The Caged Princess(Book 1)

Chapter - 9

Time stopped.

Nadia stood frozen to the spot.

Falcon's grip on her slackened and he dropped her arms gently.

She felt incapable of processing what she was hearing. She reached out to her mother and said in a small voice, "Mother? What are you saying?" She tried smiling. Any moment now, her mother was going to burst out laughing and say 'Got you!' She had to be jesting, even though it was uncharacteristic of her.

But her mother said nothing. She had a look of such disdain in her eyes that it made Nadia start trembling.

She tried again, gripping her mother's slender shoulders, "Mother, you are angry that I bought these dangerous men home, right? I get it. It was all my fault. I will fix it somehow. But please don't be mad at me."

Her mother was cross. She had all the reasons to be irked. Totally understandable.

Nadia searched her face for answers, any kind of emotion at all. But her mother just stood there, still, looking back at her blankly.

Nadia's pulse quickened. The look on her mother's face... had she always looked so unloving towards her? Her features hard set and not even a sliver of smile.

Falcon came closer to her, careful not to touch her again and said silently, "Miss, she is telling the truth. You cant have belonged to such a horrendous woman. That's why we are here. We are here to take you home for good."

Home? What Home?

Nadia slowly turned towards him and looked him in the eye. She could feel her blood boiling. Her unbidden rage. She let go of the lease. Her head was filling with spiteful , cursed words for this boy.

Who did he think he was?

"Home? You think you have the audacity to talk to me about home? I did have have a home until you crossed my threshold."

Falcon opened his mouth to say something, but Nadia cut him off, she was not giving him a chance to speak.

She was seething with fury. Her hands were clenched in a fist. It was all she could do to stop herself from lunging at him to punch his face.

"We don't want your explanations. I do not care for them."

Something very bad was going on. Whatever these men had done to her mother in her absence, it must have been awful. She was forced to tell such outrageous lies.

It was all their fault.

Nadia gritted her teeth, "Leave" was all she said. She spewed that with as much venom as she could muster.

But her resentment and blazing eyes were only met with empathetic ones. Falcon was looking back at her like he felt sorry for her...like she was nothing more than a scared child.

"How many times do I have to say it before it sinks in?" Nadia's mother finally spoke.

Nadia whipped her head back to her mother. "Mother, I think we should discuss about this after they have left. When we are alone." Nadia wanted to add, when you are feeling safe, when you don't need to lie anymore.

"Its not gong to change anything" Her mother was pinching the bridge of her nose, like she was exhausted and just wanted to get this done with.

"Mother please! Its a family--"

"Family? You are as much as family to me as these men are to you."

Nadia could not accept what she was hearing. This was all just a horrible nightmare. It was arguably the longest they had stayed in a room together and it for this?