He passes the cup to a servant and grabs her gun hand with his, holding her tightly enough that she can’t aim the gun at herself. Though the wound is superficial, the pain is severe, and he doesn’t want her to suffer. Leilani wants to push his hands away—the feel of his skin on hers makes her want to scream—but she knows he has the upper hand. With a single word, he could order his servant to spill the bloody water and ruin her test.
“If you want to know my blood type, why not just ask me?” Andrew asks, “Actually, I know why—you don’t trust me.”
Andrew sighs, sadly. His finger is still dripping blood, and the cobblestone below him is stained red.
“Mr. Clifford, I have the needle,” a servant shouts, running over to Andrew.
“Can I help you?” Andrew asks Leilani.
Leilani glances at him but doesn’t answer. With a swift motion, she stabs the needle into the index finger on her left hand. Andrew looks on, his forehead creased with worry. He doesn’t like seeing her mistreat herself.
She takes the cup from the servant and tries her best to squeeze a few drops of blood out of the small hole. Slowly a few drops of her blood fall into the water. She swirls the cup, and the blood seems to blend perfectly.
“Do you believe me now?” Andrew asks.
With his right hand, he takes a cotton ball from the servant and tenderly dabs Leilani’s finger. Leilani scowls and swirls the cup again, but the water stays the same shade of red.
“So Andrew and Charles have the same blood type, but that doesn’t prove anything,” Leilani thinks, “It just means that Andrew could have Charles’ heart in his body, not that he definitely does. No matter what, I refuse to believe that Charles is dead.”
The servant tries to take the cup away to wash it out, but Andrew stops him. Andrew grabs the cup and raises it to his lips. The metallic smell of blood makes him want to vomit, but he fights the impulse. Instead, he tilts the cup and chugs the bloody water. Though he expects it to taste salty, it’s surprisingly sweet. It feels warm as it slides down his throat.
“You’re disgusting and crazy,” Leilani says.
He seems to be enjoying a drink in a way that makes her feel angry and anxious.
“I need to focus,” she reminds herself, “Andrew is just trying to distract me from escaping. Finding a way out needs to be my priority.”
She looks at her surroundings, but it’s impossible to tell where anything is in a fog.
“Not that it would make much of a difference,” she thinks bitterly, “I was blindfolded when they brought me here, so I have no idea which road to take.”
“If I’m crazy, you should be careful,” Andrew warns.
He slowly licks his lips and the women on the balcony m.o.a.n. Their reaction makes him smirk, and he raises his chin provocatively at Leilani. He looks at her as if he wants to eat her whole.
“You should be careful,” he warns again, “Sometimes I lose control, and I don’t care about your identity.”
“I never thought that the famous Mr. Clifford would enjoy secondhand women,” Leilani says sarcastically.
“You’d be surprised,” Andrew says, “I prefer women with a little more experience. V.i.r.g.i.ns get old after a while.”
Leilani grit her teeth but refuses to respond to his comments.
“So you’ve done your little blood test,” Andrew says proudly, “But my blood is precious, and you can’t take it without paying. I’ll give you two options for the payment.”
“My blood is equally valuable, and you can’t drink it without paying,” Leilani retorts, “I have two choices for you.”
Andrew smiles at her haughtiness.
“She really is something special,” he thinks.
“Do you want to know your options first?” he asks aloud.
“No, you should know yours first,” Leilani answers.
“Oh? Shall I?” Andrew says, fighting the urge to smile, “Okay, you can tell me first.”
Despite the strangeness of the situation, Andrew feels as if his entire body is glowing. There truly is something about her that intrigues him.
“The first choice: let me go,” Leilani announces.
Andrew merely raises his eyebrows and nods—he was expecting her to ask for her freedom.
“The second choice: kill me,” Leilani says fearlessly.
“Do you think I won’t kill you?” Andrew asks.
“You won’t,” Leilani smiles tightly, “It wasn’t easy for you to bring me here. You wouldn’t go to all that trouble just to kill me.”
Andrew laughs and nods.
“Okay, let her go,” he tells the guards.
Leilani stares at him in stunned silence. She expected him to object, but his instant agreement makes her nervous. Before she can think about what it means, a bodyguard has seized her by the arm. An Aston Martin appears, and someone opens the door from within. When Leilani looks back, she can’t see Andrew or the house anymore—the fog has swallowed them both.
