Chapter 32 Sofia
SOFIA
It will be okay.
I shifted to sit with my back against the wall at a different angle.
I don’t know how, but I know everything will be all right, little one.
Bruises would litter my skin with how they’d beaten me already. No furniture was available for me in this cell that was stained with the blood, guts, and fecal matter of captives the men had tortured and killed down here.
No chair. No bed. Nothing but the dirty concrete floor that bore the marks of misery and suffering.
Leaning against the wall hurt from where they’d hit me. My arm was numb, aching each time I flexed my fingers and hand. But my stomach was fine. I’d blocked it, determined to protect anything from striking me there.
I will make everything all right, little one.
Talking in my head to my baby was a new defense mechanism, and escapism, but it soothed my wounded soul.
I swear on all I am, baby, I promise that everything will be okay.
It was laughable, really. But this burning determination to triumph wouldn’t be extinguished. It didn’t matter how hard they hit me, how many broken bones they wanted to deliver to me, and how many wicked, cruel things my uncle wanted to threaten.
He wouldn’t win.
I would not die, not like this, dammit.
And my child would never be used as anything, never be his pawn like I had been for far too long.
So this is what they were talking about.
I’d only known I was pregnant for less than forty-eight hours.
From the best that I could tell the passing of the day through the small window in the upper corner of the cinderblock wall, it was almost night time now.
I couldn’t have been in here for more than half a day, and I’d taken that pregnancy test yesterday morning.
It hardly made a difference how long I’d been aware that I was expecting a baby. It was a fact my body heeded well.
Not only with the morning sickness and fatigue, but this intense need to fight. To defend.
I was a mama bear, already facing a battle this early in my little one’s life.
And it was fierce.
I was hurt and aching, but this need to get away was a powerful force that wouldn’t quit.
My skin was cut and bleeding from their strikes, but a latent need to kick their asses and show them that I was unstoppable charged through my veins.
So this is what it means to have maternal instincts.
I narrowed my eyes, zoning out at the sounds of cars moving outside.
I’d always had a bleeding heart, empathetic and crushed to witness anyone in pain. I cared like that about my cousin. I’d fussed over Andre like this as well. But this, this fiery combativeness that I wielded at my uncle’s claims about how he’d use my child…
Try me.
Try me, you asshole.
I dare you to take this baby from me.
Shifting again, I winced at the dull throb in my upper back. Any way I moved, it hurt, but that, too, would pass.
I closed my eyes and willed myself to cling to hope. To believe this couldn’t be my end. In the blissful darkness of my closed lids, I prayed that someone else would want to help me.
That Anya had gone home safely and told the others that I’d been taken.
That Andre knew that my uncle had kidnapped me and was holding me hostage.
And that he’d want to come and save me.
I opened my eyes at the sounds of more cars being moved on the driveway, in and out of the four-car garage.
Don’t hold your breath.
I smirked, hating how little faith I could have in the man I’d tried not to submit to. He’d been right about me when he said I was independent. I was. Now, I had to be. No one else was going to save me. Hell, it might be up to me.
I was alone in this cell.
I was facing a solo journey of an escape.
Anya cared. Claire and Natalie would too.
But for all I’d done and confessed to, the others wouldn’t.
Oleg. Mikhail. All the Orlov forces. They’d never trust me and would never want to help me.
But will Andre?
Did he feel anything for me?
Willing the threatening tears to stay away, I sucked in a deep breath and listened to the sounds of the cars outside.
Sweat clung to me, dripping over my face as I sat still in this sweltering cell.
Rain had tapped on the window earlier, but now, a definitive rat-a-tat-tat-tat reached me.
Narrowing my eyes at the sound, I realized that the shadows had changed. The headlights outside were different, blocked by a figure.
Hope blossomed. Joy filled me at what I thought I was seeing.
No one in this house would care to help me. Every one of the Giovanni soldiers would stay loyal to my uncle.
But outside the house…
I stood as quickly as I could and went to the window. It was far too small to fit through. It was up way too high for me to reach. Even if I wasn’t so short, there was nothing to stand on.
Waving my arms, desperately getting my hopes up that the blob of a figure out there was my only chance of an ally, I jumped and shouted.
“Thomas? Thomas!”
The blur of a figure didn’t leave the other side of the frosted glass. Creaking sounds accompanied the slight wiggling and rocking motion of the pane. Then with a harder thump of striking the frame on the outside, the glass tilted in.
“Sofia?” the young teen asked with fear.
“Thomas!” I almost cried in relief.
“Oh, fuck. I can’t believe it.” He leaned down, slanting to peer in the window.
The pane wouldn’t part all the way. It wasn’t intended to ever be used as a means to escape.
In the winter, they left it open to further chill the occupants.
All I saw was his eye and the hint of his curly black hair that fell like a mop over his brow.
“I saw the drivers come back and I didn’t want to be nosy and get in trouble.
But me and Jerome were thinking that it looked like you when they pulled someone outta the trunk and I was worried and wondering.
Holy, fuck, Sofia. What’s going on?” He shook his head and looked away, as if checking that no one was watching him.
“I’m so confused. And like, freaking out.
As soon as I got a chance and your uncle left for the gambling hall, I tried to look in all the dungeon windows. ”
“Did you see Esmeralda?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Course, I did. I already knew which room was hers.”
