmly. “Silver SUV trailing one vehicle behind has been on our tail not long after I picked you up. I’m going to turn off down a side street to see if they’ll follow.”
“Police? Feds?” I assumed, glancing briefly out the rear window, but I couldn’t see the suspicious vehicle as it was hidden behind the van that was directly behind us.
“I…am not sure,” he replied. Peter had been my father’s driver before I was born and was particularly good at identifying a cop a mile away.
Peter pulled up at a red light, and as soon as it turned green, he accelerated before changing lanes to make a right turn onto a street lined with boutique stores, most of which were closed. He didn’t speed up to alarm the vehicle behind him, but kept his speed steady.
“Is it following?” I asked as orange headlights flooded the inside of the vehicle.
“Yep,” he replied flatly, and I fell quiet, so he could focus on driving. When we reached the end of the street, he turned left, in the wrong direction from our hometown, but he was testing the silver SUV. Grabbing his phone, he told me, “I’m going to record their license plate number so we can scan it to ID them.”
“Sure,” I held my breath as he drove down another back street before coming out onto the main road.
“They’ve pulled up on the side of the road,” he said sternly, “I lost sight of them. So, what I’m going to do is take you home as planned and see if he appears again.”
“Luckily, Dad spent thousands of dollars on home security,” I tried to lighten the moment, but this had happened before. We’re constantly aware that both the police and our enemies watch us daily, waiting for my father to make a mistake. One mistake was all they needed to arrest him.
The distant sounds of the dirt bikes that would fill the air at Castlehill, and I looked back, expecting to see them there, but I couldn’t see anything. If they were nearby, they were riding with the lights off.
“Do you ever feel that the Warwicks are planning something huge because Mr. Warwick was arrested, after he organized the hit on Dad?” I asked him dryly, reflecting on what was repeated to me by the Warwick boys,“You’re Maxwell Boleyn’s daughter,”in that bitter tone.
“Every single day,” he said flatly, “but that is something that doesn’t need to concern yourself over, Adina. You should be partying and having fun and focusing on your schooling.”
His comment slightly took me aback because I had told Dad that the Warwick sons were at Castlehill, the university, the evil stepmother wanted me to attend. I could’ve had an easy life at the college I was originally enrolled at and attended for a while. That bitch set me up. She wanted me to suffer and get hurt so she could inherit my father’s money. Yet, Peter spoke as if he hadn’t told this. I was baffled. Did my safety not matter?
“Yeah,” I said, unenthused, wiggling in my seat as I could still feel that vibrator that was shoved into me by Lev and Ezrah. Okay, yes, I enjoyed it until they wouldn’t let me finish. Assholes.“So, how is the evil stepmother, I mean,” I deliberately cleared my throat loudly, “How is Leslie?”
Peter sniggered, “I heard what you called your stepmother. You might be able to hide your contempt of her from your father, but you hide it from me.”
