Betrayal (Vanish Book Two) Page 8

  “So you don’t have any idea—”

  “No, maybe if I could have gotten a better look, I would recognize them, assuming it was someone I know.”

  “So what do we do?” I asked as he looked out the peephole.

  “One of us needs to call Elizabeth, and the other needs to make sure all the doors and windows are locked.”

  “I’ll get the doors and windows, and you call Elizabeth and George,” I replied.

  I ran to the back door, making sure each lock was locked. Then I ran to the windows, locking every last one. By the time I was finished, Dante was sitting on the couch.

  “No one answered,” he mumbled as he stared ahead of him.

  “Try again,” I shrieked.

  “I did. I tried five times, Scarlett. No one answered.”

  “Okay so what do we do?” I cried.

  “I need to go over there,” he declared.

  “No…” I pleaded. “Call again.”

  “There’s no point no one is going to answer.”

  “Then I’ll go, at least I can be invisible,” I suggested.

  “No, I’m not letting you go out there. I’ll be right back.”

  All that was left was a neon blue and green light and soon nothing. I waited a few minutes. It shouldn’t have taken him long to stop over there find out everything was alright and come back. I went invisible and headed out the door. I was careful to miss tree branches and as many leaves as I could, but I still wasn’t silent.

  When I reached the house, I noticed the front door was open. I walked inside; I didn’t see anyone, but they didn’t go anywhere, so I knew they had to be home.

  I walked back towards Lily and Cooper’s rooms, as I walked through the kitchen, I stepped on a squeaky floorboard, and a light turned on.

  “Surprise!” Everyone yelled.

  I had been scared visible. I didn’t know how it happened, but surely if this became a regular thing, this power wouldn’t help me much. I was laying on the floor in shock; I couldn’t even look to see who surrounded me. My eyes were fixed on Dante standing above me.

  “You knew?” I accused.

  “Well, no, there is a small problem. I should probably go shut the door. I’ll explain later,” he promised.

  When I got a chance to look around the room, I saw Elizabeth and George standing next to a cake on the counter. Lily was laughing at me across the room. Cooper—still looking uncomfortable—avoided eye contact at all costs. Next to him, was a woman and a girl—the girl from earlier. I knew it wasn’t a dream. I knew it actually happened, but how? There’s no way I could have gone as far as I did in a matter of minutes.

  “Scarlett,” Elizabeth said as she came closer. “God, I can’t believe it, but I think I found your mother.” My eyes darted between Elizabeth and my mother. “She’s also my sister, the one I told you about, Violet.” They looked almost exactly the same, aside from their hair. My mother’s hair was a less-extreme shade of red, and her eyes were a mix between blue and green. There was no denying that she looked like me, my only question now was, where was my father?

  “Nice to meet you,” I choked. “And you,” I said to Rose. “I saw you earlier today didn’t I? Because I left the