Delicate by Young _Wizard

Chapter 12: Bait

>>Bait <<

"You can wait here" I insisted.

"Aria, I'm not going to let you go alone. It's far too dangerous" Elizabeth assured. I sighed.

"Far too dangerous?" I chortled, "Elizabeth, our- my life is already in danger, nothing is more dangerous than that. Now, I order you to stay here and wait for me. I give you permission to come inside when something sounds, looks, or even feels wrong. But don't worry, eveything's going to be fine. Besides, I don't want to drag you into more danger"

"I don't care if I'll be in danger" Elizabeth scoffed as she crossed her arms.

"For heaven's sake! You're so stubborn. Elizabeth, look around us, there are guards practiically stalking us! I'll be fine! Oh, here, remember this?" I showed her the necklace she gave me when I entered the mansion's pool. The memory still gave me chills.

She pursed her lips and thought for a moment while tapping her fingers thoughfully on her knee.

Elizabeth then looked at me, and brought out the same necklace and decided, "Press it for emergencies, okay? Don't tell your mom about this."

I smiled gratefully and nodded.

I hopped out of the car and straighted my appearance so I looked trustable.

I took a deep breath and walked toward the house, trying to build confidence inside me. I knocked on their door and I heard footsteps coming toward me.

Jennifer opened the door, smiled, and let me inside.

"Nice to see you again, Aria. Please, take a seat" Jennifer chirped while she went to her kitchen to brew tea.

"I suppose you're here to meet my husband?" She guessed while sitting down next to me. I blushed shyly and nodded.

"Well, I'm sorry to say, but he's not here today. He's off for work, but why do you want to meet him, may I ask?"

"Oh, I just wanted to ask him... more about his sister, Jackie" I said carefully, observing her reaction.

"Jackie Estago? Well, I don't know everything about her, but from what Jack complains about, she seems a bit... uncontrolled" Jennifer's eyes furrowed as if she was thinking of the correct word and 'uncontrolled' wasn't the one.

I gaped. Jackie was uncontrolled? I thought back to the time Allyza and I had a little conversation at the kitchen, and she specifically said, "I apologize for that Aria... Stephen can be just... a bit uncontrolled"

"What do you mean by uncontrolled?" I asked. She offered me a cup of tea and I accepted it and took a sip.

"I mean that Jackie seemed to do things by herself, she was not obedient. She didn't care what people said, she did things independently... in a bad way. For example, she married Edgar without getting permission from her parents" Jennifer remembered, taking sips from her tea from each sentence.

I took long gulps on my tea and finished it. The tea was pretty good, I had to admit.

"Why do you think she was uncontrolled?"

"Well, as far as I could tell, she thought her parents always seemed to forget about her, but they didn't, they loved her. That's why they lost her trust and she did things by herself" She informed.

I felt a bit sorry for Jackie. It was like one of those movies where someone feels abandoned, then they got depressed, then they began to do bad things.

"Okay then... well, I guess that'll be for now. Thank you so much for letting me in, Jennifer, I appreciate it. May I come back next time?" I said.