Read The Missing- Volume II- Lies Online
Authors: A. Meredith Walters,A. M. Irvin
Tags: #The Missing
The Missing- Volume II- Lies
Reclaiming the Sand Series
Twisted Love Series
Find You in the Dark Series
Cloud Walking
(A Find You in the Dark novella)
Warmth in Ice
(A Find You in the Dark novella)
Bad Rep Series
Seven Days Before
I
stood outside of Maren’s house and looked up at the brightly lit windows. I grinned, knowing that in a few minutes I would be inside.
With her.
I would tell her everything in my heart.
There were so many secrets that I ached to share. Whispers she needed to hear.
Truths I wanted her to know.
How I watched her.
How I knew her.
How I
loved
her.
How in my heart of hearts there would never be anyone else for me.
Maren Digby was my beginning. She was my middle.
I hoped she’d be my end.
I deserved the happily ever after. Finally, after the misery and lies, it was mine for the taking. I would guard it jealously.
She belonged to me.
Only to me.
There may have been some doubt. Times that I questioned my place in her world.
But not anymore.
I couldn’t allow myself to think that way.
Because I loved her.
My Maren. Sweet, talented, kind, beautiful Maren. She saw through my demons. Through my pain. She saw the person I hoped to be.
And she loved me too. It was so obvious. Her fondness was apparent. She had made it evident in the smiles she gave me. In the gentle, seemingly accidental, touches.
But every single one had a purpose.
She communicated so much by saying nothing at all.
I thought about Bradley and felt a momentary twinge of something that felt a lot like guilt and a little like glee.
“She’ll destroy everything, Nora! Don’t let her!”
His eyes had been red rimmed and swollen with tears he wouldn’t shed. He hated Maren.
I didn’t understand why he detested her so much. Why he expended so much energy to try to keep us apart.
I wondered about his almost fanatical desire to insert himself between us at every opportunity.
I had always been comforted by his peculiar brand of possessiveness. It was mixed with an affection he was unable to voice in any other way.
But his dogged focus where Maren was concerned confused me. At first I thought it was because of
our
relationship.
His
love for
me.
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
The division between us hurt because there was something more to it this time. It wasn’t just about him caring about me. It wasn’t just the territorial declarations that had always made me feel
wanted.
My Bradley.
Always mine.
Or so I thought.
I didn’t want to think in doubts and maybes. I wanted only absolutes and that was what I hoped to find tonight.
I sucked air into my lungs and held it there until my chest burned. I relished the panic. The pain.
I thought of Mother asleep in her chair by the window. Dreaming so early. Before nighttime had even come.
A pill slipped into coffee followed by minutes of waiting.
I felt giddy with my betrayal. With my nerve. I couldn’t believe that I had done something so out of character.
What was happening to me?
Whatever it was, I liked it.
I had left Mother to dream about a life she could never have. Wrapped in blankets and imaginings. And that made me happy.
Because none of it was real. Not for her.
I was glad she’d never have it. Misery was her only company.
Mother wouldn’t have her happy ending.
Not like me.
I grinned high and wide. Up to the sky.
“Maren,” I breathed out in a rush, finally allowing the oxygen to flood my desperate body.
It was time to go in. It was time to start my life.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
I stiffened and stilled. I felt the anger. The hostility. Though I wasn’t sure if it came from her or me.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I snarled.
Rosie got out from her car and came around to lean against the hood. She hooked her thumbs into her pockets and smiled. I hated her smile. It was full of straight, white teeth and pretty, plump lips. There were no scars. Nothing to mar the beauty of her skin.
It was the ugliest smile I had ever seen.
“I was just wondering the same thing about you,” she responded, her voice pitched low so as to not be overheard. She inclined her head toward the house. “Who lives here? Who are you visiting? You don’t have friends.” She chuckled, covering her mouth with her hand.
“I have friends,” I argued, feeling petulant. Rosie always brought out the child in me. The little girl who was slighted and insignificant. She was so much like my mother. It was no wonder she had been given the love I had longed for my entire life.
Mother loved Rosie Allen in the way she adored her own reflection. Because they were almost one in the same.
Rosie’s laugh went on and on. “No you don’t, Nora. When will you realize that? No one loves you. No one will ever love you.”
My former foster sister walked towards me and whispered, just beside my ear. I thought I could feel her breath. Or it could have just been the wind.
“Let me do you a favor. Just this once. Because I feel sorry for you, poor, poor Nora.” Her words were acid in my brain. Eating away like a parasite.
“Why?” I demanded, so still, my eyes fixed on my haven. My refuge. The home of the girl that I loved.
“Because if you go in there, Nora Gilbert, you will be a very, very angry girl,” Rosie singsonged, her voice trilling and shrill, so at odds with her earlier quiet.
I shook my head, not listening.
I’d never listen to her.
Not Rosie.
She didn’t know anything.
She hated me. She wanted me to be unhappy.
Maren was my joy. She was my future.
She made everything in my dreadful, horrible life better. I wouldn’t let Rosie Allen, or my mother, or even Bradley, take that from me.
Not ever.
I’d fight to the death if I had to.
To the death . . .
I purposefully walked away from Rosie but couldn’t help but glance over my shoulder, feeling compelled to look back at the beautiful woman who detested me.
She shook her head and looked almost . . .
sad?
“You’ll never learn, Nora.”
Did she say that or was I imagining it?
I couldn’t be sure that her lips had even moved.
Rosie turned around and left. The hot, humid air smothering me.
And then I walked towards Maren.
Rosie was right.
I would never learn.
