I became worried.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
“You’ll understand everything soon.”
She hung up the phone.
An hour later, Daniel came to pick me up.
But he was unusually quiet.
When I got into the car, I noticed a small suitcase on the back seat.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To your mother’s.”
However, a few minutes later, he turned in the opposite direction, toward a road leading out of the city.
“Daniel, my mother’s house isn’t this way.”
He didn’t answer.
I asked him to stop the car, but he kept driving.
When he finally pulled over on a deserted road near a forest, I opened the door in terror.
Daniel stopped me.
“Emily, please, sit in the back. I need to make sure you don’t run away before we get there.”
I refused.
He grabbed my hand, forced me into the back seat, and tied my legs together with a wide, soft strap.