He’d warned me that his staff was loyal to him, but with eleven adults on the island, there had to be someone who had a conscience. Someone who knew keeping a grown woman captive was wrong. These were good people, too. I’d spent time with them now, and couldn’t believe that there wasn’t one of them that would try to help me.
I chose who I’d approach carefully. Joette was the matriarch, the woman that Edward had initially befriended. Winning her favor would likely be the hardest, no matter how friendly and doting she’d been. It followed that her children would stand by her in most things, which was why I decided to approach one of the spouses.
Sanyjah, Mateo’s wife, was the obvious choice.
Quieter than most of the women, Sanyjah was one of the primary housekeepers and spent a good deal of time around the main house. That meant I saw her more than almost anyone else except Joette and Tom, who did the daily cooking.
I found her later in the morning in Edward’s room, cleaning up the ceramic from the vase I’d broken the night before.
“I’ll be done in a few minutes,” she said when I came in, obviously thinking I wanted use of the room.
“Actually, I came to talk to you.”
She stood up straight, leaning on the broom, her expression mildly surprised. “Do you need something? Did Tom forget to stock your cupboards with toilet paper?”
The staff had never acted like servants around Edward. There could only be a handful of reasons why they’d behave differently with me. Either he’d told them to, which seemed unnecessary, and Edward never did anything unnecessarily. Or I hadn’t given them any reason to act any other way.
The latter was more likely. I’d been nice enough with all of them but not particularly friendly. Obviously, I’d been a shitty guest.
I hoped that didn’t bite me in the ass now. Hopefully, an explanation of my plight would forgive my previous conduct.
“No, nothing like that. Here, let me help.” I bent down to pick up the shards I should have cleaned up the night before. When she protested, I dismissed her. “This was my fault, anyway. Only right that I’m the one to clean it up.”
“You knocked it over?” The suspicion in her voice was reasonable. The vase had been placed across the room.
“I threw it. I was angry.” I tossed the pieces into the garbage bag at Sanyjah’s side then stood again. “I was angry because Edward is keeping me captive here. He won’t let me leave. But now he’s gone, and so I’m begging you to help me. Please, help me?”
Sanyjah peered at me curiously, as though she thought I might be testing her. Then she laughed and went back to sweeping the particles that had been left behind. “Sure I’ll help you. I’ll help by cleaning up after you.”
“I know this sounds ridiculous, but I’m telling the truth. He tricked me into coming here, and now he’s left me here.”
“Tricked you? You married him, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but.” Of course anything I said about that would make my credibility worse. “I did willingly marry him,” I said, thinking fast. “I didn’t know what kind of a man he was when I did. He hid his true colors, and now I’m his prisoner.”
She laughed again, shaking her head. Maybe I’d picked the wrong spouse after all.
I tried again. “I know there’s a phone somewhere on the island with satellite reception. If you could just get me to it, I can call my father and…”
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that,” she said, serious now. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish my work.”
She turned her back toward me, ending the discussion.
My attempts with Marge and Peter went similarly. In desperation, I moved onto Joette’s children, but trying to plea to Mateo and Dreya was just as fruitless. Either I wasn’t taken seriously or I was flatly dismissed. Clearly, they’d been given orders and those orders wouldn’t be ignored.
I considered appealing to everyone all at once at dinner. Maybe with all of them together they’d see reason.
But, while we’d had dinner together nightly when Edward was on the island, that evening I was left only with a premade meal in the fridge from Joette.
The next day I tried something more demure with Tom, asking for use of the phone to call Edward. “We’re newlyweds and all, and I already miss him.”
She winked. “Exactly why he needs some time away from you. Pretty, young wives are distracting. Who’s gonna pay the bills if you don’t let the man work?”
Escaping was going to be harder than I’d thought.
I waited out the week. Though Joette and Tom and Sanyjah came almost daily, the house was quieter than it had been my entire honeymoon. Thanksgiving came and went, uncelebrated by Bahamian natives.
Whatever. It had never been my favorite holiday anyway. All those calories that had to be sweat off with extra workouts. Not that I didn’t have time to exercise. Being stuck on Amelie was the perfect excuse to get in better shape. What else was there to do? It was paradise, but even paradise got boring after a while.
When Edward had been gone a week, I tried another approach, asking Eliana if I could tag along on her trip to Nassau for groceries.
She tilted her head up as if she was considering, and my chest fluttered with hope.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said after a minute. “It’s not safe.”
“Not safe?”
“For a woman in your condition.”
“A woman in my condition?” I was repeating everything she said in horror. What had Edward said about me? “Did he tell you I was pregnant?”
“No!” she said, her eyes wide. “Congratulations!”
“I’m not pregnant,” I said with a frustrated scowl. “I meant, what do you mean about my condition?”
“It’s best we not talk about serious things like that,” she said mysteriously. “And leave grocery shopping to me. You stay here where you’re looked after. Everything will be all right.”
No, everything would not be all right. I was trapped, and no one would give me a straight reason for not wanting to help me.
So I tried to hide on the boat. Actually, I first tried to steal the boat. Sure, I’d never driven one before, but it couldn’t be that hard.
Except it completely was. I found the steering wheel and where to put a key, but the rest of the buttons were meaningless. And, even if I wanted to brave it, I soon learned the keys were locked up in a safe. There was a sailboat as well, but it was chained to the dock and secured with a padlock. That key, I presumed, was also in the safe.
And thus I was forced to try to hide instead. I buried myself under some blankets at the stern of the boat and waited.
Mateo caught me right away.
I tried again the following week. Monday was always grocery day, which meant I didn’t have to cause suspicion by asking when the next boat would go out. I hoped that not mentioning wanting to go with Eliana this time would make it seem like it had left my mind. I got to the dock way before the time she usually left and found a better hiding spot on the cruiser.
Again, Mateo discovered me.
The next week it was Louvens who found me. Which meant I still might have a shot. He was the single man of the bunch and his sneaky stares at me in my bikini and on my daily runs had not gone unnoticed.