Bella's Choice

The mask was gone. The teenager was just another enemy.

Elena pushed the plate away, the smell of blood from the rare steak making her gag. "Where is Bella?" she asked, her voice tight. "She's not here."

"Bella is packing," Seraphina said, sipping her wine. "She's going back to school early. The winter intensive."

"She hates that program," Elena said.

"She loves it," Marcus corrected. "Or at least, she loves the scholarship."

He smiled at Elena. "She's very talented. Just like her mother."

He reached across the table and took Seraphina's hand.

Elena looked at their joined hands. The way their fingers interlaced. It was natural. Practiced.

"I want to see her," Elena said. "Before she goes."

"She's busy," Seraphina said.

"I don't care," Elena said, standing up. "I'm going to her room."

"Sit down, Elena," Marcus said, his voice losing its warmth.

"No."

Elena walked out of the dining room. She didn't run. She walked with purpose. She climbed the stairs, ignoring the guards posted at the bottom. They didn't stop her. They just watched.

She reached Bella's room. The door was closed.

She knocked.

"Go away!" Bella's voice. Muffled. Angry.

Elena opened the door.

Bella was sitting on her bed, surrounded by open suitcases. But she wasn't packing clothes. She was packing electronics. Laptops. Tablets. Hard drives.

She looked up, her eyes red-rimmed.

"What do you want?"

"I want to know whose side you're on," Elena said, closing the door.

Bella laughed. It was a harsh, cynical sound for a nineteen-year-old. "There are no sides, Elena. There's just the food chain. And you're krill."

"I'm the only one who tried to save you," Elena said. "I cancelled the cards. I cut off the money. I tried to force them to stop using you."

"You didn't save me," Bella spat. "You embarrassed them. And now I have to pay for it."

She gestured to the pile of tech.

"They're sending me away. Not to school. To Switzerland. To the 'clinic'."

"The clinic?"

"Where Mom sends the 'mistakes'," Bella said. "Where she sent the others."

"What others?"

"The other babies," Bella whispered. "The ones who didn't turn out right."

Elena felt a chill run down her spine. "Bella... how many?"

"Three," Bella said. "Before Leo. Three 'failed attempts'."

She looked at Elena, her expression shifting from anger to fear.

"They aren't dead, Elena. They're... stored. Like inventory."

"Where?"

"I don't know," Bella said. "But the coordinates are on this drive."

She held up a small, black hard drive.

"Give it to me," Elena said.

Bella pulled it back. "Why should I? You're powerless. You're trapped."

"I have leverage," Elena lied. "I have a backup of the server data. The stuff Kai downloaded."

"Kai is gone," Bella said. "I saw him leave."

"He sent it to a dead man's switch," Elena said. "If I don't check in every twelve hours, it goes to the Times."

Bella hesitated. She looked at the drive. She looked at Elena.

"If I give you this," Bella said, "you take me with you."

"I can't," Elena said. "I'm a prisoner here too."

"Then we're both dead," Bella said.

She started to put the drive in her bag.

"Wait," Elena said. "I can get you out. But you have to do something for me first."

"What?"

"I need your phone," Elena said. "And your passcode."

Bella stared at her. "Why?"

"Because," Elena said, "I need to make a call. To someone who isn't on the payroll."

"Who?"

"Your uncle," Elena said. "Julian."

Bella's eyes widened. "He hates us."

"Exactly," Elena said. "He hates Marcus. He hates Seraphina. But he loves money."

She held out her hand.

"Give me the phone, Bella. And I'll give you a way out."

Bella looked at the phone in her hand. She looked at the suitcases.

She unlocked the phone. She handed it to Elena.

"Make it fast," she said. "They're coming."

Elena took the phone. She didn't call Julian.

She opened the camera roll.

She scrolled back. Past the selfies. Past the art projects.

To a video.

Dated three months ago.

It showed Seraphina in the kitchen, mixing a powder into a glass of water.

Elena hit play.

Seraphina was humming. She stirred the glass. Then she handed it to Marcus.

"Drink up, darling," Seraphina said in the video. "It'll help you sleep."

Marcus drank it.

And then he collapsed.

Elena looked at Bella.

"You filmed this?"

"I film everything," Bella said. "It's the only way to survive in this house."

"Why did she drug him?"

"She didn't just drug him," Bella said. "She sterilized him. Chemically. She didn't want any more competition for the trust."

Elena stared at the screen.

It wasn't just incest. It was a war.

And Bella wasn't a victim.

She was a journalist.

"Send this to me," Elena said. "AirDrop."

Bella tapped the screen. *Sent.*

"Now get out," Bella said. "Before they find us."

Elena turned to leave.

But the door opened.

Seraphina stood there. She wasn't smiling.

"Packing light, Bella?" she asked, looking at the electronics.

"Just the essentials," Bella said, her voice trembling.

Seraphina looked at Elena. She saw the phone in her hand.

"Give me that," she said.

Elena didn't move.

"I said give it to me."

Seraphina stepped forward. She grabbed Elena's wrist.

Elena didn't fight. She let the phone fall.

It hit the floor. Screen up.

The video was playing.

Seraphina froze. She watched herself poison Marcus.

She looked up at Bella.

The mask was gone. The teenager was just another enemy.