I was so mystified by this turn of events that I hardly slept. That's why the pharmacy said I had his date of birth wrong. It wasn't the wrong date, it was the wrong year. But why would Theodore lie to me - yet again - about Harry's age? He obviously wanted me to believe that Harry was a minor for some reason, but any reasonably intelligent person could figure out that he'd eventually turn 18. However, Harry was really 20, going on 21.

Harry was 20!

I wanted to know more before I just blurted that out to him, maybe see a birth certificate. Everything was so confusing. But damn, no wonder he seemed to be developed beyond even a pubescent teenager. He was an adult. But still the mystery remained, why was Theodore lying about Harry's age?

At this age, Harry was actually legally able to just walk out the door, but I knew it wouldn't be that simple. Or would it? Maybe I'd ask Theodore if Harry could come with me when I went to meet with Nathan Greenwood in a few weeks. Harry was undoubtedly old enough to give consent for his own representation. But he didn't even have a driver's license or anything to prove his age. I wondered if that would make a difference.

Or what if we just left? Harry and me. He could come back to Ohio with me and he could start a new life there. But I still didn't know much about his medical "conditions," although I suppose he could consent to having new medical evaluations done. And it wasn't just up to me - Harry had to want to leave, but this was the only place he'd ever lived as far as I knew, and the world outside was still kind of a big unknown for him. Then, there was the obvious issue of a passport and citizenship.

For most, if not all of those concerns, Harry would need to present a birth certificate.

Shit.

I watched him at breakfast, marveling at him and how he'd managed to remain such a wonderful person. I felt a little less creepy about crushing on him, but the situation was still very complicated so clearly, it wouldn't be proper to admit my feelings to him. He was going through so much, and would likely continue to wade through many revelations and the resulting emotions in the coming months and years.

We were almost finished eating, when Theodore came storming into the suite, fury burning in his eyes. He must have found out I was snooping but I was appalled when he dragged me out of my seat by my arm and shoved me against the wall. "What is this?!" He screamed, showing me his phone. It was playing the video compilation I had sent to Charlie.

I had to get a handle on my own indignation before I spoke. "It looks to me like an invasion of privacy," I spat.

"You're my employee. I monitor your emails and phone calls. Shouldn't be news to you. But what the hell are you doing sending videos of Harry to a..." he glanced at the email, "...Dr. Charles Schulman?"

Fuck. I had promised Charlie I wouldn't involve him.

"I was concerned for Harry," I said in a steely tone. "Since you absolutely refuse to tell me anything about any of Harry's diagnoses, I had to take matters into my own hands."

Theodore stretched his long fingers across my throat and squeezed. "It's no one else's fucking business," he hissed. "Now what else does he know?"

He was slowly pinching off my air supply. I glanced desperately at Harry who looked terrified, watching this all go down. "He knows what drugs Harry takes."

He slammed me against the wall even harder, yelling, "How does he know that?"

I coughed and gasped, trying to regain the breath he had just forced out of me. I was trying not to cry but I'd never seen him this crazy before. "I looked them up online and I sent him an email."

"How dare you," he seethed. "Give me your laptop."

"Why?" I demanded.

"Give me your fucking computer!" He screamed. "Or you'll be on the next plane out of here, understand?"

I stifled a sob as I went to my room to get my laptop. I held it out to him and he snatched it out of my hand. "You'll get this back when I can be sure you won't do anything so stupid again."

"Don't call her stupid," Harry suddenly said.

"Shut the hell up, Harry!" Theodore shouted in his face and Harry recoiled.

"Don't talk to him like that," I snapped and once again, Theodore's hand was on my throat.

"Watch yourself or like I said, you'll be on the next plane out of here and you'll never see Harry again."

A chill crept along my spine at his words but I just nodded and he let go of me and left. Harry was in front of me, gathering me in his arms before the door even closed. "Are you okay?" He asked, squeezing me gently in his grasp. "I'm sorry, I should have done something."

"No, no don't think that way. He's a madman, Harry. I know he's your father, but he's a terrible, terrible person." At that, I broke down sobbing, Harry's strength the only reason I was still standing. He caressed my back with one hand and stroked my hair with the other, saying "Shh," in my ear as I cried. He kissed the top of my head and my senses came back to me.

"What did he mean about you never seeing me again?" Harry asked in a mumble.

"I don't know. He would probably fire me and never let me back here to see you again," I lied. I knew from the mania in Theodore's eyes that he would likely kill Harry without a second thought.

"Then you can't get fired," he said. "You have to do whatever he says."

I placed my hands on Harry's cheeks and noticed they were wet. He must have been crying along with me. "I know, Harry. I'll try. But I'm trying to protect you, too. And if he's doing something that could hurt you, I'm going to get in his way."

"But you can't leave," he said hopelessly, fresh tears forming in his eyes.

"Well, what if I did leave and I could come back with help?" I weakly suggested. "I have evidence that he's trying to manipulate you with all the drugs you take."

"Then I'll just stop taking them," he said.

"You can't, though. Some of them have horrible withdrawal effects. You can't just stop taking them or you could get really, really sick."

He swallowed hard but he didn't voice his nervousness.

