Chapter 12 ESCAPE II

     "I'm getting married because of my father. He sold me off to the Graysons," she smiled bitterly "I'm getting married to Ethan Grayson, Sophie." Sophie's eyes widened and her mouth opened at the same time in shock.

    "What? The Graysons!!!" She yelled standing to her feet, attracting the eyes of the other customers at the café.

   "Shhh," El said covering her mouth with her right palm while standing on her feet opposite Sophie "you're too loud, people are watching."

   "I'm sorry," she whispered as they both sat down, and she took a sip of her coffee. "But I didn't quite hear what you just said. I mean I did hear it, but I can't believe it. You're getting married to Ethan Grayson?" She used both her hands to generate air for her face "When? How?" She paused for two seconds, thinking about what she said: "okay I know how, but this is great news El, I'm so happy for you."

   "Happy for me?" El asked with raised brows "why are you happy for me?" She was confused.

   "You're getting married to Ethan Grayson. The one and only heir to Grayson's Enterprise. The hottest guy that has ever lived on this planet that I know of. He's got beauty, brains, and riches. He's perfect. No wonder your father, I mean Antonio got you a personal guard. Oh my God, El, words cannot describe how happy I am for you."

   "Are you serious right now Sophie?" She scoffed "is this something to be happy about? I told you Antonio sold me off to the Graysons, and you're happy about it, saying it's great news?"

    "You know, I should be the one asking you that question. Are you serious right now? You're getting married to Ethan Grayson," she said with an air quote, "and you're asking me if it's something to be happy about? Wow El, you surprise me the most at times. Was this what you meant by your life got wrecked in one day?" She sighed disappointedly "I'm guessing you found out yesterday."

    "Yes, I did. And what's so great about 'Ethan Grayson,' that's making you girls go crazy for him? Am I the only one seeing the devil behind his pretty face mask?"

    "First of all, he's not wearing a mask, and second of all, Antonio has just done the best thing a father can do for his daughter by getting you married to Ethan Grayson, so the least you can do now is to be grateful for having a father like him."

    "Excuse me? The best thing a father can do for his daughter? The only thing Antonio has done for me in my existence was to ruin my whole life. He's been controlling my whole life from the beginning. It became clear this morning. First, he manipulated me into deciding to leave his house when I was eighteen and made me think It was my decision, then he deprived me of my freedom to marry whom I want, as if that was not enough, he deprived me of my freedom to privacy," she said pointing to Jordan who sat at the next table "and you're telling me to be grateful, for what exactly? For the part where he manipulated me, or for the part when he sold me off to the Graysons?" She smiled bitterly. "You're no different from my ex-two-faced backstabbing best friend."

   "Why are you bringing Adrian into this? This has got nothing to do with him."

   "It has everything to do with him. Adrian is the main reason why I'm getting married. He made me sign the marriage contract without me knowing. I still can't believe he did that to me."

   "Do you know what your problem is, El? You're so obsessed with you taking control over your life, that you're blinded by the good things the people around you are doing for you."

    "Are you in your right state of mind Sophie? Who doesn't want to be in control of their lives? Who wants to be pushed around like a puppet who only sits and stands when they are made? Do you know how it feels to know that every decision you've made in your whole life was masterminded by someone? And what good thing have the people around me done for me?"

    "Antonio has married you off to Ethan Grayson."

   "How is me getting married to Ethan Grayson a good thing?" She yelled attracting the eyes of other customers at the café. She took a deep breath when she noticed everyone's eyes were on her and lowered her voice. "Can you think about what you're going to say before you say it?"

    "You're the one who needs to think before saying anything. For a girl as beautiful and intelligent as you are, I must say, you're a big fool. Do you know how many girls can die to jump in your shoes right now?"

    "You're unbelievable Sophie," she smiled bitterly "I'm not gonna sit here and listen to the nonsense you're blabbing from your mouth. I'm going to the bathroom." 

   She stood up and walked to the bathroom with Jordan behind her. When she got to the bathroom door, she paused and looked at Jordan who stood behind her.

    "Are you going to follow me inside?"

    "No miss, I'll be waiting out here for you."

    She sighed before walking into the bathroom. She stood in front of the mirror and stared at herself. Taking a deep breath to calm her shaking nerves, she walked further into the bathroom, checked every door inside to make sure no one was inside the bathroom, and stopped when she got to the end. She looked at the wall In front of her, and started touching every part of it repeatedly as if her life depended on it, but paused when she heard a faint sound coming from the other end. As she placed her ears on the wall, the sound became clearer a little.

