レティアの虹色の冒険

Aurora

I tiptoe down the hallway and hold my breath as a floorboard creaks under my feet. My mother wanted to have the floor fixed so it would stop squealing so much, but my father didn’t even want to hear about it.

He likes the annoying sounds it makes because they let him know when someone is in the hallway. Since our house probably has more guards than a prison, I doubt he’s afraid an intruder will get in and kill us all in our sleep. He just wants to have control over everyone all the time.

No one comes my way. My shoulders relax and I keep going.

Do other people sneak around their own home? I don’t want to sneak around in mine either, but I have no choice. If my father finds out I’m on my way to see Julia—our cook’s daughter—he’ll be furious with me and do something crazy, like send Julia away or fire her parents.

Julia’s dad works as a guard, and she and her parents live in the small house for the staff next to ours. I don’t want Julia to risk coming all the way up to my room. She often helps her mom in the kitchen, so she can’t be seen wandering too far away, especially not anywhere near my room.

My father thinks being friendly with the staff is beneath us, so he strictly forbids it. But aside from Julia, I don’t have any friends, which isn’t a surprise because I’m not allowed to go anywhere on my own.

Even when I go somewhere, which happens once in a blue moon, it’s usually no more than a brief outing. Everything is either a security risk or my father thinks it’s inappropriate.

Even if I got out more, who’d want to be friends with a mafia princess anyway? I’d have to invent a whole new life for myself to fit in, and would any of it be real then?

At least Julia knows exactly who and what my family is, and she has zero problems with it. Without her, I would’ve gone crazy a long time ago.

We’ve been friends ever since I ran into her during one of my walks around the house about ten years ago. She was the first girl my age that I saw, and she was as bored here as I was, even though she was allowed to go to school and have friends.

I don’t know if we just liked the idea of having a secret, forbidden friendship, or if the mafia part, which normal friends couldn’t know about, brought us together like magnets, but not even threats could separate us.

I reach the stairway and lean over the railing. No guards in sight. Perfect. I quicken my steps and hurry down. My heart pounds with more force as I push open the door to a storage room next to the kitchen.

I’ve done this so many times, but I keep expecting I’ll find a guard or my father inside. Julia grins at me. The tension leaves my shoulders, and my pulse returns to normal.

Well, almost normal. We never know who may find us in here, but there are plenty of shelves and boxes to hide behind.

Julia grabs my hand and tugs me behind one of the shelves. My gaze falls on the pink streaks in her long blonde hair. Her hazel eyes meet mine.

“What do you think?” She runs a hand through her hair.

“I love it!” If only I could just go to a hairdresser and do with my long dark brown hair whatever the hell I wanted.

But my father yelled at me for putting my hair up into a bun once, so experimenting with my hair is out of the question.

“We can get you clip-in extensions. Easily removable ones. I have a photo somewhere. They might not look like your—” Julia takes out her phone and taps the screen.

“It’s fine.” There’s no point in going through all the trouble for something I’m probably only going to wear for an hour or two.

“Oh, come on! Your twentieth birthday is coming up. It’s a big deal. We have to make it special. You should have everything you want.”

Is freedom on the list?

I guess not. Julia isn’t my fairy godmother and doesn’t have a magic wand that can turn me into a normal person, even if it’s just for one night.

“Thanks,” I say, “but I really don’t—”

“Listen, I took a peek at my dad’s schedule. Your father is going to be away tomorrow night. We can get you out. My friends from college want to go to this huge party at a very popular club, and I thought you and I could join them. Let’s start your birthday party early.”

I try not to envy Julia’s life, but I’d love to be able to go to college and have friends. “I don’t know. My father has eyes and ears everywhere.”

Sneaking out of here to party at someone’s house or some small, dark club is one thing, but anything popular with big crowds usually attracts my father’s people, not to mention he owns a few nightclubs. If anyone sees me with Julia, I don’t want to think about what could happen.

“It’s not here.” Her lips spread into a wide, conspiratorial grin. “My friend would drive. It’s about an hour and a half—”

“Wait, what?” I gape at her.

