❤ Stockholm Syndrome 🔫 | ✔

🖤 Chapter 20 🖤

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I leave the dining room determined to find Cedric; but where the hell do I look? I've been told by James that the servants have a specific part of the mansion that they all go when they're done with their morning duties. But the thing is, I don't know where this part of the mansion is, and this isn't exactly the small kind of mansion where you can find rooms in less than 5 minutes.

I stand in the main entrance room of the mansion, look around and assess the different paths I can take. My eyes drift to a wall underneath the staircase. I notice a dark rectangular shape on the wall, hidden by the dark shadow of the staircase - a door. Its ominousness beams out at me, since I've never really noticed it there before, and I start to walk towards it.

The door's splendour stands out more as I near it - dark red (almost maroon) wood with a golden frame and doorknob; nothing fancy.

When I reach the door, I try to turn the knob but it doesn't even budge. Looking at it closely, I see that there's a slot for pushing in a key. If I recall correctly, I've seen Cedric with some kind of chain around his neck before, a key attached at the hanging end.

"Looking for something, Miss?" comes a voice from behind, almost startling the life out of me. I spin around to see none other than Cedric standing with a white towel, concentrated on drying his wet hands. "Newbies don't seem to know their way around the house at first," he jokes.

He thinks I'm a servant. I laugh it off in my head and stare at him until he looks up from drying his hands. His face grows pale and his eyes widen when he sees me. I move from under the stairs and step into the light so that he can see my face better, and hold my hands out. "It's okay. I live here."

"Y-you're...you're her!" he shouts, almost in a whisper.

"Yes, I'm Erica Augustine; your employee's wife," I confirm.

"No! You can't be real! You just can't!" He begins to take a few steps back, pulling a shiny but sharp blade from behind his back.

He carries a knife around with him? "And, for your information," I say, looking at the knife, "if you hurt me, that will only cause dire consequences for you. You know my husband, don't you? He won't hesitate to do what he has to."

He looks at me in disbelief. "You're lying! You're imaginary!" He starts swiping the knife at me, edging closer and closer as I begin to slowly back away. "Well, you're looking at his wife." I gesture to my figure. "Most obviously not a figment of your imagination." I lift up my hand with the wedding ring on it, just to prove that I am James' wife. He should recognize the ring because, according to James, he had to get it; but it seems as though getting the rings for the wedding still wasn't enough to prove to him that I really existed. His face gets even paler, and he gapes at the silver ring nestled on my left ring-finger.

"So, you do exist!" he concludes, lowering the knife a little, halfheartedly.

"Yes, yes. Enough time-wasting," I say, and draw my hand back to my side, and he completely lowers the knife as I continue. "I need your help to get out of here."

"Oh no, no, no!" He shakes his head vigorously. "I'm already in enough trouble for just seeing you. Imagine the punishment I'll receive for helping you do that. Look what happened to Pauline; God rest her soul." He tilts his head forward and bows a little, taking a moment of silence.

"So you'll help me?" I ask, breaking the silence, believing he already agreed to assist me. That little moment he took to remember Pauline should've been enough to help him to reconsider his answer.

He stares at me, baffled. "Are you crazy?! I mean, didn't you hear what I just said?"

"Oh, I heard you. I believe it was something about punishment from James."

"Good! So, then, my answer is still no!"

I had a feeling this would happen, and Pauline did too. So, I cross my arms in front of my chest. Time to put the words she told me to say into play. "I know what will make you change your mind." One of his eyebrows goes up and he just looks at me, waiting for me to continue, so I do. "Pauline was pregnant."

He definitely wasn't ready for that, because both of his eyebrows lift to the furthest part of his forehead, almost reaching his hairline, and he shouts out a, "What?!"

"Pregnant. P-r-e-g-n--"

"I know how to spell it!" he cuts me off. "She was pregnant, and she didn't tell me? It could've been my child!" Ah, so Pauline and Cedric were fooling around? No wonder they were so close. "I'm gonna kill him," he growls as he walks toward me. Obviously, he's referring to James.

"Great! But first, you can get me out of here."

"Oh, no," he says, somewhat with a chuckle, and a smirk on his face. I begin to feel uneasy as he raises his hand and twirls a lock of my hair around his finger. "You're going to help me."

Not what I was expecting...

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So I did a shoutout in the last update and I wasn't sure if I got all of the Stockholm Syndrome fans out there. 😖
But before I do, I really must thank all of you for the support this book has been receiving. 😃
I'm glad you guys love this story! 😃

So here are more shoutouts 📣 Thanks to:

DeprEsther

yupiikachu00

solarcape29

Unique_Ness

Other persons still? No need to worry! More updates to come with more shoutouts!

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☆ MARDAIS ☆

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