They shoved me again. One of them laughed.
Rain soaked me. I started shaking.
My phone rang.
Fredrinn.
I answered with numb fingers.
“Listen,” he said flatly. “Your transplant was scheduled for tomorrow. After what you did, Miya’s too traumatized. She won’t go through with it. Think about your actions.”
The call ended.
Rain mixed with my tears. I curled up on the cold ground, hugging my phone like it was the only thing keeping me alive.
With shaking hands, I dialed the number my mother left.
The line clicked.
“Hello?” her sleepy voice answered.
“M-mom,” I whispered into the rain, teeth chattering. “P-please come get me. I’ll go with you. I’ll go anywhere. Just get me out of here.”
After twenty minutes in the rain, shivering so bad I thought my bones would snap, my mother finally pulled up in a car. She threw a blanket over me and practically dragged me inside. I was half-conscious, teeth chattering, but I felt her hands guiding me, steady and warm.
She drove straight into the city and checked us into some fancy hotel. Five-star, marble floors, chandeliers, people bowing when she walked past. She made me sit on the couch, handed me warm tea, and brushed my wet hair off my face like I was a child. “Rest, Lesley. I’ll take care of everything,” she said. “I’m not the woman you remember. I’m a billionaire now. I can move people like pieces on a board. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”
For the first time in days, I let myself breathe. My chest loosened. I whispered, “Thanks, Mum.”
Later that night, when the suite went quiet, we sat by the window. City lights glowed below us. She told me she could buy influence, make calls, bend the world if she had to. She sipped wine and said, “If you want to disappear, I have people who can make that happen.”
I stared at my shaking hands. “Can you… fake my death?”
“Yeah. Easy. I already know the right people.”
But first, I had to call Beck one last time. I grabbed my phone and dialed Fredrinn five times in a row. The first four went unanswered. On the fifth, his voice came through, rough and annoyed.
“Lesley, what now?”
My throat hurt. “Fredrinn… thanks. For the five years. I just realized—”
He cut me off. “You just realized now? Fine. Come to the hospital tomorrow. Apologize to her. Be decent to Miya. She’s saving your life. You should be grateful instead of acting like the world owes you something.”