✅🎊✂️ Hypnosis Won't Take Me There!! [alternative cut]

Chapter 507: Speculation

Adi shook her head as she recounted her first attempts to send the email. She was clearly disappointed in herself, even if it had been an easy mistake to make.

"You were still little then," Toni tried to console her. "I guess it might take a long time to realise that we're not coming. I mean, little kids tend to believe what they're told, because they don't have as much experience of how long things normally take."

"I knew you were starting work for your family business, and you'd be busy. So it was almost reasonable to think you might be delayed, and come to join us after a couple of days. I think I might have bought two or three days even without being regressed, But that wasn't the problem."

"I think the problem is that you were worried, and he didn't even think about that. Seriously, if you wanted to talk to us you should have been able to. And he didn't tell you not to, so how would he have known that you were acting out? He just got mad without talking about it, and that could have really upset you when you're regressed. If he's going to make you be a baby, he should keep on treating you like one."

"It's not just that, though. I mean, I totally didn't understand at the time, but now I think I know why he did it. He told me after, but there was a long time in between. And I know why he didn't tell me too, but it was still hard. But listen, I came to understand. And I think in a way he was right. He couldn't tell me all of his plan, because it wouldn't have worked. He needed me to stop talking to you, and I can understand that now. I wish it didn't have to hurt so much, but I kind of get it now. He did what needed to be done."

"Taking you to a little house in the middle of nowhere, literally hundreds of miles from the people who care about you, so he can have complete control of everything you hear? Yeah, that really sounds like a healthy relationship, and not at all manipulative."

"Look, I can see that. I understand that it's problematic, but maybe the ends justify the means. He thought so, and now I'm here, feeling as confident as I was this morning, I kind of agree that it was worth it. It's the lesser of two evils in a way."

"I'd hate to see what the greater is. What else did he have in mind? I mean... even if he thought you wanted it, what if you'd fallen and hurt yourself? Have you seen the state of Kolechian healthcare?"

"I still never really understood how Dean found a place like that. Once he'd mentioned Chastaine, I thought it might be yours," she turned to the guy standing beside her and gave a little nod, the first time she'd really acknowledged him during the storytelling. "But now we've met I don't think you're that well off. I guess he could have been working there. I mean, he did a lot of work on the place, I imagine he could have been living there while he renovated it. But he's not a builder, and how would he have got a job like that in another ..." Adi eventually stopped, as she realised her friends were laughing at something, and she thought the joke might be on her.

"The cottage," Toni nodded. "It's a lovely place. I kind of wish we could have seen it together. I think we got there the day after you left, and that was a miracle. It's a beautiful place, and apparently there's a whole bunch of tourist attractions nearby. Belle was telling us all about it on the way there, whenever her excitement got stronger than the worries about you,"

"Wait, Belle was with you too? If you were hoping to bring me back, I'd have thought it would be the three of you."

"She speaks the language," Toni chuckled. "And we wouldn't have got in without her. She inherited a cottage from some great uncle or something, and Dean's been going over with her for a month every summer to help fix it up. She was upset when she found out you were missing, and mad when she thought you'd run off with Dean. But she looked like she was about to explode when she figured out he'd gone to her holiday home without her."

"Woah..." Adi was lost for words for a moment, staring in surprise at the mental images conjured by those words. But it didn't take long for her to remind herself why she was here. "I guess that explains that mystery then. It wasn't because it was hundreds of miles away, it was just the only place he knew where I wouldn't be able to run away."

"If you even tried to. I mean, from what you've told us so far you were barely able to get out of the house. And you never even thought about what he might have in mind? How long did it take before you even had second thoughts?"

"Hey! I'm not that naive, I was just... I don't know, I was thinking like a kid, I guess. But I thought about it sooner or later. I mean, one of the things I guessed wasn't too far from reality, but I bet some of the things I imagined were darker than anything you could have come up with."

"You don't know what we've been dreading. And I'm still not sure this isn't one of the darkest outcomes."

"It isn't, Mom. Just listen, you'll understand, I promise. But it was about a week after I sent that email, or tried to send it, that I had enough of my adult mind back to wonder why I had to stay as a baby so much. I had a few guesses, but some of them were really out there...