SORROW WOODS (21 page)

He nods. “I was fifteen.”

“So
do
you have a story?” I ask.

He sighs and nods. “I do, but now is not the time for me to tell you. You’ll figure most of it

out by yourself anyway.”

I open my mouth to speak but right then, Angela walks into the garden below and looks up

at us. She waves, and I notice she’s holding some sort of cooking instrument in her hand.

“We’re going to have a barbeque. Are you two joining us?” she calls.

Kaiden looks at me and then nods at my Mother. “We’ll be down in two minutes,” he says.

I slip my hand into his, leading him back through the house. When we walk through the

kitchen, I see Angela looking down at our joined hands. She smiles at me but frowns at Kaiden, and he drops my hand immediately. I don’t understand what just happened but before I can ask about it, Angela walks up to Kaiden and places an envelope in his hand.

He shakes his head fiercely. “I’ve already told Auden that I don’t want it.”

“Take it,” she says, “it’s yours.”

“No, Angela. I don’t want it. I didn’t do it for that,” he says firmly.

She huffs and walks away. Kaiden leans forward and places the envelope onto the counter

near the chrome sink.

“You deserve it, Kaiden,” she says. “If it was anyone else, we’d be giving them the same

thing. It’s what we always promised we would do.”

“Give it to charity then or something,” he says with a shrug. “I don’t want it.”

“It could change your life,” she says in a sing-song voice.

My eyes flick between the two of them. I don’t understand what either of them is talking

about. I walk over to the counter and tear the envelope open. I pull out a slip of paper and notice that Kaiden’s name is written across the top.

“What is this?” I ask, holding it up to Angela.

She sighs. “It’s a cheque for one hundred thousand dollars.”

I can feel my eyes widening. I know I’ve not dealt with money before, but I’ve picked up

enough to know that that’s an awful lot.

Angela places the meat onto the counter and looks at me. “It’s a reward. We offered it the

day you went missing to any person that found you or gave information that led to you being

returned to us.”

I turn back to Kaiden and raise my eyebrows at him. This is why he was walking me through

the woods that night. This is why he tried to tie a rope around me. I was worth one hundred

thousand dollars to him.

“Why don’t you want it?” I ask him curiously.

He narrows his eyes at me. “I don’t feel like I deserve it and I didn’t do it for the money.”

I nod and turn back to Angela. “He says he doesn’t want it.”

Angela smiles at him. “I always knew you were a good boy really.”

He sneaks a glance at me as I now narrow my eyes at him. What is it that Kaiden Matthews

is not telling me?

Kaiden

I lie back on the blanket and feel a little strange knowing this is the exact spot that Serena was taken from all those years ago. Thankfully, it’s not the same blanket.

“Do you want anything more to eat?”

I look up at Angela and shake my head. “No, thank you.”

I’ve already had two burgers, two hotdogs, corn on the cob, and some salad. I don’t think I

could eat anything else if I tried. I glance over at Serena, who is sitting on a swing that’s hanging down from the big tree in the centre of their garden. Her white dress is blowing in the gentle breeze.

I should have left. I shouldn’t have waited for her and Angela to come back. I shouldn’t have

gone to her bedroom with her or allowed her soft hand to slip into mine. And I shouldn’t have

agreed to stay for lunch with them.

Auden comes back down the steps and waves the house telephone at us. “That was Elodie’s

Mother.”

I watch the happiness spread over Serena’s face like butter smeared over hot toast. She

jumps down off the swing and bounds up to her Father. “What did she say? Is she alright? Is she

happy?”

Auden smiles at her. “She’s going to come and visit you in a few days’ time, if that’s alright?”

He glances quickly at Angela but I know that he’s already agreed to it.

“That’s perfect,” Serena grins. “I’ve missed her.”

Auden nods. “I’m sure you have.”

Serena turns her head towards me and smiles. It’s a dazzling, full of happiness kind of smile

and it’s infectious. I can’t help but grin back at her.

