Yesterday morning when I walked out of the bedroom to find Aunt Kitty chatting with JoJo, I hadn’t realized I was nervous about meeting my bodyguard—who I wrongly assumed would be a man. I instantly relaxed at her warmth and kindness. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t take her job seriously. When we are out of the suite, she is always vigilant, assessing our surroundings, and when we re-enter, she checks to ensure no one is waiting for us as well. During our short time together, JoJo has made me feel safe. Except with Finn, I’ve never felt safer.
Whenever she mentions her pre-teen daughters, I can tell she’s an amazing mom who thinks of her children often. I wonder if my mother is thinking of me. She never noticed I had been kidnapped, nor worried that she had not spoken to me directly in over two weeks. Until we know, for sure, whether she’s involved with my kidnapping, no one wants me contacting her. And to be honest, I haven’t really wanted to.
“Love you all the way to the stars,” JoJo tells them as I sit down on the opposite couch. She quickly ends the call, placing the phone into the inside pocket of her navy suit jacket.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“I was just quickly calling my girls before school,” she tells me, smiling.
“My dad used to call me before school every day when he was away, too,” I say softly. I hadn’t appreciated it then. But my day was always better when he called just to say hello. I felt cared for. Loved.
Aunt Kitty breaks my musing by stepping back in from the terrace. “Are you ladies ready to go?”
JoJo stands up, straightening her jacket, and looking ready for action.
“Yes.” I jump up from the couch, full of excited nervousness about going back to campus. It’s the first step in getting my life back. “I just need to grab my purse and a suitcase on the way out.”
“Let’s vamos,” Aunt Kitty says, picking up her backpack from the coffee table and hooking it onto one shoulder. “By the way, sweetie, Mark says hello, and he can’t wait to meet you.”
“I can’t wait to meet him, too,” I tell her truthfully. After having met his son Trevor, I have a feeling that Aunt Kitty finally found a good man—this time. One worth spending her life with.
“Lily!” We all turn as the excited voice of Daisy, one of my fellow American study abroad students, calls as she rushes at me. “Where have you been?”
“I got sick while I was in Paris,” I explain, rehearsing the lie we concocted. “I ended up staying at my aunt’s apartment there.”
“Oh my God, are you okay?” she asks, giving me an impulsive hug.
“I’m fine,” I reassure her.
“I’ve gotta jet to my final, but message me,” she says excitedly, turning and jogging down the hallway before I can reply. Turning to Aunt Kitty, I mutter, “At least someone noticed I was gone.”
“Sweetie,” Aunt Kitty says softly, grabbing my free hand. “I’m sure plenty of people noticed you were gone. You’re very memorable.”
We continue to make our way into the building and, after securing a new key from the main office, we head toward my dorm room.
“Let me go in first,” JoJo says, moving ahead of us and taking the key from my hand. I step back, letting her enter my tiny dorm room first. She pushes the door open slowly, blocking my view, reaches in, and flicks on the light. Turning back to look at us with a more serious face than usual, she asks, “Are you usually this messy?”
She pushes the door open further and moves aside, revealing that my small single room is a complete mess.
“No!” I answer, looking at the bed rumpled, papers scattered all over the desk, and shoes and clothes strewn everywhere.
“Someone must have been looking for something,” Aunt Kitty muses, moving to step into the room.
“Alright, don’t come in just yet,” JoJo instructs. “I need to clear the room and call this in.”
“That’s my bag I brought with me to Paris,” I tell JoJo, peering into the room from the doorway. “How’d that get here?”
“Are you sure it’s the same one?”
“Yes. It’s my favorite overnight bag to travel with,” I tell her about the colorful LeSportsac bag that always stands out in a crowd and fits more than you think it will. It was shoved under my desk chair.
Aunt Kitty wraps her arm around me as JoJo steps from the room, pulling her phone out of her pocket.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get this all picked up in no time,” Aunt Kitty assures me. “We’ll go through everything and take back what you really care about.”
Staring at my overnight bag, it looks like it was shaken empty and then tossed into the corner. My hairbrush, makeup bag, and a sweater I know I packed lay nearby. A bubble of hope fills me.
“My purse,” I exclaim excitedly. “Do you see a black leather purse anywhere?”
My scarf could be here somewhere!
I squat down and peer through the mess, itching to reach out and search through it.
“No, sweetie, but we can look for it,” Aunt Kitty says kindly, touching my shoulder.
I look up at her and exclaim frantically, “My scarf was in it. I don’t care about anything else.”
“What scarf?” Her face is full of concern.
“The one Dad gave me.” I stand up quickly as JoJo ends her call and walks back to us. “What did they say?”
“I need to check for any surveillance equipment, and the control room wants me to take photographs for them,” JoJo states, already pointing her camera at the mess and snapping pictures. We watch as she enters the room and meticulously searches every corner, light fixture, air vent, and crack in the wall.
“Afterward, we’ll clean up everything and hopefully find your scarf,” Aunt Kitty placates, giving me a one-armed hug. “Don’t worry, sweetie, if it’s here, we’ll find it.”
“It’s the last gift he gave me,” I murmur, and her arm tightens around me. I know she understands.
Once JoJo is satisfied that no one has left any bugging equipment in the room, the three of us begin the tedious process of packing up my belongings. Aunt Kitty calmly directs our efforts. “Make a pile of any books or personal items you want to take in the suitcase, and we’ll pack it neatly after we’ve gone through everything. For now, put all the trash on the bed.”
The first thing I do is search the room for my black leather purse, praying that it had been left here, along with my overnight bag.
Picking through a pile of clothes on the floor, tossing them haphazardly into the suitcase to take with me, I find my purse underneath.
“I found it,” I cry, grabbing it and thrusting my hand inside to see if the scarf had been left. My wallet and phone are unsurprisingly missing, but laying neatly on the bottom is the silk scarf. Taking it out, I toss the purse into the suitcase and tie the scarf around my neck. The seemingly useless article has so much emotion attached to it that I suddenly feel better. Safer. Like a child with their favorite blanket. My father may be gone, but it feels as if he’s right here with me.
“I’m so glad, sweetie.” Aunt Kitty smiles. “I was with your dad when he picked it out.”