Page 40 of The Black Lotus
This is probably where she took her.
I will meet you there.
My ETA says three hours.
Please save my daughter.
I take out my burner phone, punching in the coordinates with surprisingly steady fingers.
Hang on, Serena, I’m coming.
NINETEEN
SERENA
Igroan, my body feeling as though it weighs a ton.My head is killing me.I try to rub the sensitive spot, desperate to relieve some of the ache, but my hands don’t move.What the fuck?I can’t panic, maybe this is some test from Aster. If I get caught, how would I free myself? Slowly blinking, my eyes adjusting to the bright light shining down on me, I look around.Where… where am I?
Tugging again, I realize my hands are strapped behind me and my legs tied to each of the chair legs. My shoulders burn and are begging for some type of release. I try to wiggle them, which just makes the soreness worse. “Hello?” I croak, my throat feeling like it’s on fire.I need water.I try to swallow, but my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.Now I know how Spongebob felt in that one episode where he was literally dying without it.
Furrowing my brow, I try to remember how I got here. I was at Sinister Beans with Aster when I got a call from Sharon saying Dad was in an accident. My breath catches, the pain in my shoulders fading for a moment.That’s right, my dad is hurt.Wiggling around, I try to loosen my restraints, but the harder I pull, the tighter they become. It’s like that finger trap toy everykid played with. The one where the harder you tried to free your fingers from the holes, the harder it would be to free them.
“You can try all you want, but you can’t escape.” I hear a familiar sickly sweet southern accent from somewhere from the shadows. My head whips up towards the direction of her voice as I squint my eyes to see where she hides.It isn’t Aster training me, but Sharon who has kidnapped me?
“Sharon?”
I blink as her figure walks into the light and shields me from the incessant brightness. “I’m losing my touch; you woke up far quicker than expected.”
I tug against the ropes until I feel the burns lining my wrists. “Where am I? Where is my dad? Is he okay?”
Sharons shakes her head, tsking with disappointment. “You stupid girl. Are you really naïve enough to think your dad was hurt?”
I cock my head to the side. “Yes. You’re going to be his wife, why would I not believe you?”
She walks around me, like a shark circling its prey while waiting to strike. Her cold hand caresses my cheek, her touch leaving a clammy feeling. “Your naivety is going to get you killed.”
She walks away, leaving a cold chill in her wake and sending shivers up my spine. “Why are you doing this?” I ask, dreading the answer.
“It’s simple. I want your father to myself, and you, just like your whore of a mother, are in my way.” Her hands flail in the air as she speaks, her eyes wide like a mad woman before she clears her throat and turns around.
Her words don’t make any sense. From what they told me, my mom pushed them to be together.How would my mother be in her way if she’s the reason they’re together?
A cold plastic touches my wrist, my fingers feeling around for what it is, before I remember Lena’s warning.The box cutter!She said to keep it out of sight so I wrapped it around my bicep, out of sight. Sharon is a lousy kidnapper considering she didn’t even search my body; I still feel it. I rub the back of my arm on my back so the key to my freedom can be within reach while Sharon composes herself. My hand moves around to grab the blade just right, finding the lever that will free me so
I can escape.Thank you, Lena.
“I thought you loved my mother,” I say, keeping her talking long enough to free myself.
“She thought that too, but in order to get to your father, I had to pretend. Which was hard because I’m a classy, southern lady who has never been with a woman, but when you come from the family I came from. Well…” she scoffs, “let’s just say acting comes easy.”
“You only wanted my father?” She wormed her way into their lives, tricked them both into believing she actually cared, when she only wanted my father. She was a snake in the grass just waiting for the perfect time to strike. Anger boils inside me building like a volcano the more she speaks.
Sharon grabs a pair of scissors from a tray I didn’t notice behind her, swiftly turning around and pointing them in my face. “Are you even listening, you stupid girl,” she spits.
“I am,” I say, trying to calm my voice to not give her the reaction she wants. “I want to know why you think my father would ever leave my mother.”
She sticks the blade of the scissor under her fingernail, treating it like a nail picker and making my lip curl. “I knew he wouldn’t; that is why I decided your mother had to die.”
“She was already dying.” The anger swirls inside, blending with the sadness of remembering my mother slowly witheringaway and not being able to do anything to save her.No. Concentrate Serena. You need to escape.
