Chapter Nineteen:The Escape Plan

AVA

I'd been locked in my room for six hours when I heard a soft tap on the door. Not the heavy knock of security or the sharp rap that meant Liam was coming to lecture me. This was different.

"Mrs. Blackwood?" Marcus's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Marcus?"

"Step away from the door."

I heard the soft click of the lock being disengaged, and then Marcus slipped inside, closing the door quietly behind him.

"How did you.."

"I have master keys to everything. One of the perks of being head of security."

"If Liam finds out you helped me.."

"He won't. He's downstairs with Victoria, planning your immediate future."

"What kind of future?"

Marcus's expression was grim. "The kind that involves a psychiatric evaluation and possible commitment."

My legs went weak. "He's going to have me locked up?"

"Victoria's been researching private mental health facilities. Very discreet, very expensive, very difficult to get out of once you're admitted."

"On what grounds?"

"Postpartum psychosis. Paranoid delusions. Attempted kidnapping. She's building quite a case against you."

I sank onto the bed, feeling defeated. "So that's it. I lose everything."

"Not if we move fast."

"What do you mean?"

Marcus pulled out a keycard and a small earpiece. "There's a service elevator in the kitchen that connects to the parking garage. I can get you and Eli out through there."

"And then what? I have nowhere to go, no money, no way to fight Liam's lawyers."

"I have friends. People who help women in situations like yours. But we have to move now, before they make their next move."

"What if we get caught?"

"Then we get caught. But at least we tried."

I looked at Marcus, this man who was risking everything to help me save my son. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I failed my own daughter. I couldn't save her from cancer, but I can save Eli from becoming another version of his father."

"Liam wasn't always like this, was he?"

"No. He wasn't. But broken people sometimes break other people, especially the ones they're supposed to love."

I stood up, decision made. "What's the plan?"

"Liam and Victoria are in his study with the door closed. Elena is in her room, probably reporting today's events to her real employers."

"Her real employers?"

"Elena doesn't work for a nanny agency, Mrs. Blackwood. She works for a private security company that specializes in family surveillance."

Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place. "So she was never meant to help Eli. She was meant to watch me."

"And manage Eli. Keep him calm, compliant, attached to anyone except you."

"The sedatives."

"Exactly. A child who's slightly sedated is easier to control, less likely to make scenes or demand attention from his mother."

Rage filled me. "They're experimenting on my baby."

"They're conditioning him. Breaking the natural mother-child bond and replacing it with dependence on caretakers they can control."

"We have to get him out of here."

"We will. But you need to understand something, Mrs. Blackwood. Once we do this, there's no going back. Liam will use every resource he has to find you."

"I don't care."

"He'll paint you as mentally unstable, a kidnapper, an unfit mother. He'll make your life hell."

"My life is already hell."

Marcus nodded. "Then let's go get your son."

We crept down the hallway toward Eli's room. I could hear muffled voices from Liam's study—him and Victoria planning my destruction, no doubt.

Elena's room was dark, her door closed. Marcus checked his watch.

"She usually takes a break around this time to call her handlers. We have maybe ten minutes."

Eli's room was dimly lit by his nightlight. He was sleeping peacefully in his crib, his stuffed elephant clutched in his tiny arms. He looked so small, so innocent, so completely unaware of the battle being fought over his future.

"Eli," I whispered, gently shaking his shoulder. "Wake up, sweetheart."

He stirred, blinking up at me with sleepy eyes. "Mama?"

"Hi, baby. We're going on an adventure."

"Adventure?"

"A special trip, just you and me."

Marcus appeared in the doorway. "We need to move. Elena just finished her call."

I lifted Eli from his crib, and he snuggled against my shoulder, still half-asleep from whatever Elena had given him earlier.

"Where are we going, Mama?"

"Somewhere safe."

We made it to the kitchen without incident. Marcus used his keycard to open the service elevator, and we stepped inside. As the doors closed, I felt a moment of hope. Maybe we could actually do this. Maybe we could escape.

The elevator descended smoothly toward the parking garage. Marcus had a car waiting, he'd said. A way out of the city before Liam even realized we were gone.

The doors opened to the underground garage, and Marcus stepped out first, checking to make sure it was clear.

"Okay, let's go."

But as we stepped out of the elevator, bright lights suddenly flooded the garage. Security guards emerged from behind cars, surrounding us completely.

"Going somewhere?"

Liam's voice echoed off the concrete walls as he stepped into view, his face a mask of cold fury. Behind him came Victoria, looking pleased with herself.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"Did you really think I wouldn't notice my head of security accessing restricted areas?" Liam asked. "Or that I wouldn't have the service elevator monitored?"

