Chapter 4
That night came faster than I expected.
Euan returned just before midnight, moving like a shadow through the corridor. He didn't knock. He never did. He only paused long enough to make sure the cameras were angled away—something I noticed now, something I had never questioned before.
"You ready?" he asked.
My heart hammered. "If I say no?"
He met my eyes. "Then I walk away and pretend this conversation never happened."
I didn't hesitate. "Tell me the plan."
Euan closed the door and spoke quietly, deliberately.
"There's a supply exit behind the east wing," he said. "It's used once a week. Tonight, no guards. Your mother trusts routine—too much."
I swallowed. "The cameras?"
"I looped them two days ago."
That made me freeze. "You planned this before telling me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because if you hesitated," he said calmly, "I needed to disappear without dragging you down with me."
My chest tightened. "And if we're caught?"
He leaned closer. "Then I take the blame. I don't survive. You get locked away forever."
Fear crawled up my spine. "That's not a plan."
"It's the only one," he said.
He handed me a small burner phone. "Memorize the number. Destroy it if we're separated."
I stared at it. A phone. My first real link to the outside world.
"You won't need the wheelchair tonight," he added quietly.
I stiffened. "You said—"
"I said you're not sick," he corrected. "I never said it wouldn't hurt."
He wrapped my arm around his shoulder. Slowly, painfully, I stood. My legs shook violently, muscles screaming from years of disuse. Tears burned my eyes, but I didn't cry out.
"Again," he murmured. "One step."
By the third step, sweat drenched my back.
"You've been lying to her," he said softly. "But your body hasn't forgotten how to live."
We moved through the halls like ghosts.
Past the portraits. Past the locked rooms. Past the door I had never been allowed to open.
The exit was smaller than I imagined. Rusted. Forgotten.
Freedom smelled like cold air and wet earth.
As we crossed the threshold, pain exploded through my legs. I nearly collapsed.
Euan caught me. "Almost there."
Then alarms screamed.
My blood turned to ice.
"She noticed," I whispered.
"No," he said grimly. "She anticipated."
—
My mother woke to silence.
The kind that didn't belong.
She rose from her bed, irritation curling into something sharper as she reached for the bell. No response.
Her heels struck the marble floor as she moved down the hall, opening doors, calling names that did not answer.
Then she saw it.
The wheelchair.
Empty.
Her breath stalled.
She stormed into my room, ripping back curtains, throwing open drawers, checking places she had no reason to check—because control depended on certainty.
And certainty was gone.
The security monitor flickered.
Looped footage.
Her lips parted slowly.
"Euan," she whispered.
Not a scream. Not yet.
She walked to the garden window and stared into the darkness beyond the walls.
Somewhere out there, her property was moving without her permission.
Her hand tightened into a fist.
"Run," she said softly. "Enjoy it."
Her smile was slow. Cold.
"Because I always collect what's mine."
"The chase"
We didn't get far before the dogs started barking.
"Shit," Euan muttered, tightening his grip on my hand. "They're faster than I expected."
My lungs burned as we ran through the forest path beyond the estate walls. Every step felt like fire shooting up my legs, my muscles screaming in protest. I stumbled, barely catching myself.
"Don't stop," Euan urged. "You're doing better than you think."
But my body disagreed.
By the time headlights cut through the trees behind us, my legs began to betray me. My knees buckled, my vision blurring as weakness flooded my limbs.
"Euan—" I gasped, collapsing.
He spun back just as a gunshot cracked the air.
Pain ripped through him. He grunted, staggering as blood bloomed across his side.
"Euan!" I screamed.
"I'm fine," he lied through clenched teeth, dragging me behind a fallen log as another shot echoed uselessly into the trees.
The voices faded after minutes that felt like hours.
When silence finally returned, Euan sank to the ground beside me, breathing hard.
My legs were shaking uncontrollably now.
"I can't move," I whispered, panic clawing at my chest. "I knew it… I knew my legs would fail me, I knew it."
Euan reached into his jacket with shaking fingers and pulled out a small vial and syringe.
"No," he said firmly. "You were never sick."
I stared at him. "What?"
He knelt, uncapped the vial, and injected the medicine into my thigh.
"This isn't a cure," he said quietly. "It's a reversal."
My breath caught. "Reversal of what?"
He met my eyes, his expression raw and unguarded.
"The drugs your mother's been giving you for years," he said. "They weren't medicine, Isla. They were suppressants."
The words slammed into me.
"They weakened your muscles," he continued. "Slowed nerve response. Made your legs fail after minimal exertion. Just enough so you'd believe you needed the chair—even though you could still walk."
My chest tightened painfully. "You're lying."
"I wish I were," he said. "The condition she told you about doesn't exist the way she described it. It was manufactured. Controlled."
Tears spilled down my cheeks. "So every time I fell—every time I begged—"
"She adjusted the dosage," Euan said. "To keep you dependent. Manageable."
The medicine began to work slowly—heat spreading through my legs, painful but alive.
"You'll feel stronger in short bursts," he warned. "But you'll crash after. Your muscles need time to relearn."
I laughed weakly through tears. "She made me doubt my own body."
Euan's voice dropped. "That was the point."
I looked at him—bleeding, exhausted, still kneeling beside me.
"You knew," I whispered.
"Yes."
"And you still stayed."
"I stayed," he said, "so I could get you out alive."
Sirens wailed faintly in the distance.
Euan stood with effort and held out his hand.
"Can you walk?" he asked.
I tested my legs. They trembled—but they held.
"Yes," I said.
He gave a grim smile. "Good. Because once this wears off, it's going to hurt like hell."
I took his hand.
And for the first time in my life, I walked forward knowing the truth.