Page 5 of Vicarious

“I know enough,” Phae snaps. Suddenly she looks away from both of us, shakes her head and whispers. “You don’t know Pray. He’s… He’s my uncle. My family is ruthless. But my uncle…”

“We know,” I say to Phae, running my hands up and down her arms.

“You don’t,” she snaps again, looking up at me. “You don’t.”

“We know a lot more than you think.”

“How much more?”

Wyan tries to step in. “Why don’t you sit down, and we’ll—”

Phae shakes her head. “Not we. Just you, Dele.”

“You can’t be serious,” Viper says while crossing his arms. “We have no time for this.”

“Last time I saw you, you were working for Stephen Pray, and you tried to kill us. How do I know you’re not holding Dele hostage?”

“Hold Dele? Hostage? You clearly don’t know her that well.”

“I thought I knew you too.”

I don’t remember Viper and Phae arguing like this back… before everything. I exchange a look with Wyan in askance. He just shrugs.

“If you must know, I’ve tried a few times to hold Dele hostage. It always ends up being more of a headache than it’s worth.”

That comment certainly doesn’t help Viper’s case, and Phae doubles down on her demand as a result.

“I want to talk to Dele. Only Dele. Somewhere without cameras. Like in the admin quarters. That way I can make sure she’s able to speak freely without fear of you doing something to her.”

“She’d do that anyway,” Viper mutters.

Wyan puts a hand on Viper’s shoulder that Viper immediately shrugs off.

“I’m sure we can accommodate Phae’s request. She’s been through a great ordeal. It’s natural that she’s cautious,” Wyan says. He looks at Phae and says, “You seem to know this facility better than we do. Why don’t you lead the way?”

Phae does, pulling me along with her so I can do little more than exchange a glance with Viper. For a woman who’s been held prisoner in this place for God knows how long, her spirit isn’t broken. That’s for sure. But Phae was always a fighter.

When we get to our destination, Phae gestures for Wyan to let us inside since he has all the keys and controls to the facility now. Then, as a gesture of trust, he gives Phae the keycard for the door before she ushers us both in and closes the door behind her.

When the door is closed and locked behind us, I’m proven wrong as Phae’s façade breaks and her body breaks into trembling.

“Phae,” I begin going up to her.

“No. No… I’m… It’s just a lot and…” Phae paces back and forth in the room before suddenly turning to me and saying, “Dele. Dele, where are my babies? Where?”

Something inside me lurches at hearing Phae call Lady and Leonherbabies, and I have to resist the urge to tell her that they’re my babies. Like I used to snap at Viper in those early days when his initial plan was to take the twins away from me before he figured out they’d never be safe with him as long as he worked for Pray.

I suppress that instinct, though, and say, “They’re fine. They’re safe.”

Phae visibly sags as though a great weight has been lifted off her shoulders and tears spring to her eyes.

“Oh, thank goodness,” she says as she falls back against the wall and slides down it. “Dele… I was so scared. They told me… They told me my children were here, and if I didn’t cooperate, they’d kill them. So I had to help take care of the children and keep them compliant. You don’t know… a piece of me died every time they decided a child that would have been the twins’ age were unfit and they took them away. Dele, I didn’t even get to see them before… before Pray came.”

“How are you not dead?” I blurt out unable to stop myself from asking any longer. “You died. You flatlined on the table. They called it. I heard them. I heard them call your death.”

“They brought me back. I don’t know how. A persistent doctor maybe,” Phae says with a shrug. “All I know is that I woke up and Pray was there, and he told me you were dead and so was Adrian. And he had my babies.”

“He didn’t. But you wouldn’t know that because I had already run off with…” I trail off as another thought occurs to me. “I left you there. You weren’t dead, and I left you there. I—”

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