Chapter 48 Episode 48
1637 Words
“Is she okay?” I call out, my voice trembling.
Nikolai stands up, half-smirking. “Unfortunately, this littledebacle hasn’t changed her. She just flipped me off.”
Oh, thank God, is my first thought. Elise is fine. Elise is safe.Elise is okay.
My second thought is, I’m gonna kill her.
I stomp towards the ditch she ended up in. “Elise MargaretRowan, get your ass out of that car. Now!”
Slowly, the door opens and Elise steps out. She has theaudacity to look bored. “Relax, Belle. You’re not my—”
“Shut up,” I hiss. “You don’t get to say anything right now.You don’t get to talk back. You don’t get to tell me I’m notyour mom. Because I’m the closest thing you have to it. And
all you get to do is sit there and let me yell at you. Because—because—”
I look at the scratched paint and crunched hood and try not toimagine how much the car will cost to fix. More than I have.More than I may ever have. But I can’t think about that now.
Elise pouts and crosses her arms. “This is so stupid. I justwanted to go sightseeing. But that car is fast. I lost controldown the hill, and—”
I hold up a hand to stop her. “I don’t want to hear how youalmost crashed and died. You could have gone sightseeingwith us!”
“And be a third wheel to your dates?” she scoffs. “No thanks.”
Nikolai, the intelligent man that he is, chooses that moment toslip away from the bickering Rowan women and start the trekup the road towards a tall, two-level farmhouse at the end of along drive. I’m guessing it belongs to the owners of theproperty that Elise just violated.
“These aren’t ‘dates.’ I’m working for Nikolai,” I snap.
I’m hoping Elise is more convinced by my lie than I am.Nikolai said I was here to work for him, to help him with hishotel. But nothing I’ve done so far even kind of resembleswork. It’s just been a really lovely vacation.
Or at least, it was. Until Elise disappeared this morning.
I should have seen her escape coming, honestly. I can alwayscount on cold, hard reality to give me a kick in the asswhenever I start to think things could be looking up for me.
“Speaking of which, Nikolai has taken care of us this lastweek and you decided to repay him by crashing his car?”
For the first time, Elise has the decency to look guilty.
“You shouldn’t be driving in the first place!” I pile on. “Youdon’t even have a learner’s permit.”
“I’ve been driving for years,” she snaps. “How else do youthink I got groceries from the store? You think Mom drove methere? C’mon, Belle, don’t be stupid.”
The admission catches me off guard. I hesitate.
Elise fills the silence. “I used to pull my wagon the ten blocksthere and back, but driving was easier. I could fit more in thetrunk and I didn’t have to go as often.”
And just like that, my anger dissipates. The image of my babysister buying groceries and hauling them home in her little redwagon… It’s too much. I want to break down.
So much was taken away from her, and she doesn’t evenrealize what she’s missing. It’s just normal for her.
I drag a hand down my face and try to keep it together. “Youshouldn’t have stolen the car, Elise. You should have asked usabout sightseeing. If you don’t want to go with us, Nikolaicould have found you a tour guide.”
“That’s right,” she snarls. “I forgot I can just ask Nikolai forwhatever I need. He’s the one actually taking care of me.Should I start calling him Daddy now?”
Elise may as well have slapped me across the face. I stare ather, a rage I don’t recognize rising up inside of me. Before Ican do anything I’ll likely regret, I turn away.
Breathe. Breathe. I murmur the word under my breath againand again until each inhalation doesn’t feel quite so much likeI’m sucking down battery acid.
Nikolai chooses that moment to come walking back down theroad.
“Well,” he says when he’s close enough for us to hear him,“the owner was willing to make a deal. You work off thedamage to the fence and he’ll call it even.”
“It sure as hell isn’t going to be either of us,” I mutter at her.
She turns her glare on me. “I’m not working for somestranger! He can call the police for all I care. I’m not evenlegal. What are they going to do to me?”
