A Life Given Is Never A Life Lost

Chapter Four

A/N: This is one of the pictures used in this chapter. Enjoy.

Liam 

Madeline and I don't get much more time to talk after that. Her phone began ringing and she needed to run off to go do something, leaving me alone to think about what she told me could potentially happen to me. I should've known that they would want to get rid of me sooner or later. There's no reason to keep me around here forever. At this point I'm just a liability to them. 

I leave the small shed, feeling as though I'm going to throw up. The events from today playback over and over in my head repeatedly, sending me into a sort of fog. I can't help but to think of Miranda as I make my way back towards the manor, her proposal burning a hole in my mind. The thought of being reunited with my friends once again is far too appealing even though it's all the more dangerous. 

I've had to watch all of them grow up from afar. I'm probably lucky that my captors even allowed me to see some of the big events of my friend's lives even though I wasn't able to communicate with them. Perhaps my captors do have hearts, either that or they just did it to keep my emotions at bay. 

I had to watch my best friend get married to the love of his life, with a best man who wasn't me, from a nearby window looking right into the church. I was at the hospital when they had the first baby, just down the hall watching Scott walk back and forth anxiously. I even watched Abby get her diploma from the very back of the college's auditorium. 

But none of them knew that I was there for any of that. 

I'm not sure yet if it's creepy or not that I keep such close tabs on their lives. It just keeps my mind at ease most of the time to know that they're happy even though I'm not. They all deserve it after all. I wouldn't change anything if it had to mean that one of them would end up in my position instead. 

I make my way into the large house, taking note of the servants as they glance at me before quickly looking away. Everyone has grown used to presence in the house as if I'm somehow a part of the family too. I've certainly been here long enough to be. 

I'm about to head upstairs, towards the room that they've given me to stay in. It's not as bad here as most hostage situations probably could be. Of course I'm being kept against my will, but at least they aren't torturing me. That's the closest I think I'll ever get to finding a bright side to this. 

"Liam!" I stop about halfway up the steps and turn around to see Milo, one of Becca's cousins, standing at the bottom of the stairwell looking up at me. "Uncle Romano wants to see you."

As soon as Milo says that all of the warning signals in my head begin blaring. Pablo Romano is the man who I most definitely do not want to see right now. Romano is Becca and Madeline's father, the exact same man who Madeline warned me about not too long ago. He wants to get rid of me and she knows that and now I know that. But it's not as though I can run right now, Milo is right there staring me down along with the rest of the servantry staff. And if Romano wants to see me that means that he wants to see me right now. 

I say thank you to Milo and turn around before shakily making my way up the rest of the steps. I can't run now and I certainly can't pull a plan out of thin air. There's no telling what he's going to want to do with me.