"I'm so sorry, Harry. All this time, I wanted to protect you from him. He's your father, but I think he's dangerous." He now looked terrified. "Please, don't be afraid. I'm not leaving you. I'm going to help you get out of here."

"But I live here," he said, his lip trembling.

"You're not safe here," I said gently. "I'm not leaving but Harry," I said, looking squarely into his eyes. "I can't stay here. We can't stay here. We have to get out of here."

I took some Advil for the headache that Theodore had given me when he slammed me against the wall. I wanted to call the police but I had to make my case carefully. Theodore had assaulted me, no doubt, but I didn't want to risk being separated from Harry. I wanted absolute 100% proof of Harry's age before I attempted to break him out of this prison. And I wasn't sure if Theodore had power of attorney over him if he was supposedly intellectually disabled. If I called the police now, anything could go wrong, and I believed that Theodore was capable of far more violence than he had just exhibited.

I turned on my phone and tried to search the web but found that the wifi had been turned off. Of course. Theodore didn't want me to use the other computers in the suite any more than he wanted me to use my laptop. I turned off the phone's wifi and thankfully still had some 4G coverage, even though it was kind of spotty up in the mountains. It didn't connect very well but I was desperate to get in touch with Benjamin Blake again. Finally, after waiting for too long, I just searched through my old calls and found the number I was certain belonged to Dr. Blake. I didn't call many people outside of my family, after all, so his number was pretty easy to spot. I glanced at the clock - it was 8:27 AM - hopefully it wasn't too early to catch him at his office.

"Hello, this is Dr. Blake," he answered, and I remembered the warmth of his voice. I pictured him like a kindly old Santa Claus, not that I thought he was very old but I imagined him with a beard and a round belly.

"Good morning, Dr. Blake," I replied. "This is Juliette McGill. I spoke to you a few months ago about a boy; I'm his nanny and I wanted to find out more about his medication?" I hoped he would remember from that brief description.

"Oh, yes, Juliette, how are you?" He asked as if we were old friends.

"I'm fine, thank you. But I'm very concerned, actually. You said you were a professor of health-related law, so I'm hoping you can at least point me in the right direction."

"I'll try," he answered helpfully.

"I'm going to meet with a lawyer, too," I told him. "But I'm just trying to get all the information that I can so I know how to go about this. So I discovered which medications Harry was taking and some of them were in very high doses and some had serious interactions with each other. So naturally I was concerned for his safety and I consulted my brother-in-law who is a doctor. He helped me to reduce some of the meds slowly, over time."

"Did you consult the boy's father?" Dr. Blake asked, becoming quite serious.

"No, that's the  problem. He keeps giving Harry more and more pills and I know he hasn't seen a doctor. Like I said, I am going to meet with a lawyer too, but I wonder if there is any legal recourse for either prescribing medication to a person without physically examining them, or prescribing them too much medication without checking for serious interactions."

"There's plenty of legal recourse," he said solemnly. "But at this point, it does sound like I should not be involved and let the lawyer take over. I'm a professor of law but if I'm not being paid to represent you or the boy, then I'm afraid I can't offer you any more advice."

"But, just one more thing, please. It turns out his father lied about his age. He's not really seventeen, he's actually twenty. So I know he has a legal right to make his own decisions but I don't know if his father has enacted a power of attorney over him or anything. Do you know if that kind of thing is on public record somewhere?"

"I'm sorry, Juliette," he said sadly. "I really can't help you anymore. Good day."

I ended the call and screamed in frustration. I was beginning to feel like everyone in the whole world was under Theodore's evil influence although I had blindly stumbled across Dr. Blake on my own. I hesitated to call my parents because I didn't want them to worry, although the situation was admittedly worrisome.

I threw my phone down and burst into tears, hiding my face in my pillow and crying like I hadn't done in a long, long time. This was so maddening and now I was beginning to really fear Theodore but there wasn't a chance in hell I was leaving this place without Harry.

Soon, I felt the bed dip down and Harry's arms folded around me as he nestled against my back. "Are you okay, Jules?"

"I don't know, Harry," I sobbed. "I'm scared."

"Of Theodore?" He asked.

"Of everything," I said. "I'm scared he could hurt you and me, both of us."

He squeezed me more tightly and as he finally loosened his hold on me, I rolled over to my back and found him hovering close. His mouth was inches away from mine, so close I could kiss him and god, I wanted to kiss him right now. Instead, I pinched my eyes shut and more tears streamed down my face. This whole fucked up mess was screwing me over.

Before I opened my eyes again, I felt Harry's gentle kiss against my cheek, his soft lips absorbing my tears. "It will be okay," he said softly. "I promise."

This was one time when I wished I could believe him and his irrepressible optimism. But I knew far more than he did. And in order to give him a fighting chance at his own independence, I would have to educate him about the very real danger his own father posed.

Just before bedtime, Theodore appeared again. Harry stood up straight and tall and I could see that he was practicing the courage we had talked about in Calgary, that even though I knew he had to be afraid inside, he was standing tall against the one person who had been a constant threat to him his whole life.

Theodore walked straight to me and handed me a new pill box, even though it was the middle of the week. "He takes these pills - all of them - or you're fired."

* * * * *

You guys keep begging for more chapters so I keep giving them ;)