He Had Taken Her Phone

Yawning, Eliana scrubbed her eyes as she stretched her body. Her waist made a small sound as she tried to find a comfortable spot on the bed. Her head pounded so hard she had to hold it, scared it would drop right off her shoulder.

“Jesus.”

She dropped her head back onto the pillow and used her arm to cover her eyes from the glaring sun coming through the curtains. The sun was hard and filled her entire room, which was enough to tell her it was already noon.

She yawned again, but it strained her head. She sighed and quit yawning altogether, forcing herself to sit up. Looking at her bedside table, her eyes searched for a glass of water and a pill, but found none.

Cesare must have forgotten, or he simply didn’t inform the housekeeper about it. She wasn’t trying to feel entitled, but anytime she had a hangover there was always a pill and a note with a quick scrawl telling her to drink, rest, and not go out that day.

But today there was nothing, and the house sounded so quiet she could feel it in her bones.

She slid down from the bed, swaying on her feet as she stood. She clutched her head again and started for the door. She opened it and stepped out into the hallway.

This was the second floor, and Cesare’s room was just down the hall, but she couldn’t go there. She was scared. What he had done last night didn’t exactly worry her, but she didn’t want to reenact it.

He would do it again in a heartbeat if she ventured into his territory.

She didn’t know if he was around. He was never home by this time of the day, but he was unpredictable. She never knew when he was actually in the house.

So she headed for the stairs, hoping to find food and maybe another human being who wasn’t Cesare.

When Eliana came down the long spiral staircase and into the kitchen, she found no one — only the humming of the industrial fridge. She went to it for water. Head still pounding, she drank while looking through the window at the well-kept garden outside.

Her mind drifted to her life and what it was turning into. She had finished high school, but she was so confused about what to do next. Going to college was completely out of the question. Cesare had told her that repeatedly.

It wasn’t like she had anything particular in mind to do. She was distraught that she couldn’t even have a say in the smallest part of her own life. She couldn’t go out without security. She was always under his scrutiny, even when he wasn’t around.

She scoffed and dropped the empty water bottle, her eyes vacant. She watched the flowers move with the soft noon breeze. If only she could be the breeze — free to go wherever it wanted without anyone telling it what to do.

She was all alone. There was no one to run to. Her mom had left her when she needed her the most, dropping her off in this hellhole and running off to God knows where.

She had never known her dad. Only occasional stepdads who never stayed for more than a few months. Either they were on their way out, or she and her mom were already packing to leave.

There had never been a steady life. Always skipping towns, always running from people her mother owed money to, and worse. That was what had landed her here.

A payment for a debt.

Her mom didn’t even blink when she cried. She didn’t flinch when Eliana pinched her, begging her not to leave her with the scary people. No. She only berated her, saying she wasn’t a kid anymore.

Apparently a thirteen-year-old wasn’t a kid to her mother. She hadn’t even been a teenager yet. She was just a kid.

A kid who needed a mother — someone who wasn’t a man, someone who didn’t molest a teenager, someone who actually took care of the little girl in the house.

Eliana blinked back tears. She always told herself she wouldn’t cry when it came to her mother, but the pain never healed. It always resurfaced exactly when she didn’t want it to.

She squinted at the sudden rumble from outside. A black SUV rounded the fountain in the middle of the compound and stopped. The door opened and the housekeeper stepped out.

Eliana sighed and relaxed against the counter on her elbows. She shifted the empty water bottle so she could watch them more comfortably, forgetting for a moment about her pounding head and her hunger.

A few soldiers with guns across their chests helped unload grocery bags from the trunk while the housekeeper directed them on what to do.

If the housekeeper was here this early, it meant Cesare wasn’t home and something was up. No note. No water. No pill. Nothing. Just a housekeeper she hadn’t laid eyes on in weeks, and the usual cooked meals in the fridge that the woman always left for her.

She pushed herself up from the counter. She needed to go back to her room. Everything she did would be reported to Cesare or his father, but his father hadn’t been in her sight for months now.

Cesare was the one in charge of her and the house.

She picked up the empty water bottle and took long strides, sprinting up the stairs as voices from the foyer drifted toward her.

Back in her room, Eliana threw the bottle into the bin near her door. Now she needed her phone. She crossed the room to her bag, which still lay carelessly beside her pillow. She opened it and her heart sped up.

Cesare was a control freak. He would do anything to keep her under his thumb, not caring if she was comfortable or happy about it. Only what he wanted mattered.

He couldn’t have taken her phone… could he?

She rummaged through the bag and found nothing. Frantic, with wild eyes and shaky hands, she flipped the bag upside down and watched the contents drop singularly into a small pile.

Her fingers moved quickly. She threw the empty bag aside and scattered through the lip gloss, charger cord, power bank, lip liner, mouthwash, and tiny perfume.

Those weren’t the only things that had been in her bag last night. Her black card and her phone were missing. She stood as adrenaline shot through her body in waves and rushed to the bedside table drawer.

She scattered through everything inside, but she didn’t find the one thing she knew should have been there — the exact place she had left it last night.

Which left only one possibility.

Cesare had taken her phone.