“She’s coming to see me,” she says, flopping down beside me on the blanket. She leans her

head back, making the ends of her long hair drape over my arm. Her smooth, bare leg brushes

against my own exposed leg.

I shuffle away from her. I can’t stand the fact that she makes me feel that way and I can’t do

anything about it. It’s frustratingly refreshing. I’ve never met any other girl that’s made me physically ache because of how desperate I am to touch her. I want to brush her hair back off her face. I want to touch those perfect, round breasts. I want to kiss every inch of her skin.

“What are you thinking about?” she whispers, right next to my ear.

I blink and find her face centimetres from mine. I can smell the vanilla milkshake on her

breath that she’s just finished. I watched her drink it. At one point, a few drops of it slipped off the straw and landed on her bottom lip. I have never wanted to kiss food off another person’s lips

before.

“Nothing,” I lie. I can feel a hint of a blush on my cheeks. I can’t believe she’s making me blush.

I’m confident. I’m outgoing. I do not get embarrassed. Ever. What is Serena Scott doing to me?

She laughs. “You were so. I watched your eyes and you were smiling at whatever it was that

you were thinking about.”

I shake my head. “Honestly, it was nothing.”

She frowns at me and licks her lips with her tongue. I groan and drop my head into my arms

on the blanket.

Before she can question me further, the doorbell rings and I raise my head in time to see

Auden and Angela frown at each other. Auden disappears into the house, Angela watching him like a hawk. Serena glances up at her Mother and then looks down at me as if looking for an explanation. I shrug. I don’t have one.

A few minutes later, Auden comes back into the garden looking worried. Two police officers

are following him. Serena sits up.

“Serena,” he says, “these officers have information about the woman that abducted you.”

She looks up at them and tries to smile. They kneel down on the blanket next to us and smile

kindly at Serena. She’s not the criminal here. I forget that they can be nice when they want to be.

“We don’t want to keep you Serena so we’ll just get right to the point, if that’s okay?” The

orange-haired officer smiles at her as he pulls a small file from out of his bag.

Serena nods. “Sure.”

He spreads some pictures out on the blanket in front of us. I see the shack and the woods

and the rusty truck that she told me about.

“This morning we arrested Lydia White.” He pushes over a picture of a woman with bright

red hair and blue eyes. “We took some DNA from the house you lived in and it’s a partial match with the DNA of Lydia White. She’s been arrested before, so we already had her details on file.”

Serena picks the picture up. I watch her eyes scan over it, but I don’t detect any hint of

recognition. I watch the lines on her forehead crease before she breathes in and hands the

photograph back.

“And you matched her DNA?” she finally asks.

The police officer nods. “We took a sample of her hair from a comb we found. The

fingerprints on the comb told us that they were not yours or Elodie’s.”

“What happens now?” she asks.

The police officer glances up at Angela and Auden and smiles. “Nothing, really. She’s

confessed to taking you fourteen years ago, so she’ll remain in custody until her trial. You won’t have to be there, but we will use your statement.”

Serena looks up, surprised. “She confessed?”

“Yes, almost immediately after we approached her.”

There’s something not right here. Serena is hiding something. I know it.

“Are you alright, Serena?” Auden asks.

She looks up at him, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hands. She smiles but it’s fake.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

The police officers nod and pack away the photographs. I realise they haven’t actually asked

Serena to confirm or deny if that’s the woman she’s known as her Mother for the last fourteen

years, but I guess they don’t need to if they have her DNA.

As they get up to leave, Serena suddenly jumps to her feet. “Wait,” she calls.

They turn around as she nears them. “What other crimes had she committed before?”

They look at each other. The orange-haired police officer nods, signalling to the smaller,

balding officer that he can tell her.

“She was arrested many years before your abduction for numerous crimes including

prostitution, theft, burglary, and possession of illegal drugs.”

Serena’s shoulders drop. “Thank you,” she mumbles.

She turns around but doesn’t look at me.