Marcus stepped protectively in front of Eli and me. "Mr. Blackwood, this isn't what it looks like."

"Really? Because it looks like my wife and my head of security are conspiring to kidnap my son."

"We were protecting him."

"From what? A loving home? Financial security? The best possible future?"

"From being turned into an emotionless machine," I said, holding Eli tighter. He was fully awake now, scared by all the lights and voices.

"Take the child," Liam ordered.

"No!" I backed against the elevator doors. "Please, just let me explain.."

"There's nothing to explain. You've proven exactly what Victoria said you would prove."

"What did she say I would prove?"

"That you're unstable. That you can't be trusted with Eli's safety. That you would eventually try to run away and destroy his future."

Victoria stepped forward, her smile triumphant. "I told you she would do this, darling. Some people just can't handle responsibility."

"You set this up," I accused. "You wanted me to try to escape so Liam would see me as a threat."

"I didn't set up anything. I simply predicted your behavior based on your character."

"My character?"

"Selfish. Impulsive. Unable to think beyond your own immediate desires."

Liam nodded to the guards. "James, take Eli to Elena. David, escort Mrs. Blackwood back to her room."

"Mama, no!" Eli reached for me as James approached.

"It's okay, sweetheart. Mama will be right back."

But even as I said it, I knew it was a lie.

David took my arm, his grip firmer than before. "Ma'am, please don't make this harder than it needs to be."

"Marcus," I called out as they led me away. "Tell him the truth!"

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Blackwood," Marcus said, but I could see in his eyes that he was planning something.

As we reached the elevator, I heard Liam talking to Victoria.

"You were right. She can't be trusted."

"I know how difficult this is for you, darling. But you're doing the right thing."

"Am I? Because watching her try to take Eli, seeing the terror in his eyes..."

"Children are resilient. He'll forget this happened."

"Will he? Because I remember being terrified as a child. I remember what it felt like when the people who were supposed to protect me caused me pain instead."

I stopped walking, straining to hear more.

"That's different," Victoria said. "You're nothing like your father."

"Aren't I? Look what I just did. I had my wife's son ripped from her arms while he screamed for her."

"You protected your heir from an unstable woman."

"I protected my interests. Just like he did."

There was pain in Liam's voice, real anguish that I'd never heard before.

"Liam," Victoria's voice was soothing, manipulative. "You're not your father. You're making hard choices to protect your family."

"By destroying it?"

"By controlling it. There's a difference."

"Is there? Because right now I feel like the same monster who made my childhood hell."

David was pulling me toward the elevator, but I could still hear them.

"You're being too emotional," Victoria said. "Remember what happened the last time you let emotions override logic."

"Isabella."

"Isabella died because you weren't strong enough to stop her from leaving. Are you going to make the same mistake twice?"

The elevator doors opened, and David pushed me inside. But just before they closed, I heard Liam's voice change, becoming dangerous again.

"No. I'm not."

As we ascended, David looked at me with something that might have been sympathy.

"Mrs. Blackwood, for what it's worth, I have kids too. What's happening here... it's not right."

"Then help me."

"I can't. I need this job."

"Even if it means watching a child be abused?"

"He's not being abused. He's being... managed."

"That's the same thing."

The elevator stopped at our floor, and David led me back to my room. As he was about to close the door, I grabbed his arm.

"David, please. Just let me see him for five minutes. Let me explain what's happening so he's not scared."

"I'm sorry. Mr. Blackwood was very clear."

The lock clicked again, and I was alone. But this time felt different. This time felt final.

I sat on the bed and looked around the luxurious room that had become my prison. Everything was beautiful, expensive and meaningless.

Then I heard footsteps in the hallway. Heavy, angry footsteps that I recognized as Liam's. The lock turned, and he burst through the door, his face twisted with rage.

"You turned my own security chief against me."

"Marcus was trying to help."

"Marcus was conspiring to help you steal my son!"

"I wasn't stealing him. I was protecting him."

"From what?"

"From becoming like you!"

Liam's hand shot out and slammed against the wall beside my head. I flinched, remembering the bruises on my wrist.

"You don't know anything about me."

"I know enough."

"Do you? Do you know what it's like to watch someone you love destroy themselves trying to escape you? Do you know what it's like to live with the guilt of their death every single day?"

"Isabella's death wasn't your fault."

"Wasn't it? I drove her away. My need to control everything, to keep her safe, made her desperate enough to risk everything to get away from me."

"So you learned the wrong lesson."

"I learned the only lesson that matters. If you love someone, you don't let them leave."

"Even if keeping them destroys them?"

Liam stepped back, his breathing ragged. "You think you were the only one who was broken that night? You think I didn't need saving too?”