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and make the
    trip back with you, if you'd like. It doesn't matter to me. I've done my
    job.'
    Dee had blanched at the mention of her aunt and uncle and he had
    seen it. His face had changed, grown puzzled, but he didn't press the
    issue. He let silence fall in the room as he gave her time to consider
    the options he had given her. She was feeling that terrible sense of

    being trapped again, and it was stronger than before. She couldn't go
    back! That would be the death of all her independence and happiness.
    Judith and Howard were her legal guardians until her twenty-first
    birthday, and that was an eternity away. For all Dee's blossoming
    maturity, she somehow shrank at the thought of confronting her aunt
    again. She couldn't, wouldn't do it. She had a right to her own life, and
    this man sitting so quietly in front of her now was doing his best to
    take away that right.
    'I don't understand,' she muttered sickly. 'I really don't comprehend
    this. I'm nearly eighteen years old! This is a ridiculous situation!'
    'You may be nearly eighteen, but you aren't like other
    eighteen-year-olds,' he replied, impatience creeping into his
    inflections. 'Good God, child, can you imagine the horror if some nut
    or criminal found out that you were living in a cheap, accessible
    apartment in the bad part of Akron, Ohio? I wouldn't give two dimes
    for your chances of survival!'
    'Who would know, if nobody told them?' she cried out, then put a
    shaking hand to her forehead and then to her mouth. She closed her
    eyes and swallowed hard. One part of her was acknowledging wryly
    that it wasn't wholly assumed. This man was overwhelming her.
    'Are you all right?' he asked her sharply, leaning forward to stare into
    her face.
    'I'll be fine,' she mumbled into her hand, too quickly. She bent her
    head and stared at the worn carpet, letting all her anxiety, her misery
    show. She didn't have to act that. 'W-would you excuse me for a
    moment? I'm a bit nauseated…'
    He rose to his feet when she did, his eyes following her out of the
    room, his expression thoughtful and concerned. She left, mentally
    cursing. She hadn't wanted to see that concern. It didn't support the

    impression that she had carried of him all these months. She didn't
    want to know if he could be kind.
    She closed the bathroom door behind her and carefully, silently
    locked it, then she flew to the window to assess the situation. It
    looked extremely difficult, but possible. There was a drainpipe right
    along the edge of her window and if it would hold her weight, then
    she could shin down. It was an old pipe, and made out of sturdy
    metal, not like the newer, lighter ones. She would take the risk.
    Moving rapidly, she switched on the bathroom sink taps so that the
    water was gushing out at full strength, then she carefully slid open the
    ancient window. It creaked and she hissed with frustration, but she
    didn't really think that Carridine could have heard it over the water.
    The window stopped moving upwards and she wasn't sure if she
    could fit through, but she was in too much of a hurry to struggle with
    it. She zipped up her knapsack and threw it out of the window, then
    grasped the edge of the sink with her hands for support while she
    struggled to get her legs out of the window. It was a furious, quick,
    frantic wriggling squeeze to get her hips through, but she made it and
    slid with a bump to hang with her shoulders in and her bottom out.
    She had lost the grip on the sink as she had scooted back, and she
    scrambled for a handhold on the windowsill before edging one
    shoulder and then the other out the tiny open area. Then, hanging by
    her hands from the second story window and suddenly realising that
    if she fell she would be landing on harsh, cutting gravel, she
    cautiously tried to reach for the drainpipe with one hand while calling
    herself a crazy fool for even attempting the stunt. She barely reached
    the pipe, but was able to get a firm enough grip, and there she