The car drives cautiously toward the forest. Its bright headlights cut through the thick fog and reveal a pale road. It would be easy for the car to take a wrong turn and get into a deadly wreck. After a short while, the car stops.
“Miss Peters, we’re here,” a guard announces.
“How is that possible?” Leilani asks, “It took us over two hours to arrive at the house, and we’ve only been driving for ten minutes.”
“Please get out now,” the bodyguard says, opening the door for her.
Leilani looks at the man in confusion. She can tell he means business, and she obeys. As soon as she gets out of the car, the door closes behind her, and the locks click into place. The driver wh.i.p.s the car around, and it races away into the night.
“Hey! Come back here!” Leilani screams, “Give me my luggage. My phone and all my doc.u.ments are inside my luggage.”
There’s no one around to hear her scream. The car has already vanished into the fog. She looks around in horror. It’s cold and damp, and she’s wearing nothing but a thin knit blouse. She wraps her arms around herself and tries to think calmly. She looks above and sees the moon. On all sides, she’s surrounded by trees and damp bushes.
Suddenly, the branches above her head tremble, and a monkey leaps to another tree. She jumps in fear, and the thorns on a bush catch on her skirt. She gently pulls on the fabric, but it rips.
“Why did Andrew leave me in this place?” she wonders, “I should have known he’d try to trick me. He promised to let me go, and he technically did as he said. He must have known I’d never get out of this forest without help. But what’s the point? Leaving me here is basically the same thing as killing me. He must have someone watching nearby to track my every move.”
Andrew sits in his study in the dark and crosses his legs. A large screen shows a video of a woman running through the forest. Her wide, fearful eyes reflect the moonlight. Looking at her face fills Andrew with uncontrollable joy.
He knows she can’t escape, and it’s only a matter of time before she realizes the same thing. Without a map, she’ll never be able to avoid the treacherous terrain surrounding the house. Soon, she’ll realize that she can never escape from him.
Leilani tilts her head and looks at the sky, but she isn’t interested in enjoying the night’s beauty. She’s taking advantage of a break in the fog to look for the Big Dipper. Though the fog is dense, it’s constantly shifting, and every once in awhile, she gets a glimpse of the starry sky. If she can locate the Big Dipper, she can figure out which way is North.
The forest is dense. If it were daytime, she would try to navigate by looking at the moss on the trees. She vaguely remembers learning that moss grows more densely on the northern side of trees.
“Luckily, I can see the stars,” she thinks, “I’m sick of wandering in circles.”
She tears a small piece away from her skirt and ties it to the lowest branch of a nearby tree. If she starts to go in a circle again, the fabric will help her fix her route. The short grass cuts her ankles, and the thorns snatch at her skirt. Frogs cry mournfully in the distance. She walks until her feet ache.
When she sees the strip of cloth on the branch, she wants to cry. She has no idea how she’s lost her path again. The night is cold and windy and her feet and legs hurt. She finds a flat, relatively dry place next to a tree and sits down. She closes her eyes in deep exhaustion, but sleep doesn’t come.
Every time the grass rustles, she jumps up in fear. There are many strange and haunting sounds in the forest, and in her exhaustion, she can’t tell which are dangerous and which are harmless. After a long time, she drifts into a fitful sleep.
When she wakes up, the sun is glaring in her face. She knows she needs to eat and drink to maintain her strength, and she begins to hunt for fruits and berries. She drinks dew from leaves. She constantly tries to find a way out of the forest, but she always comes back to the same place.
After days in the forest, she’s exhausted and weak. She leans against a broken branch as she walks, and her dirt-streaked face is pale with fatigue. She touches her abdomen worriedly and thinks about the baby. Though her stomach is still flat, she knows it’s there, and she’s worried she’s starving it. Slowly, she sinks to the ground and closes her eyes.
The ground is cold, and Leilani shivers until she falls asleep. When she wakes, she hears something rustling on the ground. A polished pair of fine leather shoes appear, and then she smells a man’s cologne.
“Is it Waylen?” Leilani wonders, half-deliriously.
“Help me!” she tries to shout, but the words come out as a whisper, “Waylen, help me!”
The man doesn’t seem to see her. His shoes walk right past her and then get further and further away. His steps fade into the distance.
Waylen wakes suddenly and sits up. His eyes are bloodshot, and his breath still smells like alcohol. He presses a button on the nightstand to call for Robert.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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