Serena

Since Auden told me that Elodie would be visiting, I’ve been running around the house for three days without knowing what to do with myself. I miss Kaiden. I haven’t seen him since the afternoon we

spent in the garden together where he ate more food than I’ve ever seen anyone eat in my life. I miss feeling like I can talk to him about anything without him judging me or evaluating everything I say to make sure I’m coping and not going crazy.

My parents have been great though since our breakthrough in the kitchen. They feel like

normal parents, or what I always imagined normal parents would be like. They tell me off when I’ve done or said something wrong. They aren’t as worried anymore that they can’t scold me. I knew

they were holding back from saying things to me because they didn’t know if it would upset me or

not. I like the way we are now.

It feels almost like it did when I lived in the woods with my Mother. I miss her. I still can’t help that, even though I know she’s not my Mother and that what she did was wrong. I don’t miss the

fact that she was lying to me every single day. And I really miss Elodie. She may only be six years old but she has been my best friend, and the only one who understands what I’ve been through.

“They’re here,” says Angela as she announces Elodie’s arrival right on cue.

I hop off the sofa and run into the hallway. I swing the door open wide and she immediately

leaps into my arms.

“Serena!” she squeals into my ear. “I’ve missed you.”

I start to cry and hug her as tightly as I can. “I’ve missed you too, Els.”

I place her back down onto the steps and give her a once-over. She looks cute with her black

hair chopped short above her shoulders. She looks younger, more innocent.

“I love your hair,” I say, fluffing it with my fingers.

She smiles at me. “I watched them cut it all off. There was loads of it on the floor.”

“I bet there was,” I say, pulling her into the house. I turn her around and show her to Angela.

“This is Elodie,” I say, proudly. “She’s my sister.”

Angela smiles and crouches down to look into Elodie’s eyes. “Hello, Elodie,” she says,

holding her hand out, “it’s nice to meet you.”

Elodie giggles and shakes Angela’s hand. “Are you Serena’s real Mommy?”

Angela nods. “I am indeed.”

Elodie turns around and points to a middle-aged woman with hair as black as hers who is

walking up the steps to the front door. “This is my real Mommy,” she smiles, “her name in Victoria.”

Angela shakes Victoria’s hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you,” says Angela. “Come on in.”

Victoria smiles and thanks Angela. She turns to me and smiles. “Hello, Serena. Elodie hasn’t

stopped talking about you since she came back to us.”

I grin at Elodie.

“Hello, Victoria,” I say.

I grab Elodie’s hand and run upstairs with her to show her my bedroom.

“We’ll be in the kitchen,” calls Angela.

“Okay,” I yell back.

Elodie giggles and screams when she sees my bedroom. “Wow, you have a big bed! She says,

jumping on it and bouncing up and down.

I slip my flip-flops off and join her. Her short hair flaps on the top of her head and her big

blue eyes sparkle at me.

“Do you like your new Mommy?” she asks after a few minutes.

I stop jumping and sit with crossed legs on the top of my covers. “She’s nice.”

Elodie carries on jumping. “I like my new Mommy, but I don’t love her yet. That’s alright isn’t

it, if I don’t love her yet?”

“Of course,” I say quickly. “It takes time to trust and love someone, especially after what

we’ve been through. I guess we’ve got a good excuse for being careful too.”

She stops jumping and flops onto the bed. She’s wearing a pretty red, sleeveless dress that

shows off her dark hair and tanned skin. “Our other Mommy did a bad thing, didn’t she? She wasn’t our real Mommy but told us she was. She lied and made our real Mommies cry and miss us.”

I stare at her. My six year-old little sister has surprised me. By the sounds of it, she’s taken it really well. After Janet told me she was too upset to be reunited with her Mother at the same time I was with mine, I worried that she’d be too broken to adjust. I was wrong.

“Yes she did, but I don’t want you to worry about that now. It’s okay if you miss her, even

though you know she wasn’t your real Mommy and what she did was wrong. But you have to

remember that you have a new life now with your new Mommy and you’ll be just as happy as you

were when we were living in the woods.”

She nods. “I’m already happier than I was in the woods.”

My heart sinks. “Are you?”