Page 2 of Atonement

I breathed a little easier as we stepped out of the cold and into the warmth of the house. I braced to be set on my feet, but Joshua continued carrying me through the home and up a set of stairs. From what I could see, the house was a stark contrast to Meyer’s. Everything looked aged, antique, as if Conrad wanted to flaunt old wealth instead of admitting he had gained this all during his life time by exploiting the military industry.

“Where are you taking me?”

“You sure ask a lot of questions.” I could barely hear Joshua’s mutter.

“You’re kidnapping me.” My voice cracked.Don’t fucking cry again.

Conrad patted my face, and I couldn’t do much to move away. “You’ve been kidnapped this entire time. This is no different.”

Joshua carried me through a door into a room no larger than the bathroom at Meyer’s house—while it wasn’t small, it was much smaller than any other room in the house. He dropped me on to a hard mattress, and I fell back against the wall. I was pushed into a corner. Grabbing my arm, he lifted my wrists into the air and sliced away the zip tie. Tears finally fell from my eyes as I cried with relief, blood flowing back to my hands as the tingling began to subside.

“I need to deal with some things, but I expect you to behave yourself in here. Your mother earned her privileges by obeying my rules and doing as she was told. If you do the same, you can have many happy years here.”

My heart leaped to my throat in my anger, stopping my breath from coming. I couldn’t lose consciousness, not when I was already at a disadvantage. Taking a deep breath, I pushed down the urge to claw out his eyes. “I will never be happy with you.”

“We’ll see about that.” He tilted my chin up with one finger, mimicking his son’s identical gesture the first day I woke up as a prisoner of the Schaf family. “Your mother suffered for far too long before she learned to be compliant. Save yourself the trouble, and be a good girl for me. Joshua will bring you some food.”

With a final apologetic look over his shoulder, Joshua followed Conrad out of the room. The door slammed, then a thud announced a heavy lock being turned on the outside. I jumped immediately and ran to the door anyway, yanking at the handle to no avail. It didn’t even rattle.

Spinning around, I took a look around the small room. Had he purposefully modeled it on a prison cell? The walls were an odd grey-green color, and the thin mattress on top of the wire twin bed frame was covered with a threadbare sheet that was worn almost transparent in some places. Another door on the side wall opened into a tiny bathroom. I could see the toilet directly next to a cubicle shower, barely large enough for me to fit in.

And in the corner across from the bed … was a crib.

Shaky legs carried me forward.This is impossible. Why would Conrad hold on to such a thing? Was he really so diabolical, so calculating, that he would have kept this on handjust in casehe needed to intimidate the daughter of the woman who had already raised his child in it? I placed my hands on the wood of the rail, peering down. My heart jumped at the sight tiny shape cocooned within, and I stumbled backward across the room. That was not possible. With my hand pressed against my chest to try and still my racing heart, I crept back across the small space and forced myself to look into the eyes of a tiny baby. No, not a baby. A doll. Blue-tinted glass eyes, unblinking, peering past me but seeing nothing. It was covered by a white blanket patterned with stems of baby’s breath flowers held by teddy bears. Pinching it by the edge to avoid touching the doll, I drew it from the crib and brought it to my face. The fabric was still soft even after so many years. What could have compelled a man such as Conrad to hang on to this memento? I inhaled deeply, imagining I could smell the cedar and whiskey that always told me Meyer was near, though he certainly wasn’t wearing such cologne as a toddler.

Backing away from the crib, I turned to the bed that my mother had woken up in the day she realized she had become a slave for a man hell bent on nothing but his own success and satisfaction. Meyer had hurt me more deeply than I ever thought possible earlier, but he was the only hope I had to get me out of this situation. If he didn’t come for me, I didn’t know who else would have the strength and influence to ever set me free. Curling into the corner as far from the door as I could, I tucked the blanket into a ball clutched against my chest, and waited.

Meyer

Mondays always suck, especially when they mean going to work for the man who has abused you your entire life, but this one in particular was worse than most. If possible, there were even more cameras waiting outside the building than there had been the day before, and a police presence to boot. Shawn nearly ran over a reporter pulling into the garage, earning us plenty of dirty looks. He started to get out of the car the moment he parked, but I grabbed his arm to hold him still.

“Give me a minute,” I said. “There could be reporters down here.” Someone else could have snuck in, ready to snap pictures of me or shove a microphone in my face. It was their fault Conrad had realized Maddie was hiding out in my office the day before. Their fault he’d realized I was falling for her, instead of destroying her. Their fault she was back at Shawn’s apartment alone instead of here with me, where she could be safe.

Not that I should be overly concerned about her safety. She’d been far too happy to see the company I’d worked for my entire life, the only thing that gave my miserable existence any meaning, go down in the public eye. I’d be lucky if I made it out of this with a job. In the span of one news report, I could lose my entire livelihood and way of life. And she just fucking sat there and smiled. What had I been thinking, that we had any future together that wasn’t me completely in control of her? I never should have allowed her any power over me.

“We have to go in eventually.”

Shawn’s voice jolted me out of my self-destructive thoughts. “I know that.” Taking a deep breath, I grabbed the door handle and yanked it open. I had to suppress a wince at the lance of pain that drove through my broken hand. I had Maddie to thank for the cast that now held my bones in place. Conrad wasn’t to blame for that injury; no, I’d done that to myself. He’d no doubt find that amusing.

Shawn walked me to my office, but I slammed my door in his face before he could follow me in. I didn’t need him yammering in my ear all day, trying to convince me to go back to her. I had far more important things to focus on, like making sure my company didn’t burn to the ground.

Still, I needed him to take me home.

When we left the office hours later, I was in no better of a mood. I wanted to go straight home and fall asleep, but Shawn snatched my phone away when I opened it to call Joshua. With my dominant hand wrapped up, I wasn’t quick enough to prevent it.

“You left something at my apartment,” he said, eyes narrowed. He’d been pissed at me all day, but I didn’t really care. I was worn out. I was furious at the world. All I wanted to do was to take a few pills—surely I still had a few stashed around the house—and go to bed.

“I don’t need that anymore. You can keep it if you want.”

“She won’t stay with me, Meyer. She’ll track you down if Conrad doesn’t get to her her first.”

“And I’ll toss her right back outside where she belongs.” Of course he would trap me in the elevator before bringing this up. Every time he opened his mouth today I’d glared at him until he shut up, but he was just biding his time.

“You’re an ass.”

“She knows that. She knew it from the start. There was never going to be a happily ever after for us, Shawn. This was always about revenge. It’s not my problem if she caught feelings in the process.”

“Is that why you stared at your phone all day like you were waiting for her to call?”

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