CHAPTER 46 ELODIE #3
“Hmm?” His eyes stay closed.
“You should go to bed.”
“Nah, I’m good here.”
I suppose if he’s this high, he might not wake to me leaving. Hopefully Bob won’t either. I wiggle out of his embrace and leave him sprawled on the sofa.
As incredible as that was, it hasn’t changed my mind. It’s simply sated the one thing I’ve craved my entire stay in this miserable house. Not just the orgasm – the choice. The power.
Fiz gave that to me. I shake my head, almost laughing to myself. I’m going to miss High Fiz. The other version could piss off, but High Fiz could stay. I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of him.
***
I rush to the computer room on tiptoes. I don’t turn any lights on; I just fire up the PC and let the screens light the room a little. Chills are running down my spine, anxiety and fear running thick through my veins now. It’s happening. I’m really doing this. I’m finally going to be free.
I log on to everything and load up the account, excitement tingling my fingers.
Something stops me in my tracks.
The numbers are wrong.
So, so wrong.
There’s a bunch of zeroes where there should be literally any other number.
My heart’s hammering in my chest as I scan for any outgoings. There shouldn’t have been anything going out of this account. I’m the only person who knows about it.
There’s only one transaction with the whole total amount transferred out. By an account I don’t recognise.
What the fuck?
The money’s gone. I click on the account’s details, trying to find out what the hell could have happened. My breath is coming in short pants as panic takes over. I’m cold and clammy. I must have been hacked. But how? It’s untraceable, impenetrable.
This can’t be happening. This simply cannot be happening.
All my money’s gone? I click and tap frantically on the keyboard, trying to locate the one thing that’s mine, the one thing that was going to save me.
Tears are falling from my eyes, and my chest is aching as it starts to digest what’s going on.
“Please, please, please,” I whisper desperately, tears prickling my eyes.
“I always liked it when you begged.”
The taunting voice sends me flying out of the seat, crashing to the floor. The computer screen barely lights Caden’s face in the back of the room, lounging casually on the sofa.
“Caden, what the fuck are you doing?”
He slowly gets to his feet, like he has all the time in the world to enjoy this, while I try to catch my breath.
“I was wondering when you were going to do it. I figured it’d be soon, I just didn’t know when.
But tonight, when you stopped fighting, I knew you decided that if you didn’t die, you’d leave.
I tipped you over the edge tonight, didn’t I, Elodie? ”
My sobs don’t slow, but the rage bubbles up. “You took my money?”
“Damn right I did.” He stalks towards me. “Did you really think I was too dumb to understand what you were doing on those screens? You don’t think I can’t identify a fucking bank account when I see one?”
“That’s my money. My cut of the business.”
“Don’t insult me, Elodie. You don’t think I noticed the slight amount missing from my cut? Let me guess, you thought we all have so much fucking money we wouldn’t notice? You’ve been robbing us, Elodie. You’re the typical Valor-greedy-bitch I claimed you were.”
“The slightest fucking bit, Caden!” I cry. “Pennies compared to your wealth. I have nothing. This was all I had. I never had a cut of anything before. It was mine. I deserve it.”
“You deserve nothing, you little thief.” His lips pull back into a venomous snarl.
“It’s mine! I’m owed a lot more than that from you! Give it back to me. It’s not yours to take.”
He scoffs a laugh, closing the final distance and crouching down to me. “Oh, contraire, my sweet Elodie. You see, you’re mine now… so everything you have is also mine.”
I shake my head. “You’re a fucking psycho. Give me my fucking money.”
“I would have given it back to you if you changed your tune, but…” He pulls out his phone and taps a few times before showing me his screen, where I’m riding the fuck out of his best friend’s fingers on the sofa downstairs.
“Seems you can’t follow simple orders at all, never mind your attitude.
Disobedience, misbehaving, being a fucking nuisance in general, now robbing us?
Naughty girls don’t get what they want, Elodie.
I wonder what Alfie would say, if he knew you were stealing his hard-earned money while he spent every waking moment tending to you, looking after you. ”
I cackle manically. “I never stole from him. Or Fiz. Just you.”
If this pisses him off further, he doesn’t show it. “I’m going to enjoy this punishment.”
I snap. I’m so over this fucking man thinking he can rule everything. I kick my leg out as viciously as I can, connecting to his shin. He grunts, swearing, and I try to scramble away but he grabs my ankle and drags me back.
He wrestles me underneath him and flips me onto my back, pinning me down.
“Please,” I cry, “just let me go. I don’t want to be here, I don’t want you, I don’t want this house. Keep the fucking money, just let me go!”
“What did I just say? You don’t get what you want after behaving the way you have, Elodie. And I’m never letting you go. I told you, I can do this forever.”
“Why?” I wail. “Why do you even want to? What kind of life is this?”
He watches me struggle beneath him, although he’s blurry and I can’t see his expression through my tears. “Because… it’s expected.”
“Oh, bullshit,” I spit, “you’re just too proud to let me go now. Too petty to admit I’m too much for you to deal with. That’s why. You don’t want this. You pretend you’re getting a kick out of it but you’re as tired as I am!”
“Then why don’t you just do what you’re told? That’s all you’d have to do to have a good life with me.”
“Any life with you would be a horrible life!” I scream and kick my legs under him, going nowhere, but I carry on, needing to expel all this rage and sadness and pain before it swallows me whole.
A familiar click brings me to a halt. I open my eyes and, once a-fucking-gain, I’m staring down the barrel of a gun.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe we should just end this, Elodie. Is that what you really want?”
I wait for the fear, the survival mode, the desperate need to get the gun out of my face. But none of it comes. I guess that’s my answer.
“Yes,” I whisper.
He stares down at me, studying me, waiting for me to crack. We’ll be here all night, because I’m already cracked. I’m done.
We stay like this for an absurd amount of time. Long enough for my tears to stop coming, long enough for my breath to even out as the acceptance seeps into my bones. I have nothing left.
“Please, Caden,” I whisper, “do it.”
He blinks several times, then lowers the gun.
“No.” He climbs off me and steps away. “You’ve got nothing now, Elodie.
You have no one, no money. All you have is us.
You leave us and you’ll find a worser fate out there in the big scary world.
A day out there on your own and you’d discover we’re not so bad. ”
Then Caden leaves the room.
He’s wrong. Nothing is worse than this. And I don’t need the money. I can make it without a fucking penny, anyway. I’ve lived my whole life providing for myself. I can do it again. Resolve sets heavy in my chest. I’m fucking done with this place and these monsters.