Chapter 5

JOANNE-

I opened my eyes to meet nothing but a pure white surface; my stomach gave an uneasy feeling as I tried to ponder where I was.

Suddenly the events and words that happened earlier replayed in my mind and I found myself gasping for air.

"Miss Joanne... Are you okay?" A familiar feminine voice rushed towards me, but I was too busy trying to catch my breath to decipher who it was.

"It's okay, miss. Just breathe"

I felt someone hold my hand, and I immediately grabbed a hold of the person's hand to gauge myself.

Like an infliction every said words from Hardy and Theodore hit me.

Surrogacy.

Contracts... Debt..

What in the world had I fixed my legs Into.

I shut my eyes and could only hear the sound of my breath and slowly my mind traveled back to 'that night'.

I opened my eyes again and turned to my side to make out who was beside me.

And of course it was Trinity.

"You're okay," she smiled.

"What happened?" I asked, about to sit up.

"You passed out," Trinity replied, gently pushing me back to lie on the bed.

"Oh" Was all I could say.

Trinity took a seat beside the bed, and I quietly watched her brew tea with one of the tiniest-looking teaspoons.

"Here," Trinity sighed, handing me the small cup of tea.

"It'll help. Your stomach feels weird, right?"

I nodded, hesitantly taking the tea from Trinity.

She watched me gulp the whole thing down in one go, and after seeing the empty cup, she smiled.

"How wonderful!” She exclaimed joyously.

like I was a child finishing a bottle of syrup.

"Thanks," I managed to say.

We both went quiet, and my eyes circled around the room.

The sound of my heartbeat could be heard from a distance; I was sure of it.

And the horrific words kept replaying in my head.

Clearly, I would have waited for someone to pop out—anyone I knew—to yell out and say this was all one big prank.

But I have no one or know no one. I’ve been living with Bailey for half my life. I lost contact with my aunt, who was my only family member at Nineteen, and three years later I heard she got sick and passed on. And for the past few years, I’ve worked my entire buttocks off just to live a decent life. That didn’t exactly come out decent.

And here I was, like a chicken in a rich man’s coop.

So except Bailey would pop out from anywhere and tell me all this was a prank. Then there was no one else.

And Bailey hated pranks.

But none of these made any sense.

I looked up at Trinity.

She smiled.

"I want to leave." My voice trembled.

"I'm afraid you can't." Trinity wore a frown.

"Why?.."

"Because... because it is what it is, Joanne, and I can't do anything about it. I am terribly sorry." She looked genuinely sorry.

I went quiet again.

Trinity sighed. "Look. Hardy is not the villain here; your friend Bailey is. She made you her replacement, even after using your pictures pretending to be you in the contract. We have also noticed that there were some forged signatures and real ones too; she tricked you and she tricked us."

The moment the words left Trinity's mouth, I immediately recalled the night Bailey had come home with multiple shopping bags, saying she wanted to get serious with her life or something and needed some signatures from her friends to sign some sort of petition at her workplace. And without even trying to read out what I was signing for, I recalled reaching for the pen and signing the papers for Bailey.

I was such a fool.

I trusted her so much.

And now I was in such a mess.

I pursed my lips in unison with my eyebrows as they both turned upward.

"I don't care if Bailey tricked me or not, or whatever debt she might be in with Hardy, but it can't be cut out for surrogacy. That’s way too much," I scoffed.

"You don't know that, Miss Joanne, like I said earlier. It could be more." Trinity shook her head. Her brown eyes were piercing.

She was right. I would never know.

I wasn’t Bailey and would never be. How much debt did she fix her legs into?

"I don't." I sighed, getting on my feet. "But what I do know is that I am getting out of here. Tonight.!"

I made my way to the door and heard Trinity sigh in disbelief.

"You can't—

I turned around at light speed, and the action made her stop talking.

“You know, out of everyone here, I thought you’re the one who understands me best. Do you want me to actually stay locked up here and get pregnant for someone I don’t know?”

Trinity shook her head. "I do want you to leave. I just... this place is always guarded; it'll be almost impossible. Trust me, this isn’t fair. If I were in your shoes, I don’t know what I would do."

"Okay then." I folded my arms. “I don’t want to remain in my shoes. Help me out. How do I leave this place? I know your way around the villa.”

Trinity bowed her head in agony before breathing out a sigh.

She started speaking.

"Out of this room, taking the left hallway, you'll see another turn. Take two more left turns, and at the end of the hallway, There's a big window; you can leave through there. But I must warn you, you will be caught."

I glared at her.

Does she want me to leave or not? Why is she being helpful but threatening too?

It was scaring the shits out of me.

Gently shutting the door, I made my way down the left hallway, just like Trinity had directed.

But wait, what if she was just giving out false information?

What if she was leading me to somewhere worse with no escape, where her so-called Master Hardy would slaughter me?

But still, I was already in the third hallway; it was half-on-half, and I was doing this for Bailey and me.

I didn’t care if Bailey did this or if she sold me out to surrogacy; I loved Bailey, and no matter what debt she managed to fix her legs in, she didn’t deserve this; she was such a sweetheart. And I couldn’t imagine whatever situation she had gotten herself into to get herself into such debt.

And if I managed to make my grand escape, that would be killing two juicy eagles with one freaking pebble.

My lips curled into a slight smile the moment my eyes landed on the huge window Trinity had mentioned.

She was telling the truth!

And as I got closer to it, I made a swift head turn from left to right to see if I was clear. And with no maids, phantoms, or whatever lives in this villa at sight,

I opened the window, which was way easier than it looked, and the heavy night’s cold wind from outside hit my face.

I immediately felt alive.

I couldn't help but let out a gasp as I took in the breathtaking scenery that adjacent to me. Even though it was already dark outside, the lights that were all over the place made it feel even more amazing.

There was a pool that was located a great distance away, and there were these incredible lantern bulbs all around it. The fountain was located in the middle of the green rug grass flooring that was outdoors.

I paused.

This was no time to get distracted.

Looking down again, I noticed I was a storey away from the ground, and the ground I would be falling on had nothing but grass. If I were to jump, I’d either make a perfect landing or get a bruise.

Either way, a win is a win.

I would not be breaking anything; it wasn’t that high.

Great!

I checked if the coast was clear again. I pushed one leg out of the window before placing the other.

With my butt seated on the windowsill, I gasped for breath as I got ready to take one of the biggest jumps ever.

If someone had told me from the beginning of the year that I would try to escape from an extravagant lifestyle with an expensive dress and Cinderella shoes through a window on a night in August, I would have laughed in their faces.

But, of course, it was happening.

I was a workaholic with a repeated routine. I liked that I had no thrills in my life. And this happening made it clear that I wished not to ever.

Holding my breath like I was about to dive into a pool, I jumped.

With my body leaving the window and totally into the air,

Something strong immediately grabbed hold of my waist at light speed, and before I knew it, I was pulled back into the hallway.

The back of my head slammed against something hard, and right before I made a turn, his voice internally killed me before his eyes did.

Hardy’s familiar voice growled in my nape.

"You just made one hell of a mistake."

.

…*