Trapping His Monster

7. Stay Alive

"I really want to tell her everything. I thought it was a lie when they said she was married to him. What happened between her and Hayden?"

"...I don't know."

"José, you're not listening to me. She's married to a psychopath. He's probably planning her murder as we speak."

"He's at work, dear."

"José..."

Joseph looked up from his newspaper and sighed. He really wanted Sha'Kera to know the truth, too, but telling her now would throw their plan off track. He couldn't risk the wrong people knowing what they know. That would mean he'd have to move his family all over God's creation once again. He didn't want to do that.

"What do you want me to say, Mia?" he asked. "I've been waiting for the moment to hug her and tell her everything will be fine, but that's never going to happen. She's not going to be happy we lied to her for this long and even had her brother and didn't bother trying to fix our past mistakes."

"We had no choice."

"She isn't going to think that. As bad as I want to spill the truth to her right now, I can't. If we do, we risk being found by Jessie. You know how he is. The last time we tried to sneak back into her life, he took Kahlan away from us."

"But he's safe now, right?"

"I hope so. He's fully prepared to hide with his family, if it comes to that."

"When Sha'Kera finds out, he's going to have to hide. They'll try to find him. We won't be the only ones in danger."

"We can't afford to make another mistake."

"You can't afford to make another mistake. I'm not the one who tried to bring the police into the mix."

"Who's side are you on?" Joseph exclaimed. "It was the only way I could distract Jessie. Sha'Kera's really our only hope out of this mess."

"How did we even get into this mess?"

Mi'ya poured herself a glass of wine. Joseph went back to reading the newspaper. There wasn't anything interesting to read about, but it got his wife off his back. She never bothered him when he read the newspaper. He always reminded her to refrain from speaking to him, because it was hard for him to read and listen at the same time.

Telling Sha'Kera everything wasn't a route Joseph was willing to take, but they had to do something. They couldn't let their only daughter live with Derek for much longer. If there was something they could have done when they first found out about their union, Mi'ya definitely would have taken matters into her own hands. She didn't want her daughter living with a man who couldn't care less about her future.

"How are we going to do what we're going to do without harming her?" Mi'ya asked. "Why couldn't it have been another family? This would have been much easier to manage."

"Stop complaining, would you? If I could warn her, then I would." Joseph put the newspaper down and looked at his wife. "We really need to think this through."

"I've thought it through already. I want her and my grandkids to be safe."

"I want the same thing! She's my daughter, too. I want what's best for her. I want her to be safe from whatever Derek has planned for her. I can no longer ignore the signs."

"Josè, this is getting out of hand. What are we going to do? I never wanted to be part of this. The cartel tried to ruin her life before. I know that if we hadn't stepped in, everything would have gone terribly wrong."

"It's different this time. We have more help on our side. I know a few people who can help us out."

Mi'ya put her drink down. "I don't want to do this anymore. I want our old life back. I want to be reunited with our daughter the right way."