Before leaving Japan I cut my hair extremely short and died it red this time. I purchased some green contact lenses and had fake nails put on. This time we were moving on to Morocco. It was the layover that changed our route to Iceland.
W once again ran into my father's accomplices. I caught sight of Marcus instructing three men and one woman. I froze and held Cole to me tightly. Standing back and getting lost in a crowd of college students I watched as they examined women with children. I noticed that they were paying closer attention to female travelers with babies.
Quickly I moved into the closest restroom and put Cole into the baby sling that I had, pulling an oversized sweatshirt over my head and over him. Thankfully he was sleeping right now and the sling usually helped him to sleep when he wasn't. I slipped on a baseball cap and walked out of the men's room.
I was almost sprinting to the service desk where I quickly made new travel arrangements to Iceland, under a different name. Iceland was getting ready to board, so I knew that if I could get on the plane I was good to go. Once I had my ticket in my hand I could feel Cole stir.
"Shit" I groaned quietly and started to walk with mounting speed toward my gate.
"Loreley!" I heard a man scream my name, but I held strong and didn’t even flinch. I was not Loreley. I was Caroline Hayes. However, I did increase my pace. "LORELEY STOP!" The voice was closer and I grabbed Cole tightly to my chest, sprinting to security.
The security guards at the check in point were eyeing me closely. One grabbed my arm.
"Miss, what’s under the shirt?" He narrowed his eyes at me.
I took a deep breath and thought fast.
"Baby," I whispered. "Breastfeeding." I shrugged. "I don’t like to make it a public thing."
The guard let go of my arm. "Um…oh…"
I lifted the sweatshirt slightly so that they could see the bottom half of Cole and then acted as if I was going to completely uncover him.
"That’s okay miss." He ushered me along and I rushed to the shuttle that would take me to my gate.
Panting I sat in my seat on the plane. Cole was fussing, so I took him out and gave him a bottle that I had in my back pack. It was during this flight that my newest course of action began to fester in my thoughts.
I would never escape my father, not while he was alive. There was no way that I could get close enough to kill him myself, and the thought of putting Cole in danger with close proximity to my father tore my heart apart. That’s when the seed of a memory started to fester, ‘she realized the only way that she would be free was death’. My mother had to kill herself to escape him.
Once we settled in Iceland, the seed had sprouted into theory and then into a full blown plot. The thought of not having my son in my life was breaking my heart, but knowing that I had to do whatever I could to keep him safe over-rode that pain. If I had to sacrifice myself, then that is what I would have to do.
Arrangements needed to be made accordingly.
Two months in Iceland and I had finally gotten all of my affairs in order for what was about to go down. Cole was eight months old and was the epitome of beautiful. For our last week together, I decided that we would go back to Germany to see my Aunt Beth, plus she played an unknowing part of in my plan.
Arriving late at night, she rushed us into the house. "Dear, there have been people asking around for you?" My eyes widened as I sat down.
"Who?" I spit out as I lay Cole on the couch, fast asleep.
"They seemed to be investigators or policemen." She shook her head. "I’m not sure, but I believe that they have traced your letter back to me." She knelt on the floor in front of me. "They were here a week ago and that was the second time they had been here."
I swallowed the large lump in my throat when I realized that I was going to have to do this sooner than planned. "Aunt Beth?"
"Yes dear," she put her hand on my knee.
I placed my hand on hers. "If anything happens…"
"Don’t be silly my child, nothing is going to happen." She stood as she scolded. I could hear the sadness and the tears in her voice.
"If anything happens, I need you to open this." I held out a large yellow envelope as she turned to face me.
"What is..?"
"It’s only if something happens." I forced a smile. "Please keep it somewhere safe."
She nodded.
That night I lay on the bed that I gave birth to Cole. He was so angelic as he slept. My fingers traced his face and my lips were pressed to somewhere on his body every few minutes. Tears started to saturate the blanket beneath me. If things didn’t go as I hoped, then this could more than likely be the last time I would ever see my son.
Before dawn I wrote a letter to my aunt and left another envelope for her, inside was a letter to Cole among other items. Quietly I left her house and flew back to New York, back to my father, time to put my final plan into action, hoping to make it out alive.
End