Chapter 201: A Close Eye
Moana
By the end of the weekend, I was dying to get back to work. Since we decided not to leave the penthouse after all, I decided that it wouldn’t hurt any to return to teaching. Besides, Ella needed to go back to school as well, and since she didn’t remember the events of the night that we were kidnapped she was only getting more aggravated by the day. With each passing day, Ella was becoming more confused and agitated and I was feeling more stir crazy, which only led to increased flashbacks from the whole ordeal.
So, on Monday morning, I got dressed for work.
“Where are you going?” Edrick asked, looking up from his newspaper as I walked through the living room.
“I need to get back to work,” I said. “I can’t just use a substitute forever. Tomorrow, maybe Ella should go back to school as well.”
Edrick’s icy gray eyes widened. He threw his newspaper down and stood abruptly, shaking his head. “You can’t go. It’s dangerous.”
“Edrick, I’ll be in a school just a few blocks away in the middle of the afternoon,” I said. “There’s a security guard on the campus who watches everything. I’ll tell them about the situation so they can keep an eye out for any trouble.”
For a few moments, the Alpha billionaire stared wildly at me as he gritted his teeth. I held my head high to show that I wasn’t going to back down; despite what had happened almost two weeks prior, I wasn’t a damsel in distress, and I had a job to do.
Finally, Edrick seemed to see that I wasn’t backing down and he let out a sigh, passing his hand over his face.
“Take one of the bodyguards with you, then,” he said quietly. “Take Darren. He’ll protect you. Actually, I’ll drive with you as well.” Before I could say anything, Edrick rushed over to the foyer and began to slip his shoes on. I watched as he pulled two surgical masks out of his pocket, then held one out to me along with my wide-brimmed sun hat. “Here. To protect your identity during the walk. We’ll go out the back, and if you tuck in your hair, you’ll be less likely to be noticed—”
“Edrick,” I said exasperatedly, “hold on. I’ll walk with you and wear the disguise, but I can’t bring a bodyguard to school. Darren is big and looks threatening. He’ll scare the children, and I don’t even think that the headmistress will allow it anyway. And also, I want to walk, not drive. I feel cooped up.”
Edrick stared at me for another few moments. I could tell right off the bat that he wouldn’t give up on the bodyguard, nor was he likely to give up on most of his stipulations. I figured that it was worth a try, though.
Finally, after a long time of staring silently at each other, Edrick seemed to relent a little bit.
“I know that you feel safer with Ethan and Kelly in jail, but it’s still dangerous for you out there,” he said firmly. “But how about this: can you just let one of the bodyguards drive you? They can just wait in the car and keep an eye on the school entrance while you’re at work. If you’ll just allow that, I promise I won’t nag you about it any longer.”
I chewed my lip for a moment, thinking. Edrick was right; it was still dangerous, and even if no one knew that I was the Golden Wolf yet and I wasn’t yet at risk of being hunted, the paparazzi were on another frenzy because of the news footage of what happened at the warehouse. Finally, I nodded and sighed.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll let one of the bodyguards drive me.”
“Thank you.” Edrick let out a small sigh of relief, then walked up to me and kissed my forehead. I felt myself blush a bit; he had been a lot more physically affectionate ever since I marked him, and I had to admit that I was enjoying it quite a lot.
“And Ella can go back to school, too?” I asked, looking up at him.
Edrick nodded, although a bit hesitantly. “I’ll talk to her about it today,” he replied. Secretly, although I wasn’t going to pressure him, I hoped that he would also talk to her about what really happened, and what her mother was really like. I doubted that he would do it so soon, though. Part of me thought that he should set up counseling for her ahead of time, as that news would no doubt come as a major shock to her. She might even resent him for lying to her. Ella was a smart girl, not just an airheaded little kid who couldn’t comprehend such complicated topics. She deserved the truth, but the truth would come with unforeseen consequences.
As I thought about this, flashes of seeing Ella’s little sleeping body tied up to the chair in the warehouse suddenly and unexpectedly flashed through my mind, followed by images of Ethan holding the gun up to my face. I felt a pang in my chest, as though something was weighing me down and restricting my breathing. For the briefest of moments, I felt as though I was back there again… Back in the warehouse with the bright white spotlight beaming onto me.
“Moana?” Edrick’s voice pulled me out of my daze. “Moana, are you okay?”
When I came back to reality, I quickly blinked the tears out of my eyes and nodded, forcing a smile. Edrick was looking down at me with concern drawn across his face.
“Sorry,” I said, hoping that he hadn’t seen my tears. “Thank you for being so understanding.”
Edrick looked at me for a moment with a worried look in his eyes. I thought for sure that he had picked up on my flashback and that he would tell me not to go, but surprisingly, he didn’t say anything. He just nodded and stepped onto the elevator with me, then took me downstairs to get into the car. He saw me off with another kiss on my forehead, and then I watched his face fade into the distance as the bodyguard drove off.
Those flashbacks had been happening more and more frequently with each passing day. It was strange, but they almost seemed to get more vivid as time went on, as though the horrific experience of what happened in that warehouse was blocked out of my mind at first but was now returning. I thought that it was just from being cooped up in the penthouse… It had to be.
Surely I would feel better after another few days at work.
But somehow, no matter how much I told myself that things would get better, there was a part of me that wasn’t so sure. And as the bodyguard drove me to work, I began to wonder if I would have a flashback while I was teaching. I knew that I would be able to handle a simple flashback if one were to happen at work, but lately, I had been feeling a sense of losing control during some of the worse flashbacks.
I hoped that it wouldn’t trigger me to shift involuntarily.
