AUTHOR’S POV
Irene was in her room, staring at the ceiling. It was late at night. 12am and her mother was still not back from wherever she had gone to.
Irene was super uncomfortable at this point, she had paced the entire house a few times, walked to their gate and called her mum’s contact a thousand times.
Most times when this happened, she knew that her mum was just hanging out with Lorden. It was no news to her that her mum didn’t just work for Lorden only but also warmed Lorden’s bed once in a while.
But today, Irene felt super anxious. After the talk with her mum earlier that morning, she didn’t feel that they were totally safe anymore.
What if Lorden had been caught already? Worst, what if Lorden was dead already and what if her mother had been killed too?
Irene’s heart raced wildly with fear and anxiety. She grabbed her phone and dialed her mum’s contact once more but yet again it was switched off.
She was about to throw her phone across the room when the phone rang. Quickly, she looked at the caller. It was a friend of her mother calling.
Mrs. Stanley.
Irene picked the call immediately.
“Hello, Mrs. Stanley. Is my mum with you there? I have been…”
“Listen to me, Ire…”
“Please give the phone to my mum” Irene’s anxiety would not let her listen.
“Irene!” Mrs. Stanley called in a loud and stern voice.
“Listen to me, your mum. She is dead. Devine’s men found out that she is involved in Lorden. She has been killed already and you…”
“No!” Irene shot up from the bed.
“My mum can’t be dead!” She shook her head, tears instantly gathering in her eyes.
“You have to pull yourself together Irene because…”
“I said my mum can’t be dead! She was alive this morning! She… She sat down just across the table, scolding me! She was alive! Mr. Devine could not have found her so easily. She must be… She must be hiding somewhere and…”
“Fuck! Trust me, you will be dead as well if you do not listen to me right now!” Mrs. Stanley yelled, tired of being interrupted.
“Your mum is dead and Lorden is dead as well. You have to leave your house as soon as possible. Pick whatever is important to you and hurry to my house. You have thirty minutes to get to me. If you are not here in thirty minutes, then I am leaving alone.”
Mrs. Stanley didn’t give Irene another second before she ended the call. Irene crumbled down to her knees on the floor, her heart breaking and hurting.
She could feel the pain wreck her. She suddenly felt that this was her fault. If it wasn’t for her dawdling and hesitating, Lisa would have been easily caught before Lucius got there and Lorden would have had the upper hand.
But now, she had ruined it all. Her mother was dead and she was in danger.
“I am in danger” she whispered in realisation and quickly got up on her feet. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hands.
Thirty minutes was all that she had. Hurriedly, she grabbed a bag, threw in a few clothes and changed the crop top she had been wearing into a hoodie.
She grabbed the bag, her phone and her wallet and hurried out of the house. Tears were still streaming down her cheeks for the loss of her only family but she knew she could not stop to mourn.
She hurried into the garage where there was a motorbike that she rarely used. She quickly got on it, fixed the helmet on her head and drove out of her home.
She sped away until she got to Mrs. Stanley’s home.
“Fuck! Thank goodness!” Mrs Stanley groaned, throwing a bag into the booth of her car.
“Get me your bag” she demanded and Irene gave the bag to Mrs. Stanley.
“Now, get in the car. No questions”
Quietly, Irene got into the car and a few seconds later, Mrs. Stanley was jumping into the driver’s seat of the car. She revved the car into motion and sped off.
“Mrs. Stanley” Irene called, her voice breaking.
“Give me a few minutes before you ask me questions” Mrs. Stanley said. She was clearly more interested in getting them as far away as possible.
After driving for about twenty minutes, Irene decided to try again. Brushing the tears off her cheeks, she called the name of the red haired woman driving the car.
“Yes?” Mrs. Stanley replied a bit calmly this time.
“How did… How did my mum die?” She asked.
“She was shot. She was trying to run away from them all day immediately she found out Lorden was dead. When she called me, she seemed to be running and then I heard a gunshot. She told me to take care of you and I heard another gunshot, then the line went silent” she replied and Irene broke into fresh tears.
She could not recall when last she had bawled her eyes out this much in private not to mention in front of Mrs. Stanley. Her heart hurt, hearing that her mother’s last words were about taking care of her.
“So… What about her body?” She asked.
“Her body…” Mrs Stanley looked at Irene through the mirror.
“Consider that as good as gone. Her body will be discarded for sure. She will probably be declared missing but she will never be found”
Irene’s heart clenched and she punched the car seat.
“That bastard! Couldn’t he have spared her? Couldn’t… Couldn’t he have spared my mum?”
“Things are tougher than you think” Mrs. Stanley mumbled.
“Where are we going then, Mrs. Stanley?”
“We are going to be lodging in a hotel for the night and throughout the new day then we will leave the country”
“Leave the country?” Irene asked.
“Yes, Irene and there’s no going back on that. Unless you want to lose your life. We will be going to Sandro, Lorden’s big brother. He is the only one who can keep us safe from Devine”
“Someone associated with Lorden again? Oh god no! I don’t want to get involved with anything that has to do with him”
“Unfortunately, we can only get even more deeply involved or lose our lives and I am pretty sure you are not choosing to lose your life”
Irene lowered her head to the car floor, shaking her head slightly.
“Where’s your phone?” Mrs. Stanley asked.
“In my pocket. Why?”
“Throw it out the window. I don’t want to risk us being tracked. Since your mum was eliminated and you were directly involved in attempting to kidnap Lisa for Lorden, you won’t be spared. So throw your phone out and lower the risks of us being caught.”
“Al… Alright” Irene pulled her phone out of her pocket and threw it out of the window.
“Good”
“But you, Mrs. Stanley, how did you work for Lorden?”
“I did a few dirty jobs for him and you forget that I referred your mum to work at Devine’s hotel. Now that your mum has been found out and killed, they will definitely go after the person who referred her too and that person is me so yes, I have to be on the run too. One thing I know about the monster called Devine is that he takes delight in ruining completely. He doesn’t half ruin and let others go. He completely destroys. That bastard. That monster!”
“Monster… He is a monster. Regardless of being Lisa’s father figure, he is a monster. He killed my mum. A monster. He is a monster.”