Isabelle
"Woah." Mrs. Strahm entered the kitchen and looked directly at the counter covered with cupcakes. "It looks like a bakery threw up in here, what's wrong Isabelle?"
After my dinner with Killian I still had some pent up frustration. This whole situation was fucked but it was the hand I had been dealt. The only way for me to get my mind off of this was baking. Baking has always been my escape from everything.
At one point I even wanted to start up my own shop. Sterling always said it was a dream that I could make a reality. He loved everything I had made in the past and that was when I cooked out of a box. Now I did things from scratch so they were even better. Not that I was going to let him try any of it though.
"What's wrong?" I scoffed to myself as I put purple frosting on the white cupcake I was working on. "What's wrong is the first boy I gave my heart to who then proceeded to practically rip it out of my chest and stomped on it is now my new boss."
Mrs. Strahm's eyes went wide. "Sterling? Oh Isabelle, I'm so sorry. I had no idea."
I gave her a puzzled look. "What do you mean you had no idea?"
She bit her lip as she was nervous, it was clear she had said too much. "Come to the office with me." She spoke as she grabbed a cupcake from the counter. "I'm taking a snack with me."
I put down the cupcake in my hand and followed her to her office. She locked the door as I took a seat at her desk. She opened up a locked cabinet and pulled out a bottle of alcohol. "You're twenty-one right?"
"Yeah. Just turned twenty-one last month on the twentieth." I responded.
"That's right, you're an October baby." She placed the cupcake in her hand on her desk. She smiled as she grabbed two glasses and poured the alcohol in. "Now this is strong, I won't lie but it looks like you could use it."
I took the glass from her and took a sip of the whiskey she had poured into it. My face scrunched as I swallowed what was in my mouth. I had drank before but no straight alcohol.
"Wow." I finally spoke up. "Why do you have this here exactly?"
She let out a small sigh. "Sometimes a child is brought here because of a severe case of abuse, the details I have to go through aren't pretty. So sometimes I just need something small to help cope with the gruesome papers I have to read."
"I see." It didn't occur to me the things she must've seen.
I knew the paperwork on me wasn't exactly pretty. After my father died during his deployment my mother completely lost it. I was two at the time so I don't remember much. I do know from overhearing once that my mother was caught trying to sell me because she couldn't deal with me anymore, before that she neglected me and locked me away in a closet for hours on my own. Her excuse to the cops was I looked too much like my father and she couldn't handle it. To her I was just a reminder of the man she lost.
They evaluated her and locked her away. I had no other family besides an uncle who had a past that involved domestic violence and lots of drugs. Sending me to him would have just been putting me into another bad situation again. The only thing they could think of was to send me here.
The kids here had become my family and we all had been close. Some of them I still talk to on social media from time to time. Thanks to the donation from Kaydence Tipton we all had the opportunity to be set up for success. It was nice to see everyone doing pretty well considering we were all pretty much on our own.
"Back to what you said in the kitchen." She knew something, that was clear. "What did you mean you had no idea?"
She thought for a moment before answering. "There was a young man who came here asking for your information. He stated that it was important he got in contact with you and that you were old friends."
"So you gave it to him?" I raised a brow.
"No." She shook her head. "All I told him was that you had left Tennessee to attend a program to help get you into a job. Of course with it being Tipton related I guess that's all they needed to find you. If I would've known I would have reached out to you right away."
I could tell she was being truthful, it's not like she had a reason to lie anyway. "What did the man look like?" I was curious who had been sent for me. It clearly hadn't been Sterling himself or she would've known.
"Tall, muscular, clean shaven with dark brown hair that was shorter on the sides and longer on the top." I knew right away who she was talking about.
Killian was in on this too. He had to be working with Mr. Tipton to bring me back and Mr. Tipton made it impossible for me to leave for a year. This only confirmed that he was indeed up to something. It was clear as day that there was more to this and I intended to get to the bottom of it.
"Izzy, I'm really sorry if the information I gave has led to this situation." Mrs. Strahm apologized. She knew how I felt about Sterling, both in the past and now.
"It's the Tipton's. If they were this determined to find me they would have done it with or without the information you had given." It was a true statement. With the power that family had I'm surprised they didn't recruit me sooner.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked with a concerned look in her eyes.
"No." I finished downing the drink she had poured for me. "I need to go get the cupcakes put away though so I can get some sleep before I have to see him again tomorrow."
"If you want, put them in the big plastic rectangle tupperware and I can have Emily serve them to the children." Mrs. Strahm suggested.
"That would be great." I gave her a small smile before unlocking the office door and heading back to the kitchen.
I grabbed the containers Mrs. Strahm had advised me to use. I then proceeded to gently place the cupcakes inside of each one. I put them neatly in the fridge for later. At least the children would appreciate the hard work I had put into these.
I then went down the hall to the room Mrs. Stahm was allowing me to use. I felt bad for taking up space but she insisted. This was going to benefit me in the long run anyway. The more money I had saved the easier it would be to get out of here and get my life set up in another state. Away from him.
I climbed into the bed and pulled the sheets onto me. I was dreading going back tomorrow. I was going to dread the next three hundred and sixty-four days to be honest. I was his assistant now. That meant whenever Sterling needed something I had to be available.