more than if her bed was right in front of the bathroom door, it was still something
the two of you neglected to foresee.”
Clive and Owen both looked at each other as if they were ready to start
apologizing, both clearly becoming uncomfortable.
“It’s okay, boys. I’m not mad, but this is an example of the kind of shit she will
try to pull, and she’ll do it right under your nose if you’re not careful. Jaden is no
idiot; she is very intelligent, and she will continue to find ways to push the barriers
of her boundaries until she runs out of options. You must be there to foresee and
discredit those options.”
They nodded in unison, their postures stiffening as they considered the
challenge ahead of them.
“She will try to push you and annoy you. Do not give her the reaction she wants.
It’ll only encourage her. One day, this behavior will cease, but until then, you need
to be suspicious of almost everything she does because it’s almost always in her
own self-interest. You don’t have to address every little thing she does, but make
sure she understands that you’re on to her, and eventually, she will stop bothering.
Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” they both said in unison.
“Good. I’ll be gone most of the day tomorrow. So long as Jaden is cooperative,
she can leave her room. It’s supposed to storm tomorrow, so she is not to wander
outside. I’ve had the staff set up her paint set in the upstairs office. You can suggest
it after her workout if she likes. Questions?”
Clive and Owen both regarded each other before Owen spoke. “Do you want us to
have her put her room back the way it was?”
I shook my head. “No, no. Let her think she has the right idea, and I’ll show her
it was wasted effort.”
“Yes, sir,” they both said.
“Good. Dismissed.”
Clive and Owen both left without another word, leaving me to deliberate the
future ahead. I expected some resistance from Jaden, some new forms of rebellion,
whether they were sneaky or up front, she would find new ways to seek an
advantage. And I feared I would have to let her fail in every attempt before she
would finally succumb to her fate. She needed to come to the conclusion that every
idea she had, no matter how small, was useless to her, that her efforts would be
foiled and her ass reddened for even thinking of it in the first place. I had to quash
the idea of escape. I knew she wouldn’t make the same mistake of fully escaping a
second time, not with her family hanging in the balance, but that didn’t mean she
wouldn’t try to line up her dominos and wait for the right moment to watch them
fall. I had to make sure there were no dominoes left for her to take—until she
finally came to realize she no longer wanted them.
22
SHRINK
Two weeks back at the estate and it was as if I never left. The staff and other
guards still ignored me like I was invisible, except for the two stupid fucking
stalkers who never left me alone. If I thought I annoyed the shit out of Hank and
Benito, Clive and Owen deserved awards. They directed me everywhere—where I
could go, what I could do, how long I could do it, and whether it was considered
productive. They analyzed everything I did down to the tiniest detail; suspicious I
was trying to thwart them in some way. It was kind of cute.
I had to admit for the first day or so, I did test my boundaries with them, but to
their credit, they never gave an inch. They never cracked a smile, no clever
comebacks, not even so much as a smirk. They were like ice, and they never melted.
I’d only been threatened to be tranquilized twice since they first started, which I
thought was decent enough on my part—once, when I refused to paint the first
time they introduced me to my “art room,” where I deliberately put my knee
through a canvas, and another time, when I argued too much to continue my
workout. I was only allowed an hour since Darren didn’t want me exhausting
myself, which was bullshit. He worked out at least two hours a day, so why couldn’t
I?
But after a few short days, the fight in me began to die. With zero inches to be
given, I felt stuck, moving in a single file line with no deviations in sight. It was do
as I was told without argument or wake
