Page 2 of Evading Darkness

He reaches across the table to grab my hand reassuringly. "I know, sweet girl, but I'm so close to getting the promotion I've been waiting for. Once I finally have it, things will slow back down again. It's just been a very unusual transitional period for the company."

"Well, the company seems to forget its employees have personal lives, too," I throw back.

This is the fourth meeting he’s had over the last three weeks. Something about a big acquisition or merger that's happening soon. I don't know. We don't go into detail about his work because itstresses him out. I know he's a business manager for a worldwide company, but that's about it.

There are a lot of things he doesn't like to talk about, including his past. Usually, that would be a red flag for me, but with how kind and trusting he is, I don’t mind him keeping some things to himself. I have plenty of secrets of my own. We’re happy, and I trust him. That's all that matters. If I ever find out he’s lied to me about anything, I’d have a completely different mindset, but he would never lie to me. He’s too good.

“It’ll all be over soon, and you won’t even remember all this stress a few months from now.” He lets go of my hand to grab his water and take a sip.

“You’re probably right, and I’m sure I’m overreacting about the whole thing, but I just miss all the time we used to spend together.”

“Sweet girl, we have the rest of our lives to spend together.” His eyes narrow slightly at the remark.

I roll my eyes at him. Obviously, we have all the time in the world unless my past catches up with me. My mind drifted from our dinner to a time in my life when everything was different.

Rogue, my dad’s perfect little society, wasn't always a bad place to be. I remember the grand balls my family would host at the compound, with tons of singing and dancing. All the members came together to celebrate whatever big event was happening within the community. It felt like a fun little fairytale, but my sweet, innocent mind hadn't been let in on the darkness just yet. Slowly, my father changed my perception of everything. The olderI got, the more cruel he became, finding creative ways to ensure I never made him look weak. My father, the great Gabriel Ashford, was the leader of our society, just like his father and his father before him.

Our family line is as close to royalty as you can get in our world. To most people, my life looks perfect, but being the so-called princess of a century-old society comes with a mess of duties to live up to. My father insisted he was going to have a son after I was born, but my mother was never able to have more children. I was always his disappointing consolation prize. He made sure to remind me as often as possible.

There are four founding families of Rogue and ten council seats. The council members hold all the power, voting on all the society’s decisions. These members all live in houses spread out around the compound.

The council seats are composed of five citizen representatives elected from the guard, my father, his second in command Barry Michaels, Steve Johnson, and Austin Roberts. The latter two are the last descendants of their founding family lines.

Each of the founding families was entitled to a seat on the council that would pass down to their heir upon death. Steve and Austin have no children, so when they die, their seats will sit empty, just as the 10th seat currently sits.

Not long after my father took over as leader, one of the founding families opted to leave the main living quarters of the society's compound and move to a small town across the country. They wanted to raise their child outside the confines of Rogue's walls,and it ended up being a fatal mistake. The family didn't have the security they needed to protect themselves when someone burned their house down. Both the parents and their newborn died in the tragic fire just days after their move.

The whole event was a major upset for our community. My father refuses to talk about it. Afterward, he and the council ruled that in the event any founding family line was eliminated, their seat on the council would remain vacant as a reminder of that loss to society. Thus, the empty 10th seat.

The server stops at our table, snapping me out of my thoughts and back to the present as she sets our meals in front of us. I am here at dinner with Julian. My father can't find me. I remind myself. I take a few sips of my water to try and keep my mind at ease before looking around at our food.

Julian ordered his usual medium-rare steak, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. Without saying a word, he grabs his knife and dives right in. Typically, I order the chicken parmesan, but being that it's a special occasion, I decided to switch things up a bit, so I went with the blackened salmon instead. I’m a real risk-taker.

"This looks amazing." My eyes go wide with the amount of food on the plate. There’s no way I'll finish all of this. "I don't know why I never ordered this before. It smells so good!"

He chuckled. "You're a creature of habit, sweet girl."

No, I'm not.I think to myself.

"Eat up. We have a busy night planned," he says with a wink.

“What sort of big night do you have planned?” I raise an eyebrowat him.

“You wouldn’t want me to ruin the surprise now, would you?” He takes another bite of his steak.

“Are we going dancing?” I’ve been telling him about how I wanted to try taking one of those salsa classes for a while now. We could make it like dirty dancing by getting all sweaty by dancing and then go home to bang it out.

“No, we aren’t going dancing. At least not today.” He looks up at me with a look of warning, obviously wanting me to drop it.

“Come on, you know I’m terrible with surprises. Just tell me.” It’s true. I really hate surprises.

“Callie, I’m not telling you, so drop it.” His tone is a little more fierce than usual, which causes me to make a face at him.

“Chill out, Julian. You don’t have to be so serious.”

“I’m sorry, sweet girl. I just put a lot of effort into making sure today was a good day for you. I don’t want to spoil anything.”

He wants to make sure today is a good day. I don’t think today will ever be a good day for me. The flashbacks pull me back in.

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