Runa opened her eyes, blinking quickly. She glanced around; nothing at all was familiar. She sat up, finding herself in a beautifully decorated suite of rooms. Running her hands across the velvet duvet cover, she tried to remember how she’d gotten there. Her thoughts raced as she tried to piece the puzzle together, but then it all came crashing down on her at once.
For a split second, she believed she must be dreaming. Rubbing her eyes, she willed her brain to catch up. Sitting across the room, in a large armchair facing the bed, was the woman from the portrait. Logic begged Runa to accept that what she saw was impossible. And yet, the woman was there.
“You’re awake,” the woman said.
“Where am I?” Runa asked.
“You don’t remember?”
“I do, but… no, I don’t. I mean… I think so… but that can’t be right.”
“Some things are hard to believe.”
Rolling her body off the edge of the bed, Runa tried to stand on legs that felt like Jell-O, her knees knocking together as she walked slowly across the room toward the woman. As she approached the chair, the woman stood. Face-to-face, they regarded each other.
The similarities were startling, so much so that Runa actually reached out and touched the woman’s cheek simply to convince herself she was real. As she looked closer, she saw that the woman’s face, although beautiful, had a grayish pallor, and her hair, the same flaxen shade as Runa’s, was dull and lackluster. It clearly hadn’t been trimmed in quite some time, and rough split ends were obvious upon closer examination.
“Who are you?” Runa asked.
“I can’t say,” the woman replied, looking away.
“Of course you can. Tell me who you are,” Runa demanded.
“No,” she insisted.
Confusion and fear turned to anger. Runa needed to know who the woman was, yet she refused to explain.
“Listen to me! You’re going to tell me who you are and what you’re doing up here. If you don’t, I’m going to tell my husband.”
“Your husband.” The woman smiled mirthlessly.
“Yes, Chase Everwine, my husband.”
“You’re so naïve,” the woman said with a toss of her dull hair.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Runa stiffened.
“It means there’s a lot you don’t know.”
“Like what?”
“Like the fact that he was my husband first.”
The woman dropped the bomb without even the slightest flicker of emotion.
“Your husband?” Runa’s breath came in short, fast spurts as the pieces came together. “Freya? You’re alive?”
The room began to spin, and Runa reached out and grabbed Freya’s arms to steady herself. About that time, a second voice, small and quiet, echoed in the room. Runa swiveled her head to the side as a little girl with blonde ringlets tugged on Freya’s shirt.
“Mama, who is that?”
Runa looked back and forth between Freya and the child. The girl looked just like her, so she knew in an instant she was Freya’s daughter.
“You’re alive and you have a child?”
Freya sighed heavily, nodding her assent. “Yes, this is Alina, my daughter.”
“I… I don’t understand,” Runa stammered as she backed away from them, her knees buckling as she collapsed on the bed. “You’re Freya? Chase’s wife? And your child… Chase’s child…?”
“You’ve really put me in a bad place here, Runa.” Freya scowled. “You’re not supposed to know about any of this.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I know everything about you,” Freya answered cryptically.
“This is a bad dream. I’m going to wake up any minute. None of this is real. You’re not real,” Runa muttered to herself as she placed her hands over her eyes, rocking back and forth on the bed.
“Alina, go up into the turret room and read your book. I need to talk to the woman,” Freya said quietly.
“She looks like you, Mama. I want to talk to her, too,” Alina argued.
“I know. Just let me talk to her first,” Freya insisted.
With a nod, Alina ran up the stairs into the circular room.
Freya sat on the bed next to Runa. “I’m sure this is all quite confusing to you,” she began, her voice softening a little.
“That may be the understatement of the year.”
“Look, it would be best for everyone concerned if you just went back to your life.”
“Back to my life? My life is a sham!” Runa yelled.
“There’s too much to explain, too much you can never know. Forget what you’ve seen and leave now, before it’s too late. Once you know, you can never go back.”
“You want me to forget there’s a woman who looks exactly like me and a little girl living on the third floor of my home?”
“Yes. That’s what I want. Please?”
“Well, that’s not going to happen. And I’m not leaving here until I get an explanation,” Runa demanded, crossing her arms defiantly.
“Fine. I’ll tell you everything, but you’re not going to like it.”
“Talk. Now,” Runa said through gritted teeth.
Freya took a deep breath and began her tale.
“I’m Freya, Chase’s wife. Everyone thinks I disappeared seven years ago, but I’ve been up here the whole time.”
“You expect me to believe you’ve been on the third floor for seven years?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not possible,” Runa insisted.
“I assure you, it is,” Freya disagreed.
“You let people believe you were dead? Why would you do that?”
“It was the best solution.”
“For what? What could have possibly happened that the best solution was remaining a prisoner for seven years?”