    It was a door, after all, Sophie was right, she thought smiling inwardly. She walked around the bathroom once more, double-checking every corner of the bathroom to be sure no one was inside, before knocking on the door faintly.

    A man opened the door from the other side. He wore a black suit, with a blue necktie with white dots on it, and a pair of neatly polished black shoes. He looked like he was in his late twenties or early thirties.

   "Miss Eleanor?" She nodded in affirmation "this way, Sophie is waiting for you," he said gesturing his hand inside a place that looked like a closet.

    Her eyes darted backward continuously as she followed him, and her heart raced in fear of being caught. Was this how criminals felt when they are breaking out of prison? She thought sighing but stopped herself from thinking about anything else other than escaping from Jordan.

    The closet led to a door in his office, and he took her through the kitchen to the back of the building where Sophie was waiting with a car. Sophie came out of the car and ran to where El and the man stood.

    "Thank you, Justin," Sophie said smiling.

    "Don't mention it, you know I've always got your back."

   "I'll call you later," Sophie said before holding El's hand "let's go El," she said to El who was still staring at Justin.

   "Thank you, Justin," El said before running to the car with Sophie.

   The two girls got into the car, and they stared at themselves laughing loudly before Sophie drove off.

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    After standing for ten minutes at the bathroom door, Jordan started feeling uneasy.

   "Are you okay Miss Eleanor?" He asked standing beside the door and waiting for a response. "I'm coming in," he said when he did not hear any response.

     He opened the bathroom door, and searched everywhere, but couldn't find her. He felt adrenaline rushing throughout his body, and many questions ran through his head. How come she wasn't in here? He ran his hand in his hair. How did she escape from the bathroom when there was no other door except the one he guarded? Did she sneak out with someone else? But he made sure no one entered the bathroom as she was inside. He was disturbed but stopped himself from jumping to any conclusions yet.

    He ran out of the bathroom into the café, and when he didn't see her bag or Sophie's and Sophie herself, he ran to the parking lot and saw that Sophie's car wasn't there as well.

    "Fuck!!!" He cursed as the realization that the two girls escaped right under his nose dawned on him.

    He removed his phone from his pocket and dialed a number.

   "Sir, miss Eleanor has escaped," he said when Antonio picked up.

   "What do you mean she escaped? I gave you a simple task and you can't do it? Find her," he yelled before hanging up on him.

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     Sophie stopped the car when she got to her apartment, and the two girls came out of the car and walked into Sophie's apartment.

   "Make yourself at home," Sophie said as she walked to the couch and removed her jacket, which she dropped on the couch.

   "I can't thank you enough for your help, Sophie. You're like a guardian angel sent by my mum from heaven." El walked to the couch and hugged Sophie.

   "You don't have to thank me. You would have done the same for me, El, plus this is the first time I've done something for you," she released herself from El's embrace and stared at her face "You're always the one doing the favor, but when you texted our escape code this morning, I was happy cause this was an opportunity to repay the favor." El smiled.

   "Who would've thought that a code we created back at college will help me in the future?"

   "That's the reason we created the code, to help each other escape from circumstances in the future, like this one today."

    "I know but I never thought I would need it one day. I created it because of you, I mean, you were a crazy lunatic who did things without thinking back in college, so I would've helped you escape when you fell into any of those crazy situations."

   "Wow El, is this how you show your appreciation to someone who saved your life today? I can't believe I fell for your fake gratitude," she said rolling her eyes.

   "I'm sorry, I'll try not to be not honest with you, after all, you helped me escape from Jordan," she smiled.

   "Thank you. Speaking of Jordan, that escape would've been impossible if I wasn't friends with Justin, and knew about that escape room."

   "Thank you," El hugged her "I'm so grateful for having a friend like you."

   "Yeah, you should be," Sophie said, and the two girls laughed staring at one another.

   "I still can't believe Adrian stabbed you at your back," Sophie said as she walked to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water, which she drank.

   "Me either, and I also can't believe you made me act your dumb script."

   "Well if it wasn't for my dumb script, you wouldn't have escaped from Jordan."

   "I didn't necessarily need to act, I would've just excused myself and gone to the bathroom."

