41

RYLEE

A few days later...

It was just over a week before I turned eighteen, and with that, Marina and I would finally leave that backwater, never to return.

My God! I could not believe that I was so close, that the dream we had been fighting for all our lives would finally come true.

It was several years saving money, making plans, thinking about the smallest details. Since it was not just the two of us now, but we also had my baby, we would need even more money, at least enough to guarantee a few months' rent on a nice apartment, until we managed to find a job. However, we were already providing that money, overbilling the baby's trousseau purchases, which we did every week at the mall in Belize, without Athos suspecting he was being stolen.

He did not pay much attention to what we were doing, so focused was he on ensuring our safety, on making sure we did not leave the house without a bunch of armed security guards following us, because he believed his enemies would make an attempt