Page 106 of Crowned

Beatrix lifts a brow in surprise. “This is Number Eleven?”

I stare at the older woman in shock. Olivia told me during the pageant that her sister had disappeared years ago. “Beatrix! But you’re…”

Olivia is smiling so hard she can barely get the words out. “She escaped and came home. It’s only been a few weeks. And now you’re here! Everything is crazy right now, I can’t cope. Come and have some tea.”

I follow the two women through the cottage to the sunny kitchen that looks onto a beautiful garden filled with flower beds. The table is old, scarred wood, and Olivia places a red kettle onto an enormous cast iron stove.

“This place is amazing,” I breathe. “It’s like something out of a cozy story.”

“Thank you, I love it here. I bought this place after—you know. And it’s been the perfect place to get away from everything and heal. And now it’s where Beatrix can heal, too.”

Olivia makes tea and sets a teapot on the table with mugs, milk, sugar, and a tin containing a lemon cake. It looks homemade.

“How did you find me, Lilia? I’ve been searching for you everywhere,” Olivia asks, slicing up the cake and passing it around.

I think quickly. “Private detective.”

“Did you find any of the other women?”

“I found some of them online, but you’re the only one I wanted to see.” I turn to Beatrix, burning with curiosity. “Olivia told me about you in the…” I glance at Olivia, wondering how to phrase it.

“Beatrix knows everything. You can talk about it freely.”

I swallow. “In the cages in the cellar. She told me that you were missing.”

Beatrix has both her hands wrapped around her mug and she tucks her hair behind her ear. “I was.”

Olivia looks at her sister with a mixture of sadness and pride. “Beatrix had an even harder time than we did, but she fought so hard to get home.”

Beatrix shakes her head. “I didn’t do it by myself. I…never mind. You’re here to see Olivia. You don’t want to hear my story.”

Beatrix has suffering etched on her face, and she’s clearly still reeling from whatever has happened to her. “I’d love to hear it, if you want to tell me about it.”

The sisters exchange glances, and Olivia nods encouragingly.

Beatrix takes a deep breath. “It started when I fell in love.”

She tells us how she fell hard for a dangerous criminal, but she didn’t care. I have to fight to keep a straight face and not stare guiltily into my own lap.

Girl, same. Times three.

Beatrix wanted to be with this man, and he adored her. He owned clubs. He sold guns and drugs. He had a glamorous lifestyle, and they flew in and out of Europe together, but the important thing to Beatrix was the way he made her laugh. How she could make him laugh. None of her friends and family knew what this man did for a living, but many sensed dangerous vibes from him and encouraged Beatrix to break things off with him.

But Beatrix had already given him her heart. She ran away with him, leaving her old life behind.

“I didn’t even confide in Olivia. I was so reckless.” Beatrix shakes her head at her own stupidity.

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it. Later on, you would have called if you could.”

My stomach sinks as I imagine the rest of the story. The man became controlling. Abusive. Frightening. She had no one to turn to when everything changed.

“Then he died.”

I look up in surprise. “What?”

Tears spring into Beatrix’s eyes. “I should have been there with him. He died all alone, bleeding out in the road. Killed by some of his rivals.”

She grips her mug hard with one hand and wipes the tears from her cheeks.

---