Aliyah's Pov
Talking to Alex was like finally getting air after being underwater too long. The delivery didn't come. I waited by the front door the next day, just like Alex said. I asked Hayden if I could say hi to the delivery person. He said yes, i stood there, my heart beating fast, waiting for a truck that never showed up.
Nothing happened. Alex didn't come. The plan to run away did not work.
I didn't know why. I didn't know what went wrong. I only knew I was still stuck and felt even more scared.
That night, I sneaked to the bathroom again. David was waiting outside my door. Marcus was in the kitchen, i had about two minutes.
I called Alex.
"What happened?" I asked right away.
"It didn't work," Alex said. "Hayden's guards were stronger than I thought. My helper couldn't get inside. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry."
"So I'm stuck here?" I asked.
"For now," Alex said. "But not for long. I'm making a new plan. One that will work, i need more time."
"How much time?" I asked.
"I don't know yet," he said. "But you have to hold on. You have to be strong. Can you do that?"
"I don't know," I said. I really didn't know, I was tired and was losing hope. Every day here felt like a little piece of me was gone.
"Tell me something," Alex said. "Tell me something from before all this. Tell me something to help me remember who you really are."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because," he said, "I need to remember why I'm fighting so hard to get you out."
So, I told him.
I told him about when we met in high school. How he asked me to sit with him at lunch because my friend was sick and I was alone. We talked the whole lunch about silly things, favorite foods, bad teachers, funny class moments. By the end, I knew I would love him.
"I remember that," Alex said. "You wore a blue shirt and laughed when I joked about the science teacher."
"You do remember," I said.
"I remember everything," he said. "Every time you smiled at me. Every time you held my hand. I remember it all."
We talked for the rest of the two minutes. I told him about my dad. What kind of man he was, how hard he worked. How he loved his company like it was his child. How it hurt him when Uncle Marcus sold the company.
"I didn't know," Alex said. "I'm so sorry your dad died."
"He died because of them," I said. "Because Hayden's family and my uncle stole my dad's company. Hayden bought it to help the people hurting my family."
"Aliyah," Alex said. "I will make them pay. I will take everything from Hayden like they took from your dad. I promise."
"How?" I asked.
"I have proof," he said. "Documents, emails, proof that Hayden and his father worked with your uncle to steal the company. Proof they knew it would hurt your family. I will use it to destroy them."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because your dad's company had friends Hayden wanted," Alex said. "They wanted the business connections and money. They didn't care about your dad or hurting him. Just what he had."
I had to hang up. Someone was at the door.
But now, I had something new. I knew my pain wasn't an accident. Hayden's family chose to hurt mine. They chose to break my dad.
And now, I had someone who would help me fight back.
For three weeks, Alex and I made a plan.
I left notes in the kitchen where only the cleaners would find them. Alex's team picked them up and left new notes.
The notes were short. If Hayden found them, it would be all over but they were enough. Enough to keep me connected to the outside. Enough to keep me alive.
Alex's notes told me he was gathering proof, working with police. Building a case to put Hayden in jail.
He also told me personal things. That he never forgot me, that he thought of me all the time. Seeing me at the interview made his whole world feel right again.
And slowly, something inside me changed.
I began to believe escape was possible. I began to believe justice might come, I began to believe Hayden would lose.
It was risky. It was a small hope but it was hope.
My body changed. Margaret saw it first.
"You're different," she said one morning bringing my breakfast. "You seem happier."
"I'm just getting used to things," I said.
"No," she said. "It's more than that, something is different."
I didn't say more. I just ate.
Elena saw it too in my lessons.
"You're smiling more," she said. "That's good. Keep it up."
But then Hayden saw too.
At a business dinner, we stood with his friends and their wives. A man made a joke and everyone laughed. I laughed, i smiled. A real smile, not a fake one for show.
Hayden saw it.
After dinner, on the car ride home, he didn't say anything. His grip on the steering wheel was tight. His jaw was stiff.
At the house, he went straight to my room. I followed.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" I said.
"You're different," he said. "Your energy is different and tonight, I saw you smile."
"Yes," I said. "I smiled."
"You weren't smiling at me," he said. "You were just smiling. Like something good was in your life, something not about me."
I didn't say anything.
"Who makes you smile?" he asked quietly, but I felt the danger in his voice.
I looked at him, feeling confused and scared. My heart started racing and I tried so hard to think fast, but I couldn't.
Nobody," I said. "I'm just learning to adapt, to be happy here."
"You're lying," he said.
He grabbed my arm. His fingers dug into my skin, they were not gentle, not careful. He was holding me like I was something he owned and he could do whatever he wanted with me.
"Tell me the truth," he said.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said.
He pulled me closer to him. His face was right in front of my face. His gray eyes were cold and furious.
"That journalist," he said. "Alex Chen. You're in contact with him, I know you are."
My heart stopped.
"I'm not," I said.
"Yes, you are," he said. "I can see it in your face. I can see it in the way you're acting and if you're in contact with him, that means you're planning something."
"I'm not planning anything," I said.
He pushed me backward and I fell onto my bed.
"Let me be very clear about something," he said. "You belong to me. Your time belongs to me, your body belongs to me. Your smile belongs to me. If you smile, it's because I let you smile. If you're happy, it's because I allow you to be happy."
"That's not how people work," I said.
He grabbed my arm again and he pulled me up.
"That's exactly how you work," he said. "Because you signed a contract, because you agreed to this. Because you have no choice."
"I always have a choice," I said.
"No," he said. "You don't. You made your choices already and now the only choice you get to make is how much pain you want to experience when you keep lying to me."
He let go of my arm and he walked to the door.
"I'm going to find out who you're seeing," he said. "I'm going to find out what you're planning and when I do, I'm going to destroy that person and I'm going to destroy you for betraying me."
He left my room and locked the door from the outside.
I sat on my bed and I looked at my arm where his fingers had left marks on my skin.
Hayden knew everything.
And now everything was going to get worse. Now he was going to tighten the security even more amd watch me even more carefully.
I had maybe days before he figured out that it was Alex. Maybe less than that.
I had to get out. I had to escape now.
I was running out of time and running out of options.
For the first time since I had found out that Alex was trying to help me, I felt the weight of what this might actually cost me not just my freedom, but maybe my life.
But I couldn't go back to the way things were. I couldn't go back to smiling only when I was told to smile. I couldn't go back to living like Hayden owned me.
Even if it killed me, I wasn't going back.
I was going to escape or I was going to die trying.