Page 61 of Uprising

“You’re scaring her.” Darius taunts. “Look at your daughter, look what you’re doing to her. Do you really want her to think that this is who you are Rose? That you’re some psycho bitch?”

I let out a laugh. Like hell his manipulation will work. “Lara knows who I am.” I say. “She knows I will fight every one of you to protect her. That I will die protecting her.”

He raises an eyebrow squeezing just enough to make my eyeballs bulge.

I don’t know what the doctor thinks but he certainly doesn’t say anything, he just stands there watching this interaction, like all the guards are, unmoving, uncaring by all accounts.

“Send her away.” Ty says.

My eyes dart to him, my panic seems to soar. What the fuck?

Darius turns his head but his grip is still so tight around my throat. “Excuse me?”

Ty doesn’t look at me, he keeps his gaze on Darius. “There’s a boarding school on the outskirts of the city. Send Lara there, that way she’s out of your hair and she gets the education you so clearly want her to have.”

My heart twists, I screw my face up. What the hell is this?

“No.” I say.

Darius drops his hold stepping back with that grin on his face he gets when he comes up with a plan he knows is going to work.

“Get me the details.” Darius says.

“I already have.” Ty replies pulling out a leaflet, handing it to him like this is already a done deal.

I stare at it in horror. This can’t be happening. They can’t separate us.

“Mummy?” Lara says and I move going to grab her but Darius is quicker. He snaps his fingers and the guards are there, pulling us apart, wrenching me from her before our hands even touch.

“No.” I scream.

“You think there wouldn’t be consequences? You think you could just kill the tutor and I wouldn’t punish you for it?” He snarls.

“We agreed.” I gasp. “We agreed that Lara would stay here, with me.”

His lips twists. “But you’ve not kept up your end of the agreement, you’ve not been playing ball have you Rose?”

“Don’t take her from me. Please Darius.” I cry.

But he just grins harder.

I look at Ty, at my cousin who’s created this situation, he meets my gaze and for a second I swear he mouths the words ‘trust me’ behind Darius’s back.

Only I can’t.

He’s done nothing to prove he’s on my side. Nothing to show that.

I go feral, I lash out, I completely lose it as Lara is dragged from the room. Darius follows after her saying he wants her packed up and at the school within the hour and that she can stay away for the holidays too.

I’m screaming, fighting, doing everything I can to stop this but my hands are as useless as my actions.

I think even the guards can’t face it and instead they leave me here, broken, slumped on the floor, whimpering like a broken bird that knows they’ll never find freedom, that they’ll never fly again.

They’re stealing my daughter again. Taking her away and I can’t even say goodbye.

I bury my face, cover my head with my hands, rocking my body back and forth. Telling myself over and over that every hurt they’re delving I’m going to deliver back tenfold. I will make Darius pay for this if it’s the last thing I do.

“Rose.”