Dana

Chapter Ten

My mother was afraid of the dark, and extremely claustrophobic. Even when she was healthy, she hated dimly lit rooms, small and dark places. These small fears intensified into severe phobias when she became sick.

She always slept with all the lights on and the windows cracked open, even at night. Her curtains were never drawn. She would scream, lash out and cry if we ever turned the lights out.

Even looking outside at the dark night would transform her into a crying, shrieking mess. Our backyard could be seen from her bedroom window and we had installed garden lights all over the backyard, so that there would be no darkness, only light.
When I was going back to my room with Marcus after meeting the boss, I had seen a door on the ground floor which was guarded by a man armed with a weapon, and asked Marcus where it led. He said that that was a part of the manor that was used to grow produce, like a greenhouse. He said the greenhouses themselves had rooms adjoining them, that had glass walls and ceilings as well, but weren't used for agricultural purposes.They could be used for a variety of other purposes.

I had asked him why the place was guarded. He just shrugged in response, saying,

"I guess vegetables are really valuable, I don't really know, Dana. Everything is guarded here." He chuckled at his joke about vegetables.

A greenhouse would have grow lights for the plants, and I'd bet they were installed in those attached rooms as well.

As I lay in my bed wondering where they could be keeping my mother, I thought; that's a possible place, isn't it? My mom was terrified of dark places. And this manor got pretty dark at night, it didn't have extra bright lights... but it did have grow lights. In the greenhouses.

My mother would've put up a really big fight if they had put her in one of the dim rooms I had seen, I thought as I pulled on some jeans.

She's quite a challenge, that one, the boss's words replayed in my head.

My mom would've fought and screamed and tried to strangle herself at night.

I bet they put her in one of those greenhouse rooms.

They would've figured out that she was scared of the dark, that it drove her crazy. Or they might've known it already. I mean, they were the Mafia; they usually knew these things beforehand because they dug out everything about everyone.

A feeling of helplessness seeped through me, it hurt so much to think about what she was going through. My heart ached for her. I was furious too, at Lorenzo, God I hated that man with a passion, and I had only met him once. And Jared. He was scheming with his father, using us to get money. How much more money did they need? They were already rolling in billions and even trillions. The Mafia had endless sources of money. I pushed my anger down; it won't help me in any way. I needed to stay focused.

I tugged on a brown leather jacket that I had found in the closet, over the warm sweater I had been wearing before. Quickly pulling on my sneakers, I pushed the door open as quietly as I could, peering outside to make sure no one was walking around.

I was going to get my mother.

It was getting dark out as I stepped off the staircase. The guard was standing at the door leading to the greenhouses, just as I'd anticipated.

Think, Dana.

I walked up to him, trying to twist my expression into one of panic and fear.

"Hey what are you doing out here young lady, go back to your room," he said with a scowl. He had a peculiar accent. I couldn't place it, Russian maybe, I thought.