Oakhill Cottage

Nineteen

Theo

I furrow my eyebrows at him. "What?" I snap between my teeth.

"Oh, you didn't know?" Max's eyebrows raise. "Yeah, your little buddy used to work for the Blue Pistols. What if he's tipping them?"

I sigh. "Now, hold on. We can't be fast to jump to conclusions, here. You said he used to work for them, he may not even be in touch with them still." I conclude.

He huffs. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because," I snap. "we have nothing on him. And until we do, we can't make any accusations."

He presses his lips into a line as he observes me for a moment.

I add, "We'll just continue to keep an eye on him, okay?"

He nods. "You better hope you're right or shit is gonna hit the fan real fucking quick."

. . .

Stella

I sit in the girl's room with Jess, Rebecca, and Zahra, the chocolate-skin doll.

After our last conversation, I ask suddenly, "Were you guys here when Amber was?"

I can't seem to stop thinking about her. I've thought of all the ways she could possibly escape, but nothing makes sense. This place is almost impossible to escape. How did she do it? And why was Max so obsessed with her? So obsessed that he beat me for wearing her dress.

Jess shakes her head as Rebecca answers, "No, but I've heard about her."

"Yes, very quiet girl." Zahra replies.

My eyes light up. "You knew her?"

She nods. "For short amount of time, yes. She was Max's personal slave."

"I heard he was obsessed with her, why?" I ask.

She shrugs. "Who knows? A lot of the girls thought it was because she was tiny like you. Some of them were mad for not being chosen."

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah, especially Serena. She said she only wanted to be his or Theo's. She knew Theo was a lost cause, so she spent a lot of time with Max, but he just liked Amber more."

"Wow." I say, then ask, "How did she leave?"

"She escaped." She answers.

"But how?" I ask.

She shrugs. "I'm not sure. They found out she was gone by morning. Looks like she left in the middle of night."

Interesting. I figured she had to have done it in the middle of the night.

"Why do you ask?" She questions. "You trying to escape?"

I quickly shake my head with denial. "No, I was just curious about a little history." I lie.

. . .

Dylan meets me on my balcony.

I sit in a chair, watching the sun set as he approaches me from behind. He walks over to the large potted plant in the corner and fishes out my stash of marijuana.

My eyebrows furrow into each other. "How'd you know-"

"You were never good at hiding things." He answers as he sits in the chair beside me. "Never did give it up, did you?"

"Smoking?" I reach over to the stash and pack the bowl. "No, never did. Sam was also really into it, so that didn't help."

"Ah, yes, Sam." He exhales.