“I think it’s that house up there on the small hill,” I said and pointed ahead of me on Howell Branch Road. I drove up the driveway and parked the car in front of a small house with a wooden wrap-around porch. It was set back on an unusually big lot for being this close to Orlando. The yard was well maintained, and that was quite the accomplishment in Florida.
We got out and walked up the driveway toward the front porch. I smiled at Scott and was wondering if he was excited or nervous.
“Now, remember, we don’t know if she has come to him,” I said. “She could also have gone to her parents’ place.”
“Yeah, except she was never close with her parents,” Scott said. “She might have lied about a lot, but I don’t think that was untrue. She always spoke so lovingly about her brother the few times we talked about her family. He was her rock.”
I nodded, feeling convinced. If Sarah really was here in Winter Park, it was very plausible that she’d seek out the one person who meant something to her.
“It doesn’t look like anyone is home,” Scott said, looking at the empty driveway. “Maybe we should have called first?”
I shook my head. “If Sarah is hiding, then she would have asked him not to tell anyone she was here.”
“You think she’s hiding?”
I nodded. “Chief Annie told me she ran away from the police when they approached her. My guess is she fears for her life, and for some reason, she doesn’t want the police involved…”
I paused mid-sentence when the door to the house swung open, and a woman stepped out on the porch. She looked down at where we had stopped, the gun in her hand pointed at us.
Chapter 52
“S-Sarah?”
Scott froze in place and stared at the woman standing on the porch. I had only seen pictures of her and had to admit she didn’t look much like them anymore—at least not from where I was standing. She had lost a lot of weight, and her hair was now short.
“Sarah?” he repeated.
She didn’t answer. She stood at the top of the stairs, staring down at us, still pointing the gun but mostly at Scott. Her hands holding it were shaking heavily, and I saw deep fear in her eyes.
“Sarah, we’ve been looking for you,” I said and stepped forward. “For quite some time. Are you okay?”
She didn’t look at me, only at Scott, her nostrils flaring.
“Stay back,” she said. “Don’t come any closer.”
Yet, Scott did. He took another step forward, and that made her cock the gun.
“Come any closer, and I will shoot you.”
He stopped and lifted his hands, turning the palms toward her, a look of confusion on his face.
“But…but Sarah…?”
She shook her head.
“Don’t…don’t…”
“We’re just so happy to see you, Sarah,” I said. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you, thinking something bad happened to you, and…”
“I need you to go,” Sarah almost hissed. “Both of you.”
“But…”
“GO!”
She yelled the last part and pointed the gun at Scott.
“Get out of here, now!”
I grabbed Scott by the arm and pulled him away. We hurried out to the minivan and got in, and as we drove off, Sarah fired a shot. It didn’t hit anything, luckily, but it made me speed up and go down the road so fast that we almost skidded sideways into the bushes as I turned at the end of it.
“What the heck was that about?” I yelled at Scott as we were far enough out of sight. I turned to look at him, fuming.
“I…I don’t know,” Scott said. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“She didn’t exactly look like she was deeply in love with you, Scott. Or have you been lying about that too?”
He shook his head. “N-no. I don’t understand what’s happening. I swear to God; I don’t understand, Eva Rae.”
I stepped on the accelerator and rushed us out of town and onto the highway. I wanted to go home now. I needed to get away from this, as far away as possible, and forget everything about this. Matt had been right. I didn’t need this drama in my life.
“There’s something you’re not telling me, Scott. It has been going on through all of this. I try to help you, and then little by little, all these secrets are revealed, and I don’t know what to think. That girl was afraid of you, Scott. I could see it in her eyes. Why was she scared of you? Why didn’t she want to see you?”
“I swear, Eva Rae, I am as clueless as you. You have to believe me.”
“Yeah, well, I feel like I’ve heard that a little too much lately. We’re done here, Scott. I’m gonna take you home to Viera now. I don’t want to see you again. This is it for me. I’m out.”
Part IV
One week later
Chapter 53
Angel and Owen were finally asleep, so I grabbed my laptop and walked into my bedroom. In there, I found Matt sitting on the bed, watching a show on the TV on the wall. He gave me an annoyed look, and I closed the door and continued on my way. Things hadn’t exactly been good between us lately, and we pretty much avoided one another as much as humanly possible in our small house. The girls were fighting in their room, and Alex played loudly in his room while Elijah sat with his headphones on, watching something on his iPad. Downstairs, my dad and my brother, Adam, were in the middle of some discussion while my grandmother was in the kitchen, cooking something that smelled delicious while listening to Joni Mitchell on the Alexa.
My family had been here for three days now, and even though I enjoyed being with them, I was kind of tired of a crowded house. They hadn’t told me how long they were planning on staying, and I didn’t like to ask. I didn’t want them to think I didn’t like having them here.
“You want a sandwich?” my grandmother asked. “There are still a few hours till dinner.”
“No, thanks,” I said, smiling. My grandmother was the only one who was not on my case about losing weight these days. “I’m good. Just trying to find a quiet spot to check my email.”
That made my grandmother laugh, throwing back her head with her silver ponytail. Her voice was hoarse and rough, probably from the many years of smoking. She drove here on her motorcycle and slept on the couch in the living room, along with my dad, David, and my half-brother, Adam. Not too bad for a woman who was eighty-two. They all lived together in her house on Amelia Island, only a few hours from us, but we didn’t get to see one another much, so I was actually happy to have them here. Our sister Sydney would come over for dinner later; she had promised. I wanted us together, all of us as much as humanly possible, but Sydney had been so busy at the shelter, she hadn’t been able to come yet. I knew Sydney was just lying to me. She had bigger issues than me about seeing our father again. She grew up with him in London after he kidnapped her when I was five, and she was seven in a Walmart. We grew up apart because of this, and she had never quite been able to forgive him for that. It was hard for me as well, but somehow, it had been slightly easier. I don’t know why—maybe because I knew how easy it was to make a mess of your life. Perhaps because I grew up with our mother, who was cold and distant, and I had always longed for a parent who was different and finally found it in my father. Plus, there was no doubt that I was the one who took after him and our grandmother, not Sydney. He was messy and surrounded by constant chaos.