Paige came out of the shower and looked at the clock. It was after ten and Harrison still wasn’t home. He had left her at home by herself plenty of times to do tours and other flights to the city, but this was the first time he had been gone at night. Paige found herself very lonely. Even though Harrison slept at a completely different corner of the house, she really relied on his company.

She sat down in front of her dresser with the mirror over it and shook the towel off her head. She was just about to comb her hair when she noticed a folded piece of white paper stuck between her mirror and her dresser. 

Flipping it open was a man’s messy scrawl. ‘Miss me?’ it said.

Thinking it was from Harrison; she smiled wanly. This was the first time he had ever left her a note. Notes were extremely old-fashioned. He could easily send her a message through her bracelet if he wanted to. She wasn’t sure when he had a chance to deliver it. He hardly ever came upstairs.

She set the note down on her dresser and went on combing her hair. Reaching into one of her drawers she brought out a hairdryer. Another note was lying underneath it. Paige took it out and read it. ‘I missed you,’ it said.

Paige’s eyes flicked around the room uneasily. The note wasn’t from Harrison. 

After Zaphier left, the first thing she did was strip the bed. She took all the bedding to the laundry room. Then she took all the towels out, even the ones he hadn’t used, and washed them too. She put new blankets on her bed and forgot that he had been staying in her room at all.

A shiver ran up her body. 

She needed to clean her room again.

After running downstairs to get her supplies, she started on it. 

She found another note in the closet wrapped around one of the hangers. It said, ‘90-342-9325-00-3432.’ Paige knew it was his phone number. It was the same number from when she spied it in his father’s address book when she was seventeen. That number was intended for family use only.

She found another note in the light fixture above her bed. ‘Did you find the money yet?’

Paige didn’t stop there. She kept looking. 

By the end, after having searched every nook and cranny, she found three more notes.

‘Remember, I can get you out of this.’

‘You don’t have to stay a purchased woman.’

‘I’m waiting…’

Paige arranged them on the floor. She didn’t know how to respond. The ball was in her court. He’d wait for her to contact him, but the beauty and safety of her room were completely destroyed. How was she supposed to sleep knowing what he was thinking about while he slept there? 

She felt itchy everywhere, especially in her hair, like there were invisible bugs crawling on her. Scratching, she chanted to herself that the feeling was just in her head, but it didn’t go away. 

Uncomfortable in the tower, she went downstairs. She had some thought of sleeping in the spare room. She opened the door to the spare room and looked in. It was depressing. Paige closed the door and went to the newer part of the house, but it didn’t feel any better. The glossy black of the night coated the windows in the knowledge that someone could see in, but she couldn’t see out.

She closed all the blinds, then she went into the kitchen and made herself a cup of cocoa. By the time she finished it, she hoped Harrison would be back. 

As she sipped her cocoa, she thought of all the times during Zaphier’s visit that Harrison hadn’t let her former owner do as he pleased. 

It made her feel safe.