Chapter 196

I am sympathetic to Carrie and her motivations. If Alpha King Hayes is so uncaring about his own children, I can’t imagine he is a kind individual to anyone in his life. Not his wife. Not a lover. Not anyone.

I can understand wanting to hide. But to run and hide from her own child?

And I know that woman I saw on the street corner was Carrie. When her gaze dipped down to Mia, something fundamentally changed on her face. I saw the wash of gentle tenderness, of motherly fondness, that could not be so easily faked.

Yet still she ran.

And as much as I run the memory over and over in my mind, I can’t make sense of it.

I would never run from my own child no matter how scared I was.

The thoughts bother me the entire walk back to the Pyramid and then all through lunch. I move like a zombie about my day, trying to reason my way through why Carrie would do this or that. Why she would run away.

Eventually, I wander into the nursery and find Archer looking over Mia as she naps. I go to his side and look down at her. She had a big morning, walking around all the new places, taking in the new sights. She tired herself out and is resting peacefully now.

In the quiet, with Mia gently resting, I softly tell Archer what happened that morning. Steven likely relayed his own version earlier in the day, but in the moment, to find the help I’m searching for in Archer, I need to tell him my own story.

He quietly listens through it all. Then, when I finish, he stays quiet for a few long moments, as if letting the thoughts sit in his mind.

“I can’t tell you what she is thinking now,” he says. “But I can tell you what she was like when she first brought Mia to us. If you thinking hearing that would help you?”

“I do,” I say.

He nods. “The woman who appeared on our doorstep that night was frightened. Unsure. Her love for Mia was obvious from the start. She struggled even to stop holding her. Maybe she knew before she arrived what she was going to ask us to do. But it was her plea… Her desperate plea… that convinced us to hear her out.”

“You wouldn’t have listened to her otherwise?”

Archer shrugged. “He didn’t let her through the door at first. But all of that changed the minute we saw Mia’s face. We each bonded with her on our own. But it was that plea that had us open the door. When she said ‘please,’ it carried the weight of the world. Truly a heartbroken women with the weight of the world on her.

“We let her in. We saw Mia, and we heard Carrie’s story. The way my father treated her. The way he hounded her… Even knowing he is a monster, her story was hard to believe at first. But then we noticed strangers prowling around outside the Pyramid.

“We looked into it and learned they were my father’s spies. He was following her, following Mia. And that left them both in grave danger.”

I try to place myself in her shoes, running from an abusive relationship with a baby born out of wedlock. Seeking refuge with the child’s step-siblings, not seeking safety for myself but for my child.

“If she wanted protection, she could have asked for it then,” Archer says. “Instead, she wanted to run. We tried to keep tabs on her. We thought she escaped him.”

His hands curl into fists and I can practically feel the waves of upset radiating off of him. The defeat.

“You didn’t fail her,” I say.

He huffs out a breath.

“She did escape him,” I add.

“He’s closing in again.”

“But he hasn’t found her yet.”

Archer shakes his head again. “The status quo should remain how it is. Bringing her back here will not solve her problems. She has seen Mia now. She knows she is healthy. She should leave her with us, and fee the country like we always thought she had. Her staying only makes everything worse.”

I could see what he meant. By staying she continues to place herself a risk.

I look down at Mia, sleeping so soundly, so unaware of the dangers swirling all around her, simply because of who she is. No, who her father is.

“Is there anything we can do to protect Carrie as she is now?” I ask.

“No,” Archer replies. “My father’s reach is extensive. He will eventually find her. That he’s already this close is a bad sign.”

“Can we warn her?”

“She likely already knows.”

“Then why doesn’t she run…”

Archer looks at me, and in that flat gaze, I guess I can discern the answer. Mia. A mother’s love keeps her close, no matter how foolhardy. She doesn’t care what happens to hear so long as her daughter is safe and happy.

Maybe the pieces are starting to click into place after all.

But I still don’t want to give up. I am not a quitter, and I will not so easily believe that there is no way to solve this situation in a way that works for all parties involved.

I want to save Carrie, reunite Mia with her mother, and see them safe and sound. I know it seems impossible but I’m bound and determined to make it work.

Archer must see it in me with the way he’s staring at me, but he doesn’t say one word to either encourage or discourage me.

Maybe every path forward is a gray one. Maybe even he isn’t sure which road to take.

Slowly, he returns her attention back to Mia, and we watch together in silence for a while.

Later, I worry about how Neil is feeling, so I make my way to his room to check on him. When I come close, I pause. I can hear raised voices. One is Neil’s. The other sounds like Angela.

“You can’t just let her go,” Angela says. “Do you have any ideas what kind of dangers are lurking around every corner, just waiting for her to stick her nose out from the shadow of the Pyramid?”

I slow my walk. Are they talking about Mia? Or about Carrie?

I keep listening, not sure whether to step in or to walk away. Yet as I continue to listen, I have a sinking feeling washing over me.

Maybe they aren’t talking about Mia or Carrie.

That suspicion is proven true in the next sentence.

“Do you have any idea how many people are jealous of Chloe? How you took in this nobody when there were others vying for your attention?” Angela says. “If you push her out onto the street now, she won’t be safe from anyone, to hell with Wyatt and your father.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Neil says back. His voice is raised but eerily calm. “But I cannot keep her here. I won’t. Her contract is ending, and then she has to leave.”

I froze where I stood.

The way he said that, so cold and calculated.

She has to leave.

Does he actually want me gone?