When the Night Falls

Meeting: a situation when two or more people come together, by chance or arrangement.

JASMINE

“Thea? What are you doing here, baby?” I asked the little girl who stood by my side with her doll in her arms. It was past one a.m.

“I can’t sleep in my room. Can I sleep with you?”

“Yes, baby. Come here.” I helped her into my bed, and she turned to me, wrapping her little arms around my waist. I patted her back to help her fall asleep.

It had been one month since I’d first stepped foot into this house. Thea and I had become best friends; she was a sweet little girl.

She got scared at night, and sometimes she had trouble sleeping. I didn’t have a problem letting her sleep in my bed. I felt happy when she wrapped her arms around me in her sleep, and I knew I made her feel safe and secure just by being there.

Iris visited every weekend to see how things were going.

I still hadn’t met Thea’s father. I didn’t know any more about him than I had a month ago. Thea sometimes told me that all she remembered about her father was how serious he always seemed. Whoever he was, I was ready to give him a piece of my mind when I did finally meet him. The way he treated Thea was not okay.

I felt sad for her. He didn’t spend time with her, and he never came home to see her.

Parents should spend time with their kids. They shouldn’t leave them all alone in their huge mansions with nobody around but nannies, housekeepers, and bodyguards.

We woke up around six and headed to the kitchen because Thea was hungry. Along the way, I saw men in black suits standing guard. Usually, the housekeeping staff wore white, and the bodyguards weren’t allowed to enter this wing.

The men all stood ramrod straight, and I didn’t dare to make eye contact with any of them. We kept walking until we reached the lavish kitchen.

“Thea, do you know who those men are?”

“Mm-hmm, they are Papa’s men.”

“Oh, so your dad is back?” I tried to sound casual as I helped her hop up onto the kitchen island. I started pulling ingredients out of the fridge.

“I don’t know. Iris will come to my room if Papa wants to meet with me.”

“Why? Can’t you go and see your daddy without Iris?” I turned to see her with a frown on her face.

“Papa gets angry if I go to his room without his permission. He doesn’t really go in there, he usually works from his office. Because he’s with important men.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Yeah,” she said, shrugging her little shoulders.

“Don’t worry. After our breakfast, we’ll go out and find something fun to do.” I gave her a wink as her eyes widened in excitement.

“Yeah! But there are men… We can’t go out when they’re here. Iris won’t allow it. She’ll tell Papa.”

I placed the vegetables I had just retrieved from the fridge on the table and put my hands on her shoulders. “Then we’ll sneak out without telling anyone. Iris won’t have any idea that we’ve gone out, so Daddy won’t know anything.”

Her eyes lit up, just thinking about going out. Thea wasn’t allowed to go anywhere, and I couldn’t just leave her alone. I was used to being able to come and go as I pleased, but once I’d gotten here, I was stuck in the house with her. The only solution was to sneak Thea out with me. We’d gone to the local mall once, and now that we’d tasted freedom, we were tired of staying home all the time.

“How are we gonna sneak out?” Thea asked as I cracked eggs over the pan. “There’s men everywhere.”

I winked at her. “Don’t worry, Thea. I know a thing or two about sneaking out. We’ll be able to get out of here without anyone knowing.”

Thea looked a little skeptical, but I could tell she was also intrigued.

I started mixing ingredients together while Thea got herself a glass of orange juice from the automatic juicer. Damn, these rich people really did have everything.

“So, where are we gonna go?” Thea asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Well, we could go to the park,” I offered, but Thea scrunched up her nose. I had to laugh at that. She was right. The park did sound boring.

I pulled plates out of the cupboard and laid them out on the counter. “We could go to the amusement park.”

“What’s that?” asked Thea, cocking her head to one side. I looked over at her, incredulous. How could she not know what an amusement park was? Was her father really that strict?

I had to shiver at the thought. I hated strict people.

But for some reason, I still felt intrigued by the man.

“Flower, the eggs,” Thea said, pulling me back to reality. I looked down at the pan.

“Shit,” I yelped, sliding the omelet which was starting to steam, onto Thea’s plate.

I brought it over to her and set it down in front of her.

“Alright, eat up,” I said, ruffling up her hair. “And then our great escape begins.”

***

At first, I’d been joking about escaping the house.

But by the time Thea and I were dressed and ready to go, I had to admit Thea had a point, being skeptical.

These new men in the house were blocking every single exit.

I even tried bringing us out via the pool deck, but found two men in crisp black suits glaring at us from the gate.

“Darn it,” I mumbled as Thea and I made our way out to the side porch, only to find a severe-looking woman guarding that exit.

It was extra hard to be sneaky when we didn’t want to alert the guards what we were up to.

I had to make it look like we were just looking for a good place to do arts and crafts.

Thea leaned against the wall while I tapped my chin in confusion. Where wouldn’t there be any guards?

Then it came to me. A devilish smile crossed my face, although I felt my nerves rising all the same.

“You know where we haven’t tried yet,” I said, raising my eyebrows.

“Where?” asked Thea curiously.

“We haven’t tried your papa’s room.”

Thea’s face went white with nerves and she shook her head very fast. It made me chuckle.

“No, think about it,” I said excitedly. “I mean, who would stop your dad from going wherever he wanted. And like you said, he’s always in his office, so he won’t be in there.”

Thea didn’t look convinced, still. I shook my head.

This was crazy. A little girl shouldn’t be scared of her father. Sure, it was a little risky to sneak out through my boss’s room, but I’d been hired to keep Thea safe and happy. And standing up to her stuffy old father definitely counted.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her in the direction of her father’s bedroom. Iris had shown it to me on my first day, and warned me that it was nearly as restricted as his private wing.

I guess I had a death wish.

When we reached the huge oak door of his bedroom, I felt my heart start to pound in my chest.

Thea looked nervous. But I took a deep breath and opened the door.

Stepping into his grand bedroom, I had to let out a big breath.

It was empty. The door to the bathroom was ajar, but the whole room was silent and the bed was made, meaning the cleaners had already been in. He wasn’t here.

Fixing my gaze on the huge window across the room, a smile lit up my face.

The room was at ground level, and it was ajar, revealing the flowing front lawn beyond it, with the road visible in the distance. And not a guard in sight.

“Come on,” I whispered, pulling Thea after me. We were going to make it.

When we reached the window, I lifted Thea up and set her carefully down in the grass outside the window.

“Okay, come on Flower,” she whispered, still nervous. “Before papa sees.”

I laughed, placing one foot on the window sill. “Oh come on baby. Your papa will never know.”

But before I could climb onto the window sill, a deep, gruff voice boomed across the room behind me.

“What won’t Papa know?”

I froze, one foot up on the window sill. Oh no.

Slowly, I turned, feeling my heart rising into my throat as I did.

And when I saw the man glaring at me from across the bedroom, my mouth went dry.

He was shirtless, with a towel wrapped around his middle. It couldn’t be plainer he’d just gotten out of the shower. His firm wall of tanned abs drew my eye.

But not as much as his face.

It was the same face I’d seen splashed across magazines and TikToks for the last decade.

Dark hair. Piercing blue eyes. This couldn’t be happening.

I’d just been caught trying to sneak out of the house.