“She’s… alive?”
He nodded again. “Yeah. I mean, well, yeah. She’s coughing more and more. But she’s alive. I can’t wait to tell her that you are too.”
I shook my head. “No. Don’t tell her that I’m here.”
He squinted at me.
“I don’t want her to know. I don’t want to worry her. Besides, she’s getting out of here.”
It wasn’t easy to see, but I watched his eyebrow pop up. “Outta here? But how?”
“With your help,” I said sternly.
“Course. Course. I’ll help. But how?”
He was the only one I could count on not telling my uncle or any guards that I wasn’t behaving.
He was trapped here too, because his father was a driver and he had no other life or home to belong to.
Even though he was just a teen, and was often taken advantage of in the garage, like I was in this house, he was more than willing to befriend me and collaborate with me when we could.
I explained how he’d need to get Esmeralda out of her room.
My plan was to have my uncle go to check on a fire at one of his warehouses.
I’d already arranged for an alert to be sent to him via a messaging app that couldn’t be tracked.
With him out of the house, Thomas would need to get my cousin toward the garage.
That was where the EMTs would pick her up, and with luck, she’d be on her way to the hospice facility. Out of here.
“When, though?” he asked after I explained.
“Tomorrow morning,” I replied.
“But what if your uncle don’t go? What if he’s here and what if too many guards are around?”
I shook my head. “They shouldn’t be. It’s a diversion, and something that will alert them. It should work.”
He winced. “What if it don’t?”
“Then I’ll have to think of something else,” I replied simply.
And I would. Because Anya knew about that hospice arrangement, someone would need to follow up.
I hadn’t made it into the building to sign the documents, but I was banking on their accepting Esmeralda anyway.
Perhaps Anya or Claire could sign for her.
And then once I escaped and found a safe new start somewhere far away, I could pay them back.
“But what about you?” he asked after once more looking away to check that no one was coming.
“I’ll figure that out too.” I frowned up at him. “Will you, then? Will you help get her out of here?”
“Course. Course, I will, Sofia.”
After a few more words of him expressing his worry about me, which I appreciated but dismissed, he rushed off.
Leaving the window open would be something that someone would notice, but for now, with the faint summer breeze easing into the cracked slit, I felt like I could breathe steadier.
I sat back down. And winced at the pain screaming in rage all over my body.
Then I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh air.
Again. And again.
Dozing off seemed like a joke, but with the promise that Thomas would help me with my cousin, I felt calmer.
In the morning, that calm was disrupted.
My bogus alert text came through, and I knew the minute it did because my uncle’s yells and orders reached me through the little window opening. Guards ran and rushed to his orders. Then countless revs of engines filled the yard and driveway.
As they all rushed off to check on that warehouse, the EMT vehicle should have been on its way.
Please, please, please.
Go and be comfortable like you deserve, E.
And live life to the fullest for me, too. Until I can get out.
Listening for the sounds of Thomas outside, I paced in the cell and strained to pick up any noise that would indicate he was transporting Esmeralda.
The teen was tall and gangly, but not with many muscles.
Esmeralda was short and slight and had lost so much weight.
He could carry her, right? He’d be able to hurry her out of here?
Men’s voices came through the window. I didn’t recognize them, but I caught the tone of Thomas’s young, slangy dialect.
Please.
Please.
Esmeralda, please get out of here…
Taps on the window startled me.
“Did you get her?” I asked, then held my breath.
“I did. I got her outta here, Sofia.”
I closed my eyes and smiled. “Thank you. Thank you, Thomas. From the bottom of my heart. Thank you.”
“She was skin and bones, Sofia,” he said sadly.
I opened my eyes. “I know.” Surprisingly, no tears came. Because I knew this. I knew that she’d die soon. “I know.”
“The man who came to get her sounded confused. You sure your uncle’s paying for her to go?” He gasped. “Wait. He don’t know. Does he?”
“No. I’m paying for her to be there.”
“But… you’re… here.”
Not for long.
“Thank you, Thomas.”
“You’re welcome, Sofia. I’ll come back by, make sure you’re okay and see if you need anything.”
He took off, and I hoped he’d followed all my instructions, such as remembering to remove the strip of dark tape off the cameras that would have captured him carrying my cousin outside.
See? I rubbed my stomach. It’s not so bad to do this alone. I did it. I got her out.
It will be okay.
I’d saved her. I couldn’t prevent her from dying too soon, but at least now, she’d be spared my uncle’s abuse and neglect. She’d be pain-free and comfortable at that hospice.
That was saving her, or saving what she had left to live.
Now…
I pressed my hand over where my belly would swell.
Now it’s time to figure out how to save you.
I forced a swallow past the clog in my throat, that lump of emotions that had me drawing a shaky breath. Turning to gaze up at the window, I sighed and clung to the faint but stubborn hope that I wouldn’t be completely alone in protecting this baby.
Will you come, Andre?
Will you look for me and want to help me?
I lowered my head and tried not to let my fear get to me.
Will you… ever care for me enough to want to see me again?
I had no way to guess.
Deep in my soul, I yearned for the security he’d once given me, the support he hadn’t even known I needed so desperately to survive.