The Bodyguard ✔

Chapter Five

It's saturday. After I've got dressed, I want to go downstairs to find some food. However, my eye catches something strange lying on the bed. I grab it and recognize the smell immediately. I take a good look at the clothing. Then I remember: Lucas gave me his jacket yesterday. I forgot to give it back, after I took off. I sigh: I feel ashamed. Hopefully he will forgive me.

I spend my day quietly. My dad works today, leaving me home alone. I don't mind, I can enjoy myself perfectly. I ate breakfast and after I had studied, I ran for some time on the conveyor belt. Before, I went running in the woods, but I don't really want to go outside that much. When I'm outside, the feeling that someone is watching or hunting me frequently emerges.

My dad gets home around six in the afternoon and he has called me to the kitchen. I think he wants to talk about what happened yesterday or tonight.

"Giselle, we need to talk." Uh oh.

"You know I wouldn't decide this, if it wouldn't be necessary." I can feel a storm coming.

"But things at work are chaotic, and I have to travel overseas to make a deal for the company."

He pauses and measures my reaction. I can't force him to stay home for me, especially when he really needs to go. He already stayed home so many times after I got back from the hospital. I'm going to miss him, but I think I can take it.

"Dad, if you have to go, I get it. I'll be fine. Where are you going anyway?"

"Beijing, in China." I raise my eyebrows.

"Wow, that's something. How long are you going to be away?" My dad hesitates before telling me.

"At least three weeks, sweetheart."

"Oh wow... something really must've gone wrong in the company." At least three weeks... that's going to be a challenge. Nevertheless, I'll survive, right?

"Hey dad, don't worry about it, I can take it."

My dad nods in assent. "I know you'll sweetheart. But to make sure nothing you can't control happens, I hired a bodyguard. He is really good, and I'm sure he'll take care of you when I'm gone."

I'm baffled. "A babysitter? You're kidding, right?" I observe his face, hoping to find a sign that he indeed made an unfunny joke. I didn't find a thing.

"Giselle, he's a professional bodyguard, the best I could find. I decided this, because I can't let anything like before happen to you again. We still know almost nothing about the abductors. I don't want to scare you, but we have to be careful for a while. Besides, I think someone else being in the house would comfort you."

He's right about the abductors. We don't know anything. That doesn't change the fact that I find hiring a bodyguard a bit extreme. He notices my disapproval about his decision.

"Knowing you're in safe hands would spare me a lot of worrying." he adds.

I sigh. I'm not happy about it, but I'm not going to fight it.

"If it makes you feel better."

Sunday. I don't know at what time I woke up. I stayed in bed for some time, not sure how long: it could be fifteen minutes or three houres. My mind constantly slips off to the embarrassing memories of friday night. I try to tell myself that it wasn't so bad. Afterall, how could I explain what I felt to someone like Lucas? I, myself, don't even know what's going on in my own head sometimes. The thought makes me feel lonely, especially when my mind lets me remember that my dad is leaving in a couple of hours or so. Maybe I should get up before he leaves, I really want to say goodbye. I stay in bed for another twenty minutes, until I've gathered the mental strength to get up.

I hear nothing when I saunter of the stairs in my pyjamas. I start considering my dad already left, causing me to feel sad.

I enter the hall next to the staircase, heading for the back door, when I suddenly come to stand eye in eye with a stranger. My instincts awaken and I feel adrenalin firing through my veins. He stands motionless, observing me profoundly, like an animal observing his pray in the wild, just before it attacks.

When my brain is trying to decide in only a second if it should fight or run, my dad appears from behind the stranger, laying a hand on his shoulder. When he notices my face, drained of color, he asks concerned what is happening to me. I utter merely a word, still being too startled. My dad walks past the stranger, who has still not moved. He lays his hands on my shoulders, looking me in the eyes.

"Are you okay?" I nod. "I should be leaving soon. I was just showing him the house." I guess he means the statue of a man standing behind him.

"That's Frank by the way, he's going to look after you when I'm gone." I look across my dad's shoulder, watching Frank nod slowly and barely noticeable, firmly holding eye contact. I'm not sure if he's challenging me, but just in case, I'm not looking away first. I have a hard time believing he's going to look after me while my dad's gone. Up to now, he lets me feel nothing but hostility.