Page 105 of Stolen Princess

I test the door. Locked. She locked me in. There’s no way I’ll be able to escape with her here. It’s one entrance in and out. Except…

I shoot over to the window and open it. I’m three stories up, and if I try to jump, I’ll either die or seriously hurt myself and then be killed. I should know, I contemplated it more than once.

But maybe if I tie the blankets and sheets together, I can use them like a rope and climb down.

Honestly, I don’t have a choice.

I tear the sheets and blankets off the bed, tying one end to the other as securely as I can before I secure the sheet around one of the posts on the bed. I give it three hard tugs, and it holds. Doesn’t mean it will when I’m hanging out the window.

My heart hammers and my muscles still feel weak, but it’s now or never.

Gripping the blanket for dear life, I climb onto the windowsill and drop the bedding over the other side. It falls but stops at least three meters above the ground.

I can manage that kind of fall. It’s not too far.

Holy shit. Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m about to do this.

I climb out the window, making sure to plant my feet into the side of the cottage. I glance down, and a wave of dizziness hits me. Jesus Christ, this is insane.

I suck in a hearty breath and slowly work to scale my way down one step at a time. My arms shake and sweat pours down the back of my neck and between my breasts. This is so much harder than I thought it would be, and holding my weight like this is all but impossible.

I keep my focus on the stone wall in front of me, doing everything I can to maintain my grip, when a voice from the bedroom startles me. My sweaty hands slip, and I eke out a terrified cry as I nearly fall. I manage to regain my hold and footing, but it doesn’t matter.

Antonia found me.

“Genevieve, no!” She grips the sheet and tries to pull me up, and in doing so, it knocks my feet out from the wall and stretches my arms overhead.

Alarm skitters through me as I dangle like a worm on a hook. A shriek catapults from my lungs before I can stop it, my grip precarious as my clammy hands can’t support my weight. I try to work myself down like this, but it’s nearly impossible.

I look down, and the world tilts sideways. Fear and adrenaline spike through me. I’m still at least two stories up.

“Genevieve!”

“Stop calling me that!” I scream.

“Let me pull you up.”

I laugh caustically. “So you can kill me? Or keep me here forever? No thanks.”

“I love you! You’re my daughter.”

“That’s a lie.” I try to replant my feet only for my knees to give out on me. I swing wildly around, and my back bashes into the stone, causing me to drop a meter. I shriek and twist myself around until I’m able to regain my footing on the stone wall. Holy fuck, that was so close.

“You’re going to fall!”

“What do you care? I don’t even know who you are!”

“Listen to me. You have to listen to me. I know everything seems bad right now, but it’s not what you think. I’m your biological aunt and the woman who raised you. The woman who saved you! Please. Don’t do this. You’ll get hurt or die. If you stay here with me, no one will ever hurt you again.”

My heart lurches. She is the woman who raised me.

She’s also the woman who lied to me my entire life. Who kept me locked away in a cottage without any other human contact. Who sent a murderer to get me.

“What about the tiara? And Rhys?”

She narrows her eyes. “He’s the reason all this happened. He was after the tiara all along. He didn’t care about you. He was a liar and a thief.”

“So are you!” I bellow as I try to slide my way slowly down the fabric. It’s nearly impossible without going full tilt. There is no going slow like this. It’s all or nothing. “He didn’t have to die!” It guts me that he’s gone. That I brought this on him. Maybe it was all about the money and the tiara, but he risked his life for me. More than once.