Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 102620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
“Oh my God,” she gasps, “it’s true.”
I look at Caleb and see he’s about two seconds from going Hulk on both of them. My hand reaches out to grab his arm. “It’s okay,” I assure him. “I’m okay, I promise, and if I’m not, I will let you take me away from it all.” I kiss his lips before I turn back to my birth parents.
“I called you last week,” I tell her, and her face goes even whiter than it was before.
“No, you didn’t.” She shakes her head. “There was no way in hell you called me last week.”
“I mean, I called Sonia. Surely, she would have told you I was looking for you.”
“She would one hundred percent not tell me that,” she rebuts. “Oh my God, she’s alive.”
“What?” I shriek. “What are you saying?”
“I went into labor,” she starts as she looks at Carl, who is squatting beside her now, his hand still holding hers, “my mother didn’t want me giving birth in town because it was a secret. No one could know I was pregnant. For six months I was tucked away and hidden from everyone for them to make sure that my secret didn’t get out. I didn’t even go to the doctor, he came to the house. When my water broke, I thought this was it. I would go to the hospital and get someone to call Carl. Except it wasn’t really a hospital, it was this private clinic. We got there, my mother, my sister, and I were ushered in. Not one other person besides the doctor and two nurses were there. I thought it was strange but then the contractions started, and I told them I wanted to do it naturally. They gave me an IV and the next thing you know I’m waking up two hours later…” She trails off as if she is remembering it.
“They told me you were dead,” she says the words like they pour out of her soul. “They told me you were stillborn.” I take a step back as if she struck me. “I begged to see you. To hold you. To tell you how much I loved you, but they refused. My mother and sister were adamant it wasn’t something I wanted to see. They stood beside me as I picked out a fucking casket for you to be buried in. It was the size of a bread box. My sister told me she would take care of everything for me.” She puts her hands on her stomach. “I forced my mother to give me a phone and then I called Carl. He was waiting to come and take me away with him. Take us away with him. But I couldn’t face him. It was my fault you had died.” The pain in her soul is like it had just happened and not twenty-five years ago. “I blamed myself, it was my fault you died.” She shakes her head. “I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t face anyone. I told my mother to take me away and I never looked back. My body healed, my heart—” She shakes her head. “Every single year on your birthday, I would spend in bed. Reliving the nightmare of never holding you. Never being able to tell you how much you were loved.” The sound of her wailing now fills the room.
“Those motherfuckers,” Carl growls from beside her, his body shaking with the same emotions she has.
My head is spinning as I listen to her story. Shock fills me, and I’m about to say something when the doorbell rings. “It’s like Grand Central Station in here,” I mumble, going to the door. It happens so fast I don’t even know it’s happening. One minute, I’m pulling open the door, and the next minute, my name is being roared out by Caleb, and then everything goes black.
Chapter 36
Caleb
“It’s like Grand Central Station in here,” Sierra mumbles from beside me and moves away from me, heading to the door. I turn back to see her birth parents on the couch, her father now sitting beside her mother as she sobs in his arms. The whole story has been mind-blowing to say the least.
The next couple of seconds happen so fast, I don’t even think I know what’s going on. Sierra opens the door, and she has one hand on the doorknob while she looks up at the guy who is there.
Something pushes me toward the door. I don’t know what it is, and I can’t explain it, but the minute I get close enough, I see his hand straighten up. It takes me half a second to register that he’s aiming a gun at her. The look on his face is filled with rage. “I told you to stop looking.” It’s the only thing he gets to say before I roar out her name.