Page 9 of Safe and Sound

Wait. Surely she doesn’t mean…

“Ben’s going to be gone for another month?”

Why is this making mom happy?

“It’s going to be a mini honeymoon for us.”

She comes over to me and clasps my hands in hers.

“You’re…you’re going with him?”

Mom nods happily, looking behind me with a big smile at Ren. “And we owe it all to Ren!”

Ren? Why do I feel like this is a setup? If Mom is with Ben, then I will be alone for at least two months. Two months is a long time to be all by myself.

“If he hadn’t said he was willing to take care of you while we were gone, I would never have brought it up to Ben.”

What the shit?! I snap my head around and glare at the asshole beside me!

“What?” I can tell by the look on his face that it’s as bad, or even worse than I thought. I jump out of my seat trying to put space between me and him but I don’t want to go closer to Mom either.

“Watch me? Watch me how? Mom, I’m eighteen! I don’t need to be ‘watched’ like some kind of child. I’m not a pet that needs supervision. I can take care of myself! Hell, I can go stay with…”

“You are not going anywhere near that little shit you call a best friend!” Now, he’s up on his feet. He’s actually pointing his finger at me!

“You don’t get to tell me what to do, asshole!”

“I do when it’s for your own fucking safety, princess.”

“If you don’t stay with your brother…”

“Step!” We both yell it at Mom as she starts wringing her hands, a worried look crosses her face and sadness clouds her eyes. I’m about to apologize for yelling when she delivers the death blow.

“If you didn’t go stay with Ren I’d worry about you so much I might as well not even go.” God damn it! My shoulders slump in defeat. “I’m going to call Ben back and just tell him…”

“I’ll go with Ren.”

“You’ll go with Ren and let him take care of you?”

I flop back in one of the dining room chairs and give her a nod. There is no way I am going to cause her so much sadness.

“Yes. I’ll go with him.”

There’s no way out of it. No way for me to fight back. But why? Why would he do this, orchestrate all this so he could get me alone?

Is it so he can punish me slowly for being the person on the other end of the dating site? Maybe he thinks I made an idiot out of him so he’s going to do the same to me. Maybe the level of his ire was so great when he realized that the person he got to know doesn’t exist -because she is me- that he wants to torture me over it.

And what happens when I stay with him and some girl comes over? Will I have to listen to them have sex? Will I have to listen as the mystery woman screams out Ren’s name or calls him Daddy? Oh God! I can’t do this! I have to find a way out! I have to!

Chapter Eight

Rennik

“Yes, of course, I will stay with Ren, mom. For you. So you can go have a good time with Ben.”

She tries to hide the worry and sadness in her eyes but I’ve started really looking at Estella. I see it. Ava doesn’t and she just comes rushing over so she can hug her daughter while talking about all she has to do to get ready to be with my dad. She comes for me next and buzzes my cheek with a motherly kiss before flitting out.

“Oh, I have so much to do before I can go! I need to pack. Oh, I should buy a new bathing suit…no, I’ll buy one when I get there, that way Ben can help me pick it out!”

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