Page 79 of Escaping Wonderland

Alice tightened her grip on the tablet as disbelief, horror, and anger flooded her.

Family has reported…

Lies!

Tabitha and Jonathonhaddone this?Why? Why would they have sent her here?

She pressed one of the tabs in the file markedDirector’s Notes. Her eyes widened as she read.

High marks for attractiveness, but patient is too spirited. Will need to be broken in before suitable for play. Recommend time with patient Edward Winters (alias: the Hatter) for reconditioning.

Family unconcerned with wellbeing; would prefer loose ends tied up.

Candidate for cleaning program—family will not question patient death.

Alice’s anger and disbelief warred with one another. She didn’t want to believe she’d been betrayed, that herfatherhad been betrayed. She was supposed to have been able to trust Tabitha—Alice’s father had meant for Tabitha to be a mother to her, had hoped Tabitha would one day care for Alice as though she were the woman’s own daughter.

Though Alice and Tabitha had never been able to build such a bond, Alice had never thought her stepmother capable ofthis.

Shadow placed a hand on her arm; it was only then that she realized she was trembling.

“Whatever that says, Alice, we can deal with it later. We need to go now, right?”

She would’ve agreed with him were it not for the links included at the bottom of the document—communication logs markedCLAYBOURNE T.Alice clenched her jaw and opened the logs. Stinging heat built beneath her skin as she read the communications, and her rage swelled to new, titanic proportions.

“Shedid it,” Alice said in a low voice, “and she wasn’t even subtle about it.”

“Who did what, Alice?” Shadow asked, his hand tightening slightly.

“Tabitha. My stepmother. She bribed the director of this place—theking—to have me committed here. To make me disappear. My father left almost everything to me, and his willsuperseded what she would’ve inherited otherwise, which meant I would either have to die or be deemed incompetent to subvert his wishes. And it’s all right here.”

He frowned deeply; even here in the real world, even now, it was strange to see him without that grin.

“So, what do we do with this information, then?” he asked. “We still need to go, don’t we?”

“No, Shadow. We don’t need to go anywhere. We can stay right here. This”—she lifted the tablet—“is our escape route. We can contact the authorities and wait for them to come to us. This is all the evidence we need of the wrong-doings going on here.”

Shadow’s brow was creased with worry. “But Ikilledhim, Alice. And killing someone…that’s not okay here, is it?”

Alice reached up and cupped his jaw. “He shot at you, didn’t he? That’s why you have the gun?”

He nodded. “I was out of the pod when he came in. He fired into the pod before he knew where I was.”

A fresh wave of relief swept through her; she’d come so close to losing him. They’d come so close to losing each other. If he’d taken any longer to wake himself up, they both would’ve been dead by now.

“It was self-defense, Shadow. You were protecting yourself. And no matter what,Iwill not let anything happen to you.”

She would fight for him in any way possible.

His nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath. He covered her hand with his own and brushed the pad of his thumb over her skin. “This is the only way?”

“It’s therightway.” She leaned forward and gently pressed her forehead to his. “Everything will be okay. I promise.”

He closed his eyes and slipped his arms around her. “I trust you. Iloveyou.”

A different kind of warmth coursed through her; it soothed her, lifted her spirit, and made her heart race. “I love you, too.”

She embraced him, careful not to squeeze because of his ribs. The feel of him only reminded her how much thinner he was out here. He’d been just as tall in the simulation, and had been leanly muscled, but this…he seemed to have wasted away in reality. How long had he been imprisoned here?

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