The Chateau (Chateau 1)

“Did you sleep with him?”

I almost didn’t answer her because it was my business and not hers, but after everything we’d been through, there were no secrets at this point. “Yes. A couple times.”

“Do you have feelings for him?”

I shrugged. “That’s a complicated question.”

“Not really. But I’m guessing it’s a complicated answer.”

I drank from my mug again. “What do we do now?”

She was quiet for a while. “I usually ask you that, not the other way around.”

“The semester has already started, so I can’t go back to school right now. I’ll have to clear up everything with the immigration office. I’ll have to get a full-time job, save up some money until I go back. Are you going to go back home?”

She shook her head. “I’m not leaving you.”

I studied her face. “I’m not leaving Paris. This is my home now.”

“That’s fine. We stay together from now on.”

I’d come here to get away from her, to have my own independence, but now I was happy she wanted to stay. Sharing an apartment and getting through this together sounded nice.

She stared at me for a while, like there was something she wanted to say.

I already knew what was coming. “I forgive you.”

Her eyes immediately watered as she took a deep breath, like she needed to be cleansed of her sins, needed to remove the guilt from her shoulders. She’d been carrying it every single day since all this happened. “I know that I’ve been such a pain in the ass since Mom died, and I’m sorry for that…”

“Melanie—”

“But I’m a different person now. I’ll get a job, my own apartment, and just be a better person, be more like you.”

“I don’t want you to be me. I want you to be you.”

“But I know I’ve caused you so much grief…”

“It’s okay, Melanie. It’s in the past.” I rested my hand on hers. “I want you to be a better version of you, not anyone else.”

She gave a slight nod, tears glistening.

“Let it go. I have.”

She inhaled a deep breath, the tears streaking down her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away with the napkin from her coffee.

“We’ve got lives to live. It’s our chance to start again.”

“Yeah…you’re right.”

I drank my coffee until the mug was empty and set it aside. “I’m gonna go down to the police precinct.”

She stilled, snapping out of our emotional moment instantly. “What? You’re going to the police?”

“We’re reported as missing persons. I have to rectify that. And I’m going to tell them all about the camp.”

She continued to give me that look, like she couldn’t believe what I’d just said. “Seriously?”

“Why wouldn’t I? There are still women stuck there. I’m bringing it down.”

“I…I’m just surprised.”

It would be more out of character for me to do nothing. “Why?”

“I mean…Magnus really put his ass on the line for you. Don’t you think this is wrong? It’s a betrayal.”

I appreciated everything he’d done for me, and I didn’t see him as anything like the others. It was unclear why he was involved in such a horrendous place when he still had a heart. Maybe it was a family obligation…or something else. “They’re two separate things. I do appreciate what he did for me, but I’m loyal to those women who are stuck there, who weren’t so lucky. I will tell the police everything, about the camp, the guards, the boss…but I won’t mention Magnus. I can’t just move on with my life knowing Bethany is still there, that Cindy is still there. Can you?”

All she did was stare.

“No, we can’t.” I rose out of the chair and left my mug aside.

“Raven?”

I turned back to her.

“I don’t think going to the police is going to do anything…”

“Why?”

She was quiet, like she didn’t want to say. “Fender is—”

“The boss?”

She nodded. “He’s really powerful. I mean…you have no idea. I don’t think reporting it will change anything. If anything, you’re just bringing attention back to us.”

That didn’t change anything for me. “I have to do this, Melanie. Bethany risked her neck for me. I have to do the same for her.”

I sat with a sergeant at his desk, and he took all my information, removing me from the missing persons file and helping me get a new ID, as well as some extra money to get me back on my feet again.

“You were trafficked?” He made the assumption, like that was the only possibility for my disappearance.

“No. I was kidnapped—and forced into a labor camp.”

His pen was to the paper, finishing up my file, but he stopped and looked up at me.

“It’s a camp in the south, near the Alps. There are camps everywhere, and the way to get there is on horseback. Planes drop crates of cocaine from the sky, they process it, and then distribute it. It’s full of kidnapped women who are forced into servitude, and if they don’t work hard enough, they’re killed.”