Chapter 11
Henry.
The name echoes over and over inside my mind. Lilian’s son has survived, and he’s named Henry. I don’t even need to know the boy to know that it suits him. What’s he like? What’s his favorite color? Does he have hobbies? I try to struggle to think of when his birthday might be or what sort of person he has become. He’s older now, though my mind is far too busy to attempt to pin down his exact age. Probably at least ten. I can’t fathom it.
The chains that hold me bite angrily into my skin as I struggle to put all the pieces together. I sag lower, processing. I know that our time is bound to be almost up, and that Anya is going to have to hide that phone soon. I still have no idea how we are going to get out of these chains without help. I also know that breaking into Nikolai’s house, practically a fortress, is a suicide mission. Even for somebody with Daniel’s expertise.
“Henry,” I whisper to myself, testing out how the name feels on my tongue.
Did Lilian get to name him? I can’t for the life of me remember the names that she had suggested back when she was pregnant. Through the screen I can hear Daniel telling Anya what happened, what they have learned so far and that their main priority is protecting Henry.
I can’t blame them; I would do the same.
Just knowing that he’s alive means that my own priorities shift.
In another life, Lilian would still be alive, and Henry would be my son. I would have been the one to raise him. It’s hard to even picture as I kneel here in a dank cell, rotting away.
Fate can be cruel.
I hope Henry is happy, that’s all that truly matters.
Did Daniel get him right away? There’s so much of all their lives that I’ve missed, that I’ve been excluded from. The stakes of this war that Nikolai and Daniel are fighting are instantly more real for me. I never would have thought that children would be involved. It was bad enough to know that my sister’s pregnant. But this? This is something else entirely. I’m glad that I never gave that bastard anything. I would gladly endure the torture again and again so long as it means that they are safe.
“Alek?” Helena’s voice comes from the other end of the phone, and I look up at the screen overhead. “Hang on.”
I hear the shuffle, doors opening and then the soft sounds of jazz music.
“Aha!” Helena says in a softer voice than I’ve ever heard her use before. I can hear her smile through the phone. “I knew it!”
“Aw man!” A young boy’s voice registers and I think that my heart stops dead in my chest. I strain harder, as if being closer to the screen might somehow bring me closer to Henry.
“You know that you are supposed to be asleep, mister.” Helena chastises without any venom. “Lights out.”
“Pleeeaaasseeee,” Henry pleads through the phone. “Just one more chapter! I’m at the good part! Plleeasseee.”
Real. He’s real. He’s a real person and he likes to read.
Helena laughs. “Fine, but that”s it! You have your recital tomorrow!”
Music too? Cultured? Of course he would be with Daniel Colombo as his father. He would have no choice but to have attended all of the finest private schools with all the best tutors.
“I practiced!” Henry adds. “This is the last chapter! I promise!”
I hear the door to Henry’s room shut and then the shuffling of Helena’s feet going down the stairs once more.
I can’t speak. I can hardly even breathe.
“You’re welcome.” Helena says in a familiar snippy tone. “Now, come here.”
She shoves the phone at Daniel, and he speaks next. “How can I help you?”
He’s speaking to Anya now, not me. She gives me a sympathetic look through the screen and turns the phone off speaker to give Daniel as much information as she can. I can distantly hear her going over floor plans and layouts of the mansion. She talks to Daniel about Nikolai and the few things she does know, including a little about the security system as well.
Daniel is going to be the absolute best chance that we have of getting out of here, I know that. He’s the only shot that we have. Helena knew that by showing me that Henry is alive and well, I would need to get out. I can’t let myself rot away when he’s out there. Nikolai must not know that he’s alive This means everything to me now. A whole new sense of purpose and focus.
As much as I want to tell them to get Anya, that she’s the one that needs freedom and not myself, I know that they won’t listen to me.
“Henry has to be the focus now.” I speak calmly as possible and as clearly as possible. “He’s the only thing that matters. If coming to save me jeopardizes him…” I trail off, knowing that Daniel will understand my meaning.
“Shut up.” Anya says and turns back to the phone call. “I don’t care what you have to do, or what you have to pay to make this happen, Daniel, I’m placing all of my trust in you here. I don’t care what Alek says, he won’t last much longer in here.”
I want to argue but I know she’s right.
My strength is fading daily. The food that they have me on isn’t enough to sustain me. Never mind the conditions that I am enduring. It’s not going to end well for me. I don’t even know if, once the chains and shackles are removed, I will have the capability of fighting my own way out. How long have I even been down here? I stopped trying to count. I only started living for Anya’s visits.
Bleak, I know that.
But without her? I didn’t really care if I lived or died as long as Helena’s secrets died with me. It didn’t matter what Nikolai did to my body. I learned how to mentally distance myself from what’s happening to me physically a long time ago.
Until Anya.
Now, until Henry.