Like Rapunzel, but Not Really ✔

Chapter 22

"This is a bigger mess than I anticipated."

Sitting across Tristan, I quietly nodded in agreement before resting my face onto my hand, a meek attempt at cradling my saturated brain. We had finally moved to a small, quiet cafe near the park to get proper refuge from the rain and the chill. The hot chocolate in my hand was proving to be a mild source of comfort for me.

"So that would explain why he's gotten away every time. I don't think any of those times I was kidnapped they tried to get Connor at all. They were just extracting me and letting him go so he doesn't incriminate them."

Tristan scrutinized me underneath his thick lashes for a good minute before asking, "What are you going to do now?"

I shrugged.

Because honestly that was the best I could do at the moment. I was beginning to think that I had bit off more than I could chew when I decided to demand for answers from my Mom.

If I were completely honest, I wasn't sure if I hated Connor with the same burning intensity as I did before. I mean, he was obviously a crappy guy as a whole with questionable mental stability, but it was a lot easier to despise him when I thought he was just a really loose screw obsessed with me. Now that I knew my parents' involvement, his role in saving my life, and my origin story, it was no longer black and white.

Of course, there was the whole part about my parents possibly going to jail if I did anything. Really, I didn't really have that much to go on with.

"What does he want to do with you once he has you at 18?" Tristan sipped his coffee calmly, not at all as if he had just asked me of my fate once I get permanently abducted.

I looked down and grimaced at my mug.

"Who knows? At this point the sky really is the limit. Maybe he wants to harvest my organs for research. Or make clones of me for his personal harem." I looked up to meet Tristan's frown. "Honestly, your guess is as good as mine."

Tristan's lip was pressed into a thin line. "I won't let that happen."

The laugh that escaped me was hollow. "Thanks," I smiled weakly, although we both knew I didn't mean it wholeheartedly at all.

Tristan's face was serious, bordering glowering, as if trying to hold in his annoyance. "Arianna, I'm serious. I'm not going to let that happen."

I refused to meet his gaze and continued to stare at my mug. I knew I should be doing something but at that moment I really didn't feel like doing anything anymore. At least, not yet. I just wanted to put the world on pause so I could catch a breath. Was that too much to ask?

Ding.

I closed my eyes and ignored the lit up phone on the table.

Ding.

Ding.

I guessed pausing anything at all was just too much of a tall order. I picked up my phone and scrolled through the message notification quickly to see that an unknown number had texted me. Without thinking much of it, I unlocked the phone with one hand while sipping my coffee with the other.

I almost spat out said coffee.

Hi, Arianna.

That does not look like saying goodbye.

And attached underneath the message was a picture of Tristan and I, him looking at me, and me looking at my mug, in that very cafe we were sitting inside, framed by the window we were adjacent to.

Ding.

My notification went off as a new picture of me appeared on my screen, one of me holding my phone in my hand, framed by the same window.