   "That wouldn't have bought you enough time to escape. I'm telling you if Jordan didn't think that you were mad at me and you wanted to cool off, he wouldn't have allowed you to spend as much as five minutes alone in that bathroom. So, you have to be more grateful to me for my acting skills."

   "You're right," El said sighing.

   "Do you want something to drink?"

   "Orange juice, please." Sophie poured some into a cup and gave it to her. "Thank you."

  They spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies, and when they got bored, they went to the spa and got their hair and nails done. The afternoon went by quickly, and before they knew it, it was dark already.

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    "Going somewhere?" El asked Sophie who was already dressed and wearing make-up in her closet.

   "Yeah, I'm going out to a club. I know you wouldn't want to come with me, so I didn't bother to ask." 

   "Well, I'm gonna have to disappoint you. I wanna come along." Sophie who was applying massacre on her eyelashes paused and turned in the direction of her friend shocked. This was the first time El had voluntarily suggested going to a club. She was always the one begging her to come along, and in most cases, her answers were a stern 'no.'

    "You're coming?" El nodded. She couldn't believe it. She stood up from the chair she sat on and hugged El.

   "OMG, this is gonna be so fun," she yelled holding El's hand. "Follow me, I'm gonna do the honors of dolling you up." 

    She took El to her closet and picked their outfits, and they wore faint make-up before leaving the house.

    When they got to the club, El was dumbfounded by the setting and texture of the building.

   "This place is nice," El said to Sophie who was already dancing to the rhythm of the song played.

   "Of course it is. It's top-notch for only the elites in the country. It took me three years to finally get in. Let's go get a drink."

   They got a drink at the counter and sat on the stool enjoying it. After sitting for five minutes, Sophie got up.

   "I'm going to dance. Are you coming?"

   "Nah, I think I'm gonna sit here for a while."

   "Suit yourself." She walked to the dance floor and started dancing.

    El stared at her friend on the dance floor and smiled. She was happy Sophie was enjoying herself, and she was also entertained watching Sophie dance. She drank the drink in her cup in one go and wanted to join her friend on the dance floor when she heard a voice come from behind her.

   "Buy you a drink sweetie?"

   She turned around and saw a huge figure behind her smiling. His facial features were graceful and looked like he was in his late twenties, but she wasn't in the mood to flirt. She just wanted to have fun with Sophie and forget about everything that had happened to her recently.

    "No thanks, I'm fine." She turned to leave, but he caught her hand.

   "C'mon, don't be a prude."

   "I'm good, thank you." She looked at her hand in his, removed it, and was walking away speedily when he pulled her towards him with force and held her waist.

   "I'm not done talking. You'll love it, I promise."

   His free hand started roaming her body. Fear crept into her, and she felt chills run down her spine. 

   "Let go of me," she yelled, as she started struggling to free herself from the monster who was harassing her, but her efforts were futile, as the man was twice her size, and so was his strength.

   "Let go of her, you bastard," Sophie who watched El struggle with the man from the dance floor intervened, as she ran to her friend.

   He let go of El with a great deal of force, which pushed her to the floor, and he held Sophie on her neck, strangling her.

   "Let go of me, you asshole," Sophie yelled in pain.

   "Who gave you the right to address me as such?" He asked Sophie who was struggling to free herself from his grip.

   El stood up from the floor and rushed to the man to help free her friend, but he pushed her with his free hand, and she fell to the floor hitting her head on the leg of the stool, and she fainted. Sophie who saw El fall to the floor mustered all the strength she had and freed herself from the man's grip. She ran to El who lay unconscious on the floor, shaking her.

   "What have you done to her, you jerk?" Sophie ran to the man and started hitting him with her both hands when El didn't wake up as tears ran down her cheeks.

   He pushed her backward to gain space to hit her and raised his hand when a hand caught his. He turned in annoyance to the person who stopped him but fell to his knees when he saw the person's face.

    "M m mr. Grayson," he stammered on his knees.

   Ethan's eyes shifted from the man to Sophie and got darker when he saw El lying on the floor unconscious. He walked to where she lay, picked her up like a fragile vase, and carried her in his arms.

   "Bring him," he told max sternly. Max nodded and signaled to the other bodyguards.

   "P please Mr. Grayson, I didn't know she was someone you knew," he begged as they took him out of the club.