Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 72480 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72480 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
No, there has to be another way.
Maybe asking would help.
“Hello?” I call out, then wait, but there’s no reply. “Can someone hear me? I’d like to leave now.”
I wait for a few minutes. No response.
I knock on the door. “Hello? Is anyone out there?” I ask. “Please let me out. I’d like to talk with my mother.”
I wait for a few more minutes. Nothing happens.
Of course this wasn’t going to work. Why did I even think of trying?
Sighing, I close my eyes as panic begins to flood my veins.
No, stop it, Harper. No panicking. Not here. Not now. You’ve trained for this all your life. You can do this.
I nod to myself and walk away from the door. Next battle plan. Search the room for anything I can use to my advantage. A rope, a wire, a hidden key … even a hairpin will do.
I search under the dusty bed, behind the bath, in the closet, and inside each drawer. I even look for hidden bottoms, but there’s none to be found. But as my hands linger underneath the desk, I feel something stuck to the wood.
I go to my knees as my eyes follow my fingers. Something is wedged between two planks of wood, but I felt it. With both hands, I pry it out of there, and it drops to the floor.
My pupils dilate.
A key.
My heart pounds in my chest as I inspect it and rush to the door, but no matter how hard I pry it in, it won’t stick. This isn’t the lock it’s for. I turn around and face the other way, looking for a way out.
And then it hits me.
The window.
I swiftly make my way to it and shove the key into the lock. It clicks. Turns. Unlocks.
My heart skips a beat, and I hold my breath as I pull open the window.
A cold gust of wind hits me right in the face, making me tear up.
I peer down over the windowsill. It’s too high to jump, but I might be able to stand on a small ledge alongside the window and use it to slip over to the balcony on the lower left side that’s close enough to the ground so that my legs don’t break during a fall.
But is the escape worth the risk?
I swallow and push the window farther open so I can step onto the windowsill.
It’s dangerous … but so is staying here.
So I take a step and push over the ledge.
“Stop right there!”
My mother’s voice echoes through the room, and I almost fall just from her scream.
As I turn my head and peer at the door, I clutch the window with everything I have while trying not to die. Molly stands in the doorway while two guards storm straight at me.
I look back at the grass below, wondering if I should just make the jump.
If I am ready to risk losing the use of my feet forever just for the sake of fleeing.
Fear stops me from moving, my whole body shaking vigorously against the wooden frame.
Suddenly, two hands grasp at my arms, tugging me back inside, slamming me onto the floor so hard that the air is knocked out of my lungs.
“Easy!” my mother yells.
The two men towering over me with beastly stares and their nostrils flaring back away just a little.
I stare out the window at the blue sky beyond, realizing the time to escape has passed.
Fuck.
My mother’s eyes meet mine in a blaze of fury.
“How dare you?” she seethes. “After the warm welcome I’ve given you? The food, the bath, a comfy bed to sleep in?” Her face contorts. “Get up.”
I’ve never heard her this snappy before.
The two guards glaring at me remind me that I don’t have a choice in the matter. But as I get up on two feet, she slams the door to the window shut and plucks out the key like it means nothing.
“Where did you get this?” She holds it up to my face. “Tell me!”
Her sudden outburst makes me blink rapidly. “I don’t know. I found it.”
“Lies!” she spits.
I’m taken aback by her rage.
She never acted this way toward me when I was still a little girl.
What happened to her?
“You locked me in here,” I say, making a face. “I didn’t ask for any of this.”
“Well, I didn’t ask for a disobedient daughter,” she snarls back.
She clutches the key firmly, staring at me like I’m a disappointment.
“I thought you wanted to be back with me. With us,” she says.
“Molly, I—”
“Molly?” she interjects, snorting. “Don’t speak to me like that. Like I haven’t raised you myself like an actual mother!”
“You didn’t!” I yell back, unable to keep my feelings at bay. “I’ve been an orphan for so long. I am not the girl you once had under your roof. And I refuse to let you do this to me.”