“I’m not a prisoner. And I said you wouldn’t understand.” Freya shrugged.
Runa glanced up into the turret toward Alina. As she watched the little girl coloring and humming to herself, a light bulb went off in her brain.
“Freya, how old is your daughter?”
“Alina is seven.”
“Seven? But how?”
“She was born here in this room. She’s never been out of it.”
Runa’s blood ran cold as she considered what that meant. The little girl had never seen the light of day. Her whole life had been lived on the third floor of Everwine Manor.
“Freya, is Chase her father?”
“No, he’s not.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t even know if I understand anymore. It all made sense to me once upon a time, but now…,” Freya said sadly.
“Please tell me.”
“Chase and I were married for five years. From the start, he loved me more than I loved him. A lot of people said I loved the Everwine name more than anything, and maybe they were right. I was dazzled by his wealth and prestige.”
“It’s hard not to be. I know I was,” Runa commiserated.
“I came from a good family. We were wealthy, and I led a bit of a charmed life. But then I found out that my parents weren’t who I thought they were. It destroyed me. From that moment on, I was searching for something, some hole inside I needed filled. Then I met Chase. He wanted me, and I liked being wanted. I was hungry for the power that came with being an Everwine.”
“So you never loved him?”
“No, I didn’t. Not really.”
“Did he know?”
“At first, I was good at hiding it. I let him dote on me. I enjoyed the gifts he gave me. I loved the fact that he would do anything I wanted him to do. I liked how people watched us as we walked into the room together. I loved the attention from the press. Being married to Chase was like a drug to me.”
“But something happened to change that?”
“Yes. I fell in love.”
“With someone else.”
“Yes. With his father.” Freya shrugged.
The walls began to close in as Runa processed Freya’s words. “You fell in love with Easton?”
“Not long after Chase and I were married, Easton began to pursue me. Instead of being put off by it, I realized I liked it. Before long, we were meeting secretly, going off for weekends together. It was exciting and dangerous and forbidden. I fell hard for him.”
“But how did that lead to you being here?”
“I wanted to divorce Chase and marry Easton. He wanted that, too. But money makes things complicated. Then I found out I was pregnant, which only compounded the problem. Easton and I knew our time was running out to come up with a plan. Chase and I hadn’t slept together in months, so there was no way I could pretend the child was his.”
“What happened?”
“Easton and I met to discuss our plan, but we didn’t know that Chase had already found out about us. He followed us. When he confronted us about the affair, he threatened to tell everyone. Easton was worried about the Everwines’ reputation, and he didn’t want to see such a sordid scandal leaked to the press.”
“I still don’t understand why you’re a prisoner on the third floor,” Runa inserted.
“Easton and I wanted to be together more than anything, so we set about to make that happen. We knew it was only a matter of time before my pregnancy came to light, so we had to act quickly. Easton said he needed time to get his affairs in order to ask Camille for a divorce. He said it would only be for a little while.”
Freya’s voice shook, and tears filled her eyes.
“What are you talking about, Freya?” Runa still didn’t completely understand.
“I agreed to the plan. I agreed to come up here. I agreed to disappear so that eventually everyone would believe I was dead. It was the only way we could be together.”
“Freya, you’ve been a prisoner up here for seven years!”
“I’m not a prisoner. I agreed to it. I came here willingly,” Freya defended.
“But haven’t you figured out that Easton lied to you?”
“No he didn’t!”
“He’s going to leave you here forever. He’s tucked his dirty little secret away in the attic. He never intended to divorce Camille.”
“That’s not true. Easton loves me, and I love him. We’re going to be together,” Freya insisted.
“He has you brainwashed. He never intended to set you free. You’re his hostage.”
“He’s the father of my child. He takes care of us. I agreed to this plan.”
“Freya, listen to me. Let me help you. Think of Alina. This is no life for a child.”
“I agreed to the plan,” Freya repeated numbly.
“That doesn’t matter now. Just because you agreed to the plan seven years ago doesn’t mean you have to agree now. I’ll help you. I’ll get Chase to help you,” Runa pleaded.
“Chase?” Freya laughed ruefully. “You think he’s going to help me? He was in on this from the beginning.”
“I don’t believe you. Chase had nothing to do with this. He thinks you’re dead. He mourned you for years,” Runa insisted.
“He knows everything. He’s known for seven years that I’m here, raising his father’s child on the third floor. Why do you think no one comes up here?”
Runa shook her head, trying to keep Freya’s words from taking root in her brain.
It couldn’t be true. Chase couldn’t be in on a plan to keep his wife a prisoner. It had to be a lie, because if it was true, Runa’s worst fears were confirmed.
Chase had simply married her to replace Freya, which meant he never really loved her at all.