Chapter One #4
Willow opened the bedroom door and peered into the hallway. When she saw no one, she slipped out and headed toward the rear staircase, moving as quickly as she dared with Lily in her arms.
The house seemed impossibly quiet. Every tiny sound made Willow’s heart jump. A door closing somewhere in the distance. The hum of the air-conditioning. The creak of a stair beneath her sneaker.
She kept expecting someone to call her name, bracing herself for the moment a voice would cut through the silence and stop her in her tracks. But no one did.
When she reached the kitchen, it was empty. Most of the household staff had retired for the night, exactly as she had hoped.
Willow hurried to the storage closet near the side entrance and pulled it open.
Behind a jumble of cleaning supplies sat a large plastic storage bin, exactly where she had left it.
She lifted the lid with shaking hands and pushed aside a stack of old linens, her breath catching when she saw her bag was still there.
Willow slung the second bag over her shoulder, nearly crying out when its weight pressed against her injured back.
She looked down at Lily. “I can do this,” she whispered. For her daughter, she could do anything.
Willow cracked open the side door and was met with nothing but darkness spilling out into the night. She paused there, holding her breath, listening for anything that might give her away. No voices. No footsteps. Only silence. The guards were on their sweep, just as she had hoped.
Willow slipped outside, the cool night air brushing against her face as she hurried across the grounds, staying close to the deep shadows.
Lily was growing heavier in her arms with every step, and the bags dug painfully into her shoulders while each rushed movement sent a sharp jolt through her bruised body. Still, she didn’t slow down.
The outer wall finally came into view. She was almost there.
Willow reached the small service gate she had spent months studying, her pulse hammering so loudly she was sure it would give her away. She slipped through it on unsteady legs, bracing herself for the sound of alarms, footsteps, or someone shouting her name from behind. But nothing came.
She pulled the gate closed behind her, the soft click of it settling into place.
For the first time in three years, there was no wall between Willow and the rest of the world, no locked doors or guarded thresholds holding her in.
Freedom was right there. It was close enough to feel, close enough to taste, but she didn’t let herself believe in it yet.
Not when every instinct told her that escape didn’t feel like relief.
It felt like waiting for something to go wrong. And so she kept moving.
The outskirts of Marrakesh were roughly a mile away, and between her and the city lay dark roads, scattered buildings, and far too much open ground.
Willow started walking fast, forcing herself forward even though every instinct screamed at her to run.
She wanted to break into a sprint, to put as much distance as possible between herself and the estate, but with Lily tucked securely in her arms and the raw, burning pain across her back, she knew she wouldn’t make it far if she pushed too hard.
So she compromised, moving at the quickest pace her body could manage, hugging the edge of the road and staying in the shadows whenever she could
Every few seconds, she glanced over her shoulder, half-expecting to see headlights cutting through the dark or hear footsteps closing in behind her. But there was nothing, just the empty road stretching out under the night.
After several minutes, Lily stirred.
“Momma?”
“I’m right here.”
“Where go?”
Willow swallowed against the emotion clogging her throat.
“We’re going on an adventure.”
Lily lifted her head sleepily. “Ellie?”
“Ellie’s coming too.”
Apparently satisfied, Lily rested her head against Willow again.
Tears stung Willow’s eyes, but she forced them down and kept moving, quickening her pace.
Headlights appeared behind her, and her entire body tensed.
Willow immediately stepped off the road and crouched behind a low stone wall, holding Lily against her chest as the vehicle approached.
Lily whimpered.
“Shh, baby. Mommy’s right here.”
Willow held her breath as the headlights grew brighter, drawing closer with every passing second.
She imagined Chen awake, and he and his men searching every road between the estate and Marrakesh.
The vehicle passed. Thankfully, just an old truck rattling down the road.
Willow stayed hidden until the truck’s taillights finally disappeared into the dark stretch of road, and only then did she force herself to stand again.
Her legs trembled beneath her, unsteady and weak from fear and exhaustion, but she didn’t give herself time to think about it. She just kept going.
By the time the first clusters of buildings appeared ahead, Willow’s body was screaming at her to stop. Sweat dampened her hair despite the cool night air, her cheek throbbed with every heartbeat, and the wounds across her back burned beneath her shirt.
But the sight of the city just ahead pulled her forward.
Willow glanced over her shoulder once more, but the road behind her was still empty.
She entered the outskirts of Marrakesh and immediately felt exposed. She had spent three years learning that Chen had eyes everywhere, and she had no idea which businesses, police officers, drivers, or officials might be on his payroll.
Trust no one. That was the rule now.
She needed to get to the train station. From there she could put real distance between herself and Chen, but first she had to find transportation.
Willow moved deeper into the city, keeping her head down and Lily tucked against her chest. Every dark SUV made her pulse spike. Every man who looked at her for more than a second made her change direction. Twice she ducked into the shadows because she thought someone was following them.
No one was, at least, not that she could see. Or maybe they were, and she just hadn’t noticed yet.
A taxi appeared farther down the street, and Willow’s heart leaped as she stepped toward the curb and raised her hand, only for it to keep going without slowing, disappearing past her as if she wasn’t even there.
“Shit!”
She kept walking, and then another pair of headlights appeared, and Willow turned sharply toward the sound, relief flickering through her for a split second when she realized it was a taxi.
She hurried closer to the road, waving desperately with one hand while still holding Lily tightly against her chest, and the driver finally slowed as he approached.
Behind her, an engine roared somewhere in the distance. Willow glanced over her shoulder and froze when headlights appeared at the far end of the street, her stomach dropping instantly as if the ground had fallen out from beneath her.
She didn’t know if it was them, and she wasn’t about to stay long enough to find out.
As soon as the taxi stopped, Willow yanked open the back door and climbed inside with Lily, dragging the bags in after her before slamming the door.
The driver turned around, his gaze immediately landing on her bruised face.
“Madame?”
Willow looked through the rear window and saw the distant headlights growing closer, her heart hammering so hard it felt like it might burst through her chest. Instinct took over as she pulled Lily tighter against her chest, her grip trembling while she forced out the one word she had practiced countless times, even though it still felt foreign on her tongue.
“Mihal,” she said, the word meaning the train station.