Kingston Kidnappings (What Happens In Vegas Book 3) by Matt Lincoln (great book club books .txt) 📗

Anyway, they started to get impatient when I hadn’t found someone by my second year, so they moved to Trinidad in the Caribbean to keep a closer eye on me. Every day they pressured me more and more, and I devoted myself entirely to my studies. I knew getting an education and a good job would be my only way out.”

She took a deep breath and then continued. “Then, on my graduation day, they surprised me with a trip down to the Caribbean. I knew something was strange about it, but they were my parents. No matter how many times we argued or disagreed, I never thought they would…” She trailed off as she clenched her jaw and blinked tears out of her eyes.

“Listen, if you don’t want to talk about it-” I started.

“No,” she replied coldly. “I’ve spent long enough hiding the truth. I want someone else to know what they did.”

“Alright,” I nodded. I hadn’t expected our conversation to take such a serious turn after the lighthearted teasing from earlier, but I was willing to listen if she needed to get this off her chest.

“The three of us flew down to Jamaica,” she sighed. “All of my family was there. I was so happy, thinking they were there to celebrate me being one of the first in my family to graduate from college. My parents led me to a house I’d never been to and said, surprise! It was my wedding day, and this would be my new home from now on.”

“There was a man there, probably twice my age,” she went on. “My parents told me he was going to be my husband. I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t speak. Everyone was looking at me, smiling and acting like this should be the best day of my life, but it just felt like a nightmare. All of my family members kept coming up to me and congratulating me, talking about how happy they were for me, and I just kept smiling and pretending like everything was okay. I don’t know why I did that. I supposed I was just overwhelmed at the moment. It’s hard to say now what was going through my mind at that moment.”

She looked down at her hands. “Eventually, I managed to find a quiet moment with my parents, and I demanded that they take me back to the airport. My mother told me to stop being selfish, and then my father burned my passport right in front of me. They said they’d already used most of their life savings as my dowry and that I couldn’t leave them penniless. I couldn’t believe what was happening. None of it seemed real. I kept expecting to wake up and realize it was all just a crazy dream, but of course, that never happened. After that, they made sure I was never left alone, even for a second. They knew I would have tried to run if given the opportunity.”

“How did you get away?” I asked. “Obviously, you did. You’re sitting here right now.” Patel smirked at me in a morbid way that I’d only ever seen her do to suspects.

“That night, some of my cousins were helping me get dressed for the ceremony, but they were called away. They must not have known they weren’t supposed to leave me alone. The moment they left, I took a pen from the room I was getting dressed in and headed toward my soon-to-be husband’s room. He was surprised to see me. I thought I would make one last effort to appeal to him, and I told him that I didn’t agree to the marriage. He didn’t care.” She closed her eyes and grimaced as she recalled the memory of what happened that night. “He became angry and tried to ‘claim what was his,’ as he put it. So I stabbed him.”

“With the pen?” I asked, my eyes wide with surprise at her confession.

“Yes,” she nodded. “I didn’t have the training I do now, so the moment he tried to grab me, I just started swinging at him wildly. Then I strangled him with my own veil until he was unconscious. After he’d finally stopped moving, I searched his room for the money my parents had given him and took everything that I found. Then I went back to the room I’d been in before, and I set the house on fire with the same candle my father had used to burn my passport.”

“You set the entire house on fire?” I asked.

Patel nodded, and rather than remorseful, she looked pleased with herself.

“I needed a distraction,” she shrugged. “I knew they’d come looking for me as soon as they found out I’d knocked the groom unconscious. And it wouldn’t go well for me if they did. I climbed out of a window while they were busy trying to deal with the fire, and I used the money I stole to get a taxi to the United States Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica. I was lucky that I’d gotten my citizenship while I was studying in the US. If I hadn’t, they wouldn’t have been able to help me. I ended up going back to the United States and got myself a small apartment using the money I’d taken. I haven’t spoken to my parents since, and I’d honestly prefer to keep it that way.”

“Damn,” I muttered as I thought about everything she’d just revealed to me. “I had no idea. I can see why you’d be reluctant to go back. Does Wallace know?”

“No,” she shook her head. “No one does, besides you now. I don’t really like talking about my past, so all he knows is that I spent a lot of time in Jamaica and the other Caribbean islands in my youth. Besides, you said it yourself. I can’t let my fear of seeing my parents affect my ability to do my job. I’d be a pretty sorry excuse for an agent if I did that.”

“Well,