Page 50 of Safe (King’s Heart #1)
“We’re almost there,” my uncle says to me, his fingers tapping his knee. He turns his attention to his driver. “Isn’t that right?”
The driver nods toward us in the backseat as he drives through the mid-day traffic.
I don’t say anything to either of them. I don’t know where we’re going. He didn’t tell me—only came into my room and said we had somewhere we needed to go.
I press myself harder into my side of the car, making the door handle dig into my shoulder. But it doesn’t seem to matter. He still barely has to reach for me as he places his hand on my shoulder.
I jump, accidentally letting out a hiss.
I look over at him and see his head turned like a confused dog. Like he has no idea why I’d have that reaction to him.
I hate that part.
I mean, I hate all the parts of being around him.
But that he acts so surprised that I can’t stand to be around him…
Makes me hate him even fucking more.
He takes his hand away and leans back in his seat, giving me a few moments of silence before I have to hear his voice again.
“So listen,” he starts, with a smile on his face.
I look in his direction but keep my face dead.
That’s what I do now. Try to look as boring and unhappy as possible. I’m hoping it’ll make him not want to be around me.
So far it’s not working.
He continues when I stay silent. “We’re going to talk to a lawyer today.
They’re just going to ask you some questions about what it’s like to live with me.
” He pauses to smile wider, but his lips keep twitching.
“So you can just talk about how great it is, and then we can go home. Maybe we can stop at a store and get you something afterward.”
Something feels off about all of this.
“Why are they asking me that?” I ask in my bored voice.
He shakes his head and laughs, but as he does it, his leg shakes.
Like really shakes. He puts his hand on it to make it stop.
I think he might be nervous. “It’s silly, really,” he says.
“This woman… she used to work for me—a long, long time ago, maybe before you were even born—she cleaned for me. But she was just a trainwreck. Always late. Always having some type of issue in her life that prevented her from being able to do her job. And I—” He scoffs.
“I was so understanding. I let so much slide. I even let her bring her son to work. But eventually, she had to be let go. And now, all these years later, she’s convinced her son to make up lies about me.
To bring about this civil suit—which obviously means they just want money. Can you believe it? So spiteful.”
It feels like my stomach drops right out of my body.
I look at the ground and wish that feeling to go away. But it doesn’t. It gets worse as we sit there. My hands start to sweat as they sit in my lap, and a lump forms in my throat. I feel like I’m going to puke. In fact, I’d really like to puke.
He goes on. “So like I said, they’ll just ask you about your home life with me, and you can say how much you like it, how I’ve taken you in… because we’ve had good times, right?”
His hand is on my shoulder again. My throat is burning—telling me to stick my hand in there. Make him disgusted. Make him go away.
The car comes to an abrupt stop, and I immediately jump out of the car and onto the sidewalk, taking a deep breath of the air that wasn’t touching my uncle.
He unfortunately gets out right after me, placing his hand on me again to usher me inside the tall building in front of us.
I keep my dead face on the entire time he leads me through the polished lobby, up the elevator, and into the fancy law office.
Right when we walk through the doors, a woman in a business suit with a big smile on her face comes around the corner and shakes my hand. “Hello! You must be Grant. My name is Sasha. I’ll be the person asking you some questions today.”
She looks really nice. Like she’s the kind of mom who always bakes cookies for her kids.
The tiniest smile accidentally appears on my face before I wipe it away.
“Alright, well you can follow me, Grant.”
My uncle tries walking with us. Sasha holds her hands up to him. “Oh, Mr. Caldwell, we will need to depose Grant alone today.”
His brow turns down. “But-but I’m his guardian.”
She smiles even wider. “I understand, Mr. Caldwell.” She lowers her voice and steps closer to him. “But because of the allegations involved in this civil proceeding, the judge has ordered for him to be questioned without you present. You understand, I’m sure.”
He stares a moment, then stretches a smile onto his face, but it still twitches just like it did in the car. “Oh. Of course. Anything to help the process move along.” He looks at me and smiles. But now I can definitely see the worry in it. “I’ll see you soon, Grant.”
Sasha pulls me away before he can say anything else and puts me in another room, sitting me down at a large, glass table where another older woman sits.
“Okay, Grant,” she says cheerfully as she places a tape recorder on the table and presses a button.
It makes a loud clicking sound. It honestly feels louder than it should’ve been.
The sound echoes in my ears for a long time.
“This is my partner, Mary. She’ll also be sitting in to listen and take notes. Are you ready?”
I give a short little nod over the loud clicking sound in my ears.
“Great! So let’s just start with the basics…” She looks down at the notepad in front of her and then back up at me. “So, how do you like living with your uncle?”
It feels like time slows down.
Here’s my chance, right? My chance to get out of there. My chance to stop being… my chance for it to just stop.
My chance to help someone else who, all those years ago, was probably going through exactly what I am now.
But…
Then people will know. Sasha will know. Her partner lady will know. They’ll have to tell other people. People I don’t know. I’ll have to repeat my story. How many times? Ten times? Fifty times? More than that?
My heart starts beating faster in my chest at the thought.
I can’t do that. I can’t. I can’t.
“Grant? Are you alright?”
Sasha’s voice silences all the thoughts.
“I asked how you like living with your uncle?”
She waits again.
I clear my throat and make my decision. “Um. It’s been great. I love it.”