“Take you away?” I suggest, leaning forward until I’m onlyinches away from her face. “You’ll be ID’d as a runaway.They’ll take you back to Omaha. Back to Mom. Is that whatyou want?”
Elise doesn’t avert her gaze, but I can see the flicker ofuncertainty behind her eyes. The fear that lives there even ifshe refuses to let it out.
I hate that I’m doing this to her. But I need her to see—to trulysee and understand—exactly what’s at stake here.
“You must want to be there because you don’t want to be withme,” I continue with a shrug. “I’m doing my best, but youmake it so damn hard sometimes, Elise. Maybe working willbe good for you. Maybe it will make you realize that life isn’ta f*****g fairytale. It’s not easy. You have to work for it.”
“Oh yeah, because my life has been a real fairytale before this!f**k you, Belle!”
Nikolai snorts softly behind me. “Birds of a feather,” hemutters.
I resist the urge to turn around and give him the finger. MaybeI’m more like Elise than I’m willing to admit sometimes.
Instead, I look over my shoulder at him. “When does shestart?”
“In the morning,” he says. “Sunrise.”
“Great. Then we’ll go to the hotel now, but be back tomorrow—”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Elise argues. “I’d ratherstay here and work.”
I fling my arm towards the farmhouse. “Then get going! Noone is stopping you!”
Her nostrils flare. Then, in a huff, Elise spins on her heel andstarts marching up the driveway towards the house.
As soon as she’s out of earshot, I turn to Nikolai. “Did this guyseem okay? Do you know him? What if he’s some kind ofmurderer or—”
“We’ll stick close by,” he says.
I nod, momentarily relieved. Then the guilt starts to set in.“But you’re here to work, not babysit. You probably have stuffto do. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
I blink, my mouth still hanging open with more words sittingunsaid on my tongue.
“You didn’t do this,” he continues. “Elise did. And if I neededto be somewhere else, I would be. I’m not here because you’reforcing me. I’m here because I want to be. Got it?”
The tone of voice is harsh and jagged, but the words are sosoothing I don’t know what to do with them.
In the end, I just nod. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he says. “Now, do you want to ride a horse or not?”
Three hours into our horse ride, I’m finally starting to relax.Nikolai has been trotting along next to me like he’s been doingthis his whole damn life. The man looks effortless doinganything at all—behind the wheel of a sports car, on a privateplane, on top of a horse. It’s not fair.
“I think you’re finally ready to gallop,” he says.
I smooth my hand down the mare’s neck. “Yeah, I don’t thinkso. My legs are already going to be so sore.”
“From what? From riding a horse for three hours! Not all of usare muscled demigods. Some of us are working with feeblehuman parts, okay?”
My thighs really do hurt. But there’s also something to thishorse therapy. Sitting on top of this massive animal, it’s hardto imagine there’s anything I can’t conquer. Anything I can’taccomplish. I’m not ready to get rid of that feeling.
Especially since I know what’s waiting for me when I get off.
“There’s a lot of land here,” Nikolai says. “We’re free toexplore.”
The land stretches out in gentle dips and hills, a ring ofglaciers along the horizon. It’s green and lush and beautiful.Romantic, some might even say.
“Feels dangerous,” I say softly.
He laughs. “It won’t be like yesterday. No cliffs.”
But that’s not the kind of danger I was referring to.
Nikolai hops off his horse with ease and walks over to me. Hegrips my thigh with one hand and offers me his other, helpingme down.
In his hands, I’m more at risk than ever of falling into afantasy. Of forgetting what my real life looks like.
The moment my feet are on the ground, I take off walking. Asif I can outrun this strange feeling in my chest.
Nikolai catches up to me quickly. “Where are you going?”
“Do you have any clue where you’re headed?”
I stop and look around. As far as I can tell, aside from the fewbuildings on the farm, there are no other landmarks. Just wildcountryside.
“Isn’t that the point of exploring? Wandering with nodestination in mind?”
“If you want to fall off another cliff, then sure.”
- Writer
