How to Escape an Assassin

27: XO

"You come right inside, dear. Let me take some of those bags from you. You look exhausted and like you need to eat a good meal." She grabbed the straps of two bags that were hooked over my shoulder. But I maintained my grip on them to stop her.

"Wait, I have to warn you first that I'm in danger. Someone is looking for me, and I don't want any harm to come to you if I stay here."

She laughed. "No one's going to touch a single hair on this gray head of mine. You are not the first troubled soul to show up on this doorstep and you won't be the last. Come in Milan."

As I stepped into their home, it felt like a heavy burden had been lifted from me. "Do you have any clothes that need to be washed?" Mrs. Glorivee asked. "Give them to me so I can put them in the laundry room."

I nodded and began rummaging through my bags.

"I'm going to prep lunch for you and then I'll have Sterling and the kids come say hello. After that I'll introduce you to Estrelle and her baby. They have been staying with us since January."

"Okay, thank you."

After eating Mrs. Glorivee's famous chicken quesadillas, I followed her to the game room in their basement. Sterling and two preteens were engaged in a game of foosball. The kids didn't bear any resemblance to Mr. and Mrs. Provost, so I assumed they were adopted.

"Sterling, Ren, Heather, we have a guest," Mrs. Glorivee announced. Mr. Sterling turned first, and one of the kids leveraged that opportunity to score a goal on him.

"Hey!" Mr. Sterling shouted and spun around. The kid cracked up with laughter, clutching her stomach.

"Ren, Heather, say hi to Milan. She'll be staying with us for a while."

"Hi Milan," the girls greeted in chorus.

"Hi Ren and Heather." I said with a smile.

"Nice to see you again, Milan." Mr. Sterling gave me a firm handshake.

"We have three more daughters. You'll meet our eldest daughter Kit later. The twins made it to nationals with their lacrosse team, so they won't be back until Wednesday," Mrs. Glorivee told me. She clapped her hands,"Well here we have the game room as you can see. Come down here any time you'd like. Let's go back upstairs so I can give you a tour of the rest of the house."

After showing me around the lower level, she brought me up to the second floor where all of the bedrooms were located. She pointed between two adjacent closed doors. "These are the guest rooms. Estelle is staying in this one with her six-months-old," she motioned to the door on the left. "And in the other one, we have a guest called Axe," she lowered her voice. "He never comes out of this room except to use the bathroom. So we just leave his meals in front of his door for him. Axe has had it very rough. He doesn't like to talk to anyone. Just try to be mindful of that if you happen to cross paths."

"Okay."

Ms. Glorivee gently knocked on Estelle's door. When no answer came, she cracked the door and peeked in. Then she shut it back. "They're sleeping," she said with a goofy smile. "Let's go chat in the living room for now. We'll move you in with Estelle after she wakes up."

We walked back downstairs and sat together on the large, plastic-covered leather sofa in the living room.

"So, Milan, how have things been?"

It instantly felt like I was at a free therapy session. "Terrible," I answered honestly. Immediately, the water works started. "I'm sorry," I said, trying to pull myself together.

Mrs. Glorivee scooted over and hugged me. "It's alright to cry Milan."

I burst into more tears at her reassurance. She rubbed my back and held me tighter, pouring motherly love into me. "It's going to get better, dear. Tell Glorivee what happened."