“It’s not in your father’s territory. Thanks to your father hiding you from pretty much the whole world, no one knows what you look like or that you really exist. It’s perfectly safe. No one cares about me either.”

I bite down on my lip. Nothing in this life is perfectly safe. I’ve never gone out of my father’s territory. It sounds very risky and dangerous but also exciting at the same time.

“Think about it.” Julia slips her phone into the pocket of her jeans and grabs my hands. “New city. New club. New people. An actual band performing live. It’ll be so fun. No one there will know who you are. I’ll tell my friends you’re my friend from high school or something. They won’t care.”

“But if we lose three or so hours just driving there and back, we won’t have any time left.” Myrecordfor successfully staying away from home is five hours, and I was freaking out most of the time because I was worried about getting caught.

“We’ll have plenty of time. Your father’s trip will take twelve hours.”

“But my mother—”

“Your mother has that thing early in the morning. What is it?” She furrows her brow and tilts her head. “Some charity event?”

“Yeah, but she can come check on me.” My mother doesn’t have much freedom either, but she gets to go out and show her face in public because my father needs her to maintain his image of an ordinary businessman.

Sometimes, the two of them have a fake daughter with them, and he’s sent the daughters of his guards to school under different identities to distract and confuse his enemies into thinking one of those girls could be me. I’ve never gone anywhere out with him, unless we count a few special dinners for our close relatives.

“We’ll be back before your mother wakes up. She’ll go to sleep early too because she needs to look perfect in the morning. Everything is exactly as we need it to be. It’s our chance. Your chance. You’ve been waiting for it for so long. We won’t get caught. I promise. And if, in some highly unlikely scenario things go wrong, we’ll figure it out. We’ll say you were kidnapped or something. Your father will be mad, but you’re his only child. He’s not going to kill you.”

I stare into her eyes. We’ve been friends for so long, but she still doesn’t fully understand it. And how could she? She only gets a small glimpse into my life. My father never yells at me in front of the staff, and I don’t talk much about him when I’m with her.

But maybe she’s right. I’m my father’s only child. If he catches me, he might lock me up in my room forever or put the guards right in front of my door. But that’s not much different from how I’m already living.

My birthday’s coming up, and sometimes I wonder if I’m even alive. My life seems like a never-ending nightmare. As if I’m a guest in my own body.

I want to do something fun.

I want to be free for a few hours, even if my freedom is just an illusion.

I want to experience what it’s like to go to a big party like a regular college girl, even if I never get to do it again.

If I can’t do any of what I want, then what am I even living for?

“Okay.” I give Julia a small nod. “Let’s do it.”

She squeals in delight and wraps her arms around me. “You don’t have to worry about anything. I’ll arrange everything.”

It’s not like I could do any of it instead of her, considering my phone and computer activity is monitored. “Thanks. I should go.”

“Yeah. Meet me here after dinner.”

I give her a small smile and head out. Before opening the door, I listen carefully for any noise.

Nothing. No voices. No footsteps.

I crack the door open and take a peek. No one is in sight, so I scurry out. I dash to the stairway and hurry up.

“Aurora!”

I freeze in the middle of the hallway and spin around. “Yes, Mother?”

Her forehead creases as she approaches, her dark brown eyes inspecting me carefully. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” I try to keep my breathing calm, but I’m sure my cheeks are flushed.

My aunt says I look exactly like my mother, but aside from the same hair and eye color, I don’t think we have much in common. My mother is way slimmer than me, almost bony, and she keeps her shoulders straight all the time. Her lips are thinner too, and her nose more curved.

“Where were you? Why in such a rush? If you want to run, you do it in the gym.”

We have a whole room filled with exercise equipment, and my mother spends a lot of time there.

“Um, I’m not in a rush. I just went to the kitchen to grab a snack.”

“A snack?” Her gaze travels up and down my body, and she scrunches her nose. “You can’t possibly be hungry! We ate not even two hours ago.”

“I know, but I wanted something sweet and—”

“Sweet? You’re no longer a child. You need to be careful of what you eat.”

“Right. Yeah, I know. It was only a small snack.”

“Look at you. You should spend some more time in the gym.”

“I will.” I pull my lips into a small smile I don’t feel.

