PROLOGUE
PLAYLIST: ATLANTIS – SEAFRET
London, 6 months ago
“You will not look back,” my father says. “You canneverreturn.”
“But—“ I begin, but he cuts me off.
“You can’t,” he says. “The contract stated very clear rules of termination.”
“She got abducted! And has no idea where and how—“ I shout at him, and tears fight their way into my eyes down my cheeks. “I can’t just leave her?—“
“You will,” he says harshly. “Orders were clear, we have to leave and vanish. You should be glad, after all this time, you are free to go and do whatever you desire.”
I can’t. My body revolts. Because even though I have pretended to be someone all those years, I can’t let go of her. She is my friend. My only friend. My best friend The one I talked to about everything—well, almost everything. Because she doesn’t know who I really am. But she is the one. The one I secretly loved since forever. Secretly, because I was forbidden to be in any other relationship with her than the contract allowed. Now,I have to leave her behind. But how do you leave the person you love behind?
“What if something happens to her?” I ask in pain. I can’t leave her. I can’t. It feels as if I am ripping my own heart out.
“There is nothing we can do,” he says coldly. “Grab your stuff, here’s your paperwork, and take this laptop. Everything is on there, the password is this,” he says, and hands me a piece of paper.
I am wiping away my tears as I take what he hands me. I am not ready for this. It was supposed to be a forever job. I thought I would have had the chance to come clean…explain…maybe even tell her?—
“Does he have her?” I ask.
“Giuseppe?” my father says.
“Yeah.”
“I believe he has, and everything is as it was meant to be. You have to vanish, because she is supposed to take over. She will come for you.”
“Why would she? I could explain?—“
“You cannot, and will not. Our order is to vanish and become a nobody. You will never see her again. You will run from her, because you will be the one to take the blame.”
“Me?” I ask incredulously.
“Yes, you. It is part of the plan, which makes her able to succeed with the plan Guiseppe has created for her, and also the reason why we have to scatter and leave.”
I am speechless at this point.
“Where will you go?” I ask with a robotic voice.
“The dream,” he says. “Where freedom is. Bahamas.”
Blue water and a beach with nothingness around me would be my personal hell, but my father always dreamed of the peace of nothingness.
“So that’s it?” I ask. “This is goodbye?”
“It is,” he says. “Take care, kiddo.”
He hugs me briefly and walks.
I see there are emotions in him, but he never dares to show them.
“Dad,” I call after him.
He turns.
