Betrayal (Infidelity Book 1) - Aleatha Romig Page 0,59

mother I asked, “What do you say?”

MY HANDS SHOOK as I got into the backseat of the taxi outside of Montague Manor. “To the airport.”

I didn’t say another word to the driver as he drove the long oak-lined drive. I couldn’t form words, not in coherent sentences. I’d done well, in my opinion, during the confrontation. It was afterward, in my room with Jane, that I lost it.

Jane told me that Brantley would drive me wherever I wanted to go, but I didn’t trust him. She was the only one I trusted at Montague Manor. I sucked in my breath and clenched my teeth together when the taxi reached the gate. I wouldn’t have put it past Alton to have the watchman stop the taxi. It wasn’t until we were free of the grounds of the estate that I remembered to breathe. Sitting silently, with my Montague head held high, I watched the passing landscape as we drove into Savannah. This driver wasn’t on Alton’s payroll, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be bought. I didn’t want him to know where I was truly going.

I’d left the manor in too much of a hurry to book a flight. Besides it was Sunday, and the Savannah airport wasn’t that big. Sunday evening departures were few and far between. My plan was to be dropped at the airport and then take another taxi to a nearby hotel. I would find an early morning flight or I’d rent a car and drive to Atlanta. I didn’t care, as long as it was away from Montague Manor.

My mind slid to Jane. I loved her as I should love my mother. She was the one who was always there for me. She was the one who rocked me when I was little and put the bandages on my scraped knees. She was the one who worked to protect me from the monsters that lurked in the shadows. My mother hadn’t been there then. Why did I think she’d be there now?

Tears threatened as I considered the possibility that this could be the last time I was ever home, ever in Savannah, maybe even in Georgia.

I’d walked calmly out of the sitting room when silence followed my question to Adelaide. I didn’t want to hear any more of Alton’s reasoning or Adelaide’s excuses. I made it all the way to my bedroom before I let the pain register.

Everything I’d worked for, everything I’d accomplished while away at Stanford was for naught. According to them, it was a four-year reprieve, my chance to see the world. It wasn’t about education or bettering myself. They didn’t know how hard I’d worked to bury Alexandria and create Alex. None of it mattered.

Alexandria Charles Montague Collins had her time away, now she had a duty. They didn’t care about my dream of law school, because the only dream I should have had was to marry, continue the bloodline, and live the genteel life of illusion.

As I threw my possessions into my suitcase, I left the dresses my mother bought for me wadded up at the bottom of the closet, along with all the other gifts she’d left around the room. They weren’t for me. They were for Alexandria.

For maybe the last time, my comfort came from Jane. She wrapped me in her arms as the hurt and rage came out of me in deep hiccupping sobs. I hadn’t cried like that since… since him. Though she rubbed my back and told me it would be all right, I knew, just like last time, it wouldn’t.

The blessing I’d requested from my mother in the sitting room came via Jane. It was my mother who gave it, just not in person. I had one semester and some money in my checking and savings accounts in California. It wasn’t much, but it would get me to New York. Even if I survived until the holidays, even with my mother’s blessing, Jane and I both knew the beginning of the year would signal my death.

If I didn’t return to Montague Manor, I never could. I’d be dead to my family.

If I did return, I’d be dead to me.

Either way, my diagnosis was terminal.

My phone vibrated with a text message:

Chelsea: “CALL ME!”

I’d turned off my ringer. I wasn’t ready to talk to anyone.

Me: “I WILL. GIVE ME A FEW.”

Chelsea: “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? ARE YOU COMING HOME?”

Me: “LATERS.”

In all the madness, my best friend still made me smile. This time she’d done it without even