Anything to get my mother to let me go.

“Have you finished your reading?” she asks.

“I’m almost done with it.”

“Good.”

“Actually, that’s why I wanted to get back to my room as quickly as possible.”

I don’t go to college, but that hasn’t stopped my mother from remaining in charge of my education. Before, I had a teacher who came to my house every day, but ever since I got my high school diploma—my father arranged for me to take all the exams at home—my mother has taken over the teacher’s job.

I guess it’s all because she and my father want to keep me occupied and not because they want me to actually learn something that I’m going to need one day. If they have any plans for my future, they’re not very forthcoming about them. I’m just supposed to do what I’m told and not think about anything or have a mind of my own.

My mother purses her lips, takes another look at me, and then turns away from me. I breathe out a sigh of relief.

Maybe one day, my life will be different.

* * *

I stare at my reflection in the mirror. My stomach is a knot of anxiety and excitement. Just as Julia predicted, my mom has already gone off to sleep. Everything’s ready for the night I’m never going to forget, no matter what happens.

I glance at the alarm clock on my nightstand. It’s almost time. If I want to get out of the house without getting caught, I can’t be late. The guards follow a tight schedule, and every second counts.

I arrange the pillows on my bed and cover them with a blanket so, if someone comes to check, they’ll think I’m fast asleep. My pulse speeds up as I turn off the lights and pad over to the door.

My mother’s room is just across the hallway, so I have to be super quiet. Aside from the master bedroom they share, my parents have their separate rooms too. My mother likes to sleep in her room when my father is away, which isn’t good at the moment because it’s too close.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly crack the door open. The silence in the hallway is so loud that my every step feels like a wave violently crashing against the cliffs. I barely breathe as I descend the stairs.

My heart pounds as I race past the kitchen to the back door. I slip outside into the darkness, and my breath gets stuck in my chest when I spot a shadow near one of the walls.

Julia steps forward and grins at me, catching my hand. “We have to hurry,” she whispers.

I nod.

Her eyes travel up and down my body, and her brow furrows. “You’re wearingthat?”

“Um, yeah.” I give her a puzzled look because I have no clue as to what could possibly be wrong with my light blue shirt and my black skirt.

She’s wearing a tight, glittery, silver dress that barely reaches her thighs and that accentuates her every curve. I don’t have anything as sexy as that in my closet, and my mother would never let me buy a dress that doesn’t at least cover my knees.

“Let me...” Julia gets hold of my skirt and pulls it up, folding it at the waist.

“What are you doing?”

“I should’ve gotten you some clothes. I can’t believe I forgot,” she mutters as she lifts my shirt. “Oh, good. Your undershirt is fine. We’ll come up with something in the car. You can take my jacket and—”

I have no idea what she’s talking about, but we need to move. “Come on!” I hiss.

Julia bobs her head and grabs my hand, yanking me with her. As we scurry through the shadows, I glance at the part of the house that’s off limits to anyone but my father and his men.

It doesn’t look any different from the rest of the house in any way, but I’ve always wondered what goes on in there.

I’m a mafia princess, and yet, the mafia is mostly a mystery to me. All I ever get to see are armed men. My father never discusses anything important in front of me.

Sometimes, I want to break my father’s rule and try to get past the guards to see what’s so secret and forbidden about his mafia part of the house, but he probably just keeps important paperwork or information there.

But now I’m just glad I can’t see any guards as Julia leads me through the bushes that are at the edge of the yard.

I’m lucky Julia knows exactly which path to take so no would see us. She even knows the code for disabling the alarms so we can go through the gate instead of having to climb the brick fence.

I gasp when I glimpse a guard, but Julia tugs me with her down the street and we race as fast as possible. When we can’t see any part of the house anymore, we stop.

Julia looks at me as we pant for breath, and then we both burst into laughter.

“Come on. My friend’s car should be just around the corner,” she says.

I glance over my shoulder. No one’s coming after us, but I can’t relax just yet. I’ll probably be tense until I’m back in my bed and I’m sure my parents aren’t going to find out about any of this.

But I’m not a child anymore.

I should be able to do whatever I want, mafia princess or not.