Page 62 of Uprising

I stiffen, looking up at the judas stood before me.

He squats down cupping my face and flinch from the contact. “Trust me Rose.” He says.

“Why should I?” I snarl.

He lets out a low breath glancing to the doors, to where we both know the guards are stood still listening.

“I’m doing this for both of you.” He says so quietly.

“You’re doing this aid your own advancement.” I snap back. “You’re doing this so that Darius will give you something in return.”

“What can he give me?” He asks. “What could he possibly offer me when the one thing I want is trapped the same way you are?”

I screw my face up. What the fuck is he talking about? Who is trapped?

“Rose.” He says gently. “Look at it this way, Lara will be free of this place, free of all the abuse.”

I know that’s true. I can’t deny that. But she’ll also be far from my protection. What will happen when she gets to that school? Where will she sleep? How will she adapt to such an alien surrounding? She’s never even been around other children.

“She’s my daughter.” I gasp.

“She can’t grow up like this, she can’t live like this.” He says as if he understands my child’s needs better than I do.

But he’s right there too. She can’t stay like this, not after what she confessed, not after seeing the way everyone is treating her.

But I don’t want to lose her. I only just got her back.

“I can’t…” I sob feeling like my heart is ripping in half and that same awful breathlessness threatens to overtake me.

“She’ll be safe, she’ll be with people who love her.” He states.

I screw my face up. What the fuck does that mean? How can anyone at that school love her better than her own mother? He’s making it sound like I’m the one being selfish here, that I’m the one hurting her.

“Let her be free Rose, let her go, and focus on saving yourself.”

I hang my head. I can’t save myself. I feel too broken now, All that confidence, all the twisted darkness that was festering in me barely an hour ago is lost now that I have don’t have Lara to protect.

He picks me up, holds me to him and hugs me, whispering so quietly. “This will end. I promise you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” I reply. How can it end? I have no way of ending it now beyond killing Darius and then killing myself.

And what would that mean for Lara? She’d be at the mercy of my parents then.

I can’t do that. I won’t do that. That’s not a viable option. Not a viable outcome for Lara.

“Roman is coming.” He states.

My heart stops. My body freezes. I clutch him like my life depends upon it. There’s no way he just said that. No fucking way.

He looks at me, meeting my gaze and nods only enough that I can see.

“He’s alive Rose.” He states, more mouthing the words than actually speaking them. “He’s alive. And he’s going to save you.”

I let out a sob. A wail. It sounds as pathetic as I feel right now. How is he alive? How is this not all some trick.

“If he was alive then I wouldn’t be here.” I reply. “He wouldn’t have left us like this. He would have stormed this building, he would have killed everyone to get us out, he…”

He shakes his head. “We can’t do that. It’s not possible. So we’re bringing him down a different way this time.”