Liberty POV
“Come on, hurry up!” He shouts at me, pulling at my arm as my body is begging me to stop due to the painful stitch in my side. Why the fuck didn’t he bring a car? And how come he was so fast?
He was a scrawny skinny thing, no muscles to him whatsoever. I would of thought he would be more puffed out than me.
“I’m going as fast as I can. Can I just catch my breath?” I moan.
“No, not until we are there.”
“Where?”
“You’ll see!”
I wasn’t made for this sort of rushing around. Hell I haven’t even been outside of Father’s apartment for six years. Well, I have if you count the top floor gym and open air swimming pool.
The restaurant and bar being my usual hang outs when Father is away, which has been a lot since I turned sixteen. He must know I do it because I never have to pay, which means the staff are controlled by his pockets….my pockets.
“Keep moving.” He growls at me, pulling me so roughly it actually hurts. We finally stop at some dingy block of flats, in a rough part of the town. Not like home. Maybe this was just somewhere to hide for a few hours until we moved along.
Vicky was meant to come to see me, but instead the guard has come. Usually the guards just stand outside our apartment door, or if this one is on watch, sleep. He’s not been a guard for long, popped up out of nowhere a few weeks ago.
He was useless really. But I never said anything because if he was on watch I got to sneak out to the bar alone. By the time I got back he would still be asleep. So maybe he was actually the perfect. guard for me.
I don’t know what’s happened to Vicky, she said she would come and get me, take me somewhere new. We’ve been planning it since she got Father to give this new guard a chance to prove himself. But then again she was full of lies and unbelievably fake, I don’t know why I am surprised.
The guard doesn’t let go of my arm until we are outside of an apartment door and he needs to get keys from out of his pocket. He can’t seem to multitask bless him.
“Is this it!” I look around the apartment as I take a step inside. No one lived here surely? It didn’t have a homely vibe at all. It was cluttered with towers of boxes that were damp, the floorboards creaked under my step and the lightbulb flickered when he finally turned it on.
What was wrong with him, was he high? He would have kept the light off if I wasn’t here. The curtains were drawn creating a blacked out hot vibe to the room. Was I in a drug den? Oh Christ, I think I was.
“Yep!” He just responds as he grabs a bottle of beer from the fridge and cracks it open with his teeth. Disgusting, I bet his back teeth are broken. He’s definitely high. Which means I can’t stay. What was Vicky thinking putting him in charge?
He walks over to an old looking sofa where the fabric has been torn and the seats foam was partly on display. Like a sloth he rests on it, switching the television on.
What was I supposed to do now?
Refusing to sit next to him, I take a look around the apartment only to find one bedroom and a bathroom. It was definitely a fixer upper. Mould covered the bathroom tiles and the bedroom’s wallpaper was peeling away from the walls.
Returning back to the main apartment living area I hop up on the kitchen counter top and sit, watching the back of his head.
After weeks of guarding me, he still wouldn’t let me know his name…why?
“What’s your name again?”
“Why?” He responds not even turning around to look at me, just slugging away on his beer. “Just be nice to know what to call you. I thought Vicky was coming to get me?”
“Change in plan…”
Okay I don’t trust him. What if Vicky didn’t even tell him to get me? Shit, I didn’t think of that.
I was so desperate to leave Father’s controlling behaviour that I may have just run into the arms of another controlling person. I need to get out of here. If he keeps drinking, he’ll be asleep soon.
With that in mind, I hop off the counter and open the fridge. I grab two bottles of beers, walking over to him I put one out for him to open for me.
He looks at me first, too intently for my liking before he finally opens the beer bottle and passes it back to me.
“Are you old enough to drink!” A feminine voice makes me jump. I look at the guard wearily as he turns but doesn’t seem put out by our new addition. He was expecting her. Who the hell was she?
“I’m eighteen…”
“Oh, you look younger. You, go help my Father!” She demands of the guard who with a groan turns off the television and puts his beer on the table. He walks past me, scowling at this new female.
“I’m Natascha…” The rather well dressed woman introduces herself. She dresses like Father, suited and immaculate…well she’s wearing a dress, Father doesn’t wear dresses… that I know of.
“…Vicky asked me to check on you.”
“She did? Where is she?” I ask watching her perfectly brown blow dried hair bounce below her shoulders. I should know how perfect it was, a blow dry is hard to do yourself. I spent years practicing until Father bought me heated rollers for Christmas.
“She’s away on business, she’ll be here when she can be. She’s asked that you stay here for tonight and then she’ll know what to do…”
“What to do?” I felt she was being rather vague yet trying to make me think she was telling me loads to keep me satisfied.
“Just for tonight, I promise.” She touches my arm, giving me her sweetest smile as she flutters her eyelashes at me.
“Okay…” I think I just threw up a little in my mouth from her performance. The guard comes walking back in carrying another couple of boxes that he places on the floor with the others. Okay so maybe he wasn’t so scrawny if he could lift that amount of boxes.
“Natascha…” A male’s voice calls from downstairs which she follows not to return again that night.
What in the love of god was going on? Maybe I shouldn’t have run away after all. But I was finding father’s constant lies and trickery too much.
I’ve been in that apartment block since I was twelve, twelve! I mean don’t get me wrong it’s got a large balcony for me to stretch out on to, it’s my favourite spot to do yoga, it’s got lots to keep me entertained but six years!!!
Everyone came to me. My tutors, my hair stylist…everyone came to me.
I lived with Mum until she passed away. She was a high flyer in the financial district and always made sure I was looked after. I was popular, I had friends, I had a boyfriend already…then bang…my life changed when she died.
Then Father appeared, said I was now legally his and that he was going to take good care of me. To help me with the money Mum had left to me.
At sixteen I was meant to receive it all, but sixteen turned to eighteen. Then at eighteen Father said I wasn’t ready and I have to wait until I was twenty-one.
It’s my money…Mum’s money. He can’t just rock up and take it, as if he knows what’s best for me. Sod that! I’m eighteen now and I know I am entitled to it….so Vicky was meant to help me but I learnt quickly that she’s a liar just like Father.
I discovered early on that she was a fake. She pretended to care, that she wanted to be my friend.
But one time when she thought my back was turned she gave me a sneer, a bitch face. I was so excited to have someone over, who took time to find out about me..that I was actually hurt by her fake-ness. I felt betrayed.
Father was probably paying her like he did everyone else…again with my money, so I decided to take some sweet revenge on her. Let her think I didn’t know, but really for once I was playing her.
And here I am, acting out my revenge but without her being a bloody part of it.
