Page 13 of The Demon

I maintain a blank expression because I can tell what’s coming and nothing will prise the truth from my lips. He will need to toss me from this mountain before I reveal the identity of the person responsible for helping me and so I remain tight-lipped as he continues.

“I want to learn about your involvement in this. Why you were seen leaving Massimo’s house with Winter’s son and why was it under the assumed name of a woman who went missing around the same time you did?”

“Missing?” My heart drops because I never considered there was a real Dolores Brown and I’m unsure how to answer him because this is news.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Dolores Brown was a name I hid behind to disguise my whereabouts.”

“I see.”

Malik appears thoughtful. “So how did you end up in Massimo’s mansion?”

Here it is, the question I have prepared the answer for a thousand times in my mind, and I relay the story as if it’s fact.

“I answered an ad for a nanny and was hired. It suited me to hide away in a place nobody would dare try to look and it worked.”

“Interesting.”

Malik’s eyes bore deep into my soul, and I can tell from the expression in them he doesn’t believe a word of it and snaps, “Where was this ad?”

“I don’t remember.”

“I see.” He almost smiles as if this is amusing him and says casually, “So why did you leave and why take Frankie under an assumed name?”

“I didn’t.”

I stare at him hard and hate myself for the next words out of my mouth.

“I didn’t take Frankie. I left him there.”

For the first time, Malik looks shaken, and I say with no emotion. “The baby I took was my own. Benjamin.”

The shock in his eyes makes me want to curl up and die because right at this moment, I hate myself. The devastation I am witnessing first hand tells me that Frankie is the most important person in Malik’s life right now and I wonder about that. Why is he so invested in this small baby? In fact, why is Frankie so important? Because it’s not only Malik who is concerned for his welfare, but also the man who arranged this whole shit show.

“Your own baby.”

Malik rolls the words around his tongue as if testing they’re real and I nod defiantly, the lies spilling from my mouth as if I believe them myself.

“It was why I ran.”

My heart starts thumping as I spin a web of lies that will protect the damned.

“I had an affair with one of my father’s soldiers. It was something I’m not proud of, but I was angry with my father and wanted to die. He always told me I must be a virgin on my wedding night and if I wasn’t, I would die. He would kill me himself before passing my body to my husband to finish off.”

“Then why risk that? You must have known what would happen.”

Malik sounds doubtful, and I shrug. “I wanted to die.”

“I see.” If anything, Malik accepts my explanation and I sigh heavily, preparing to spill the next part of my lie.

“I ran away when I missed my period. I was so afraid and stayed in a cheap motel at the end of the bus route. I noticed an ad for a live-in nanny and saw it as a way out of my predicament. It all happened so fast, and I was soon hiding out in Massimo’s mansion where I gave birth to my son Benjamin. I cared for him alongside Frankie, and I was safe to a point.”

“So, why leave?”

“Because Massimo told me he discovered who I was, and it wasn’t worth the trouble of keeping me from my father. As soon as he returned from his lunch date, he was going to send me back with an armed guard as a gift, proving his allegiance to the Ortega mafia. I had to leave; my life depended on it.”

“And Benjamin, where is he now?”

“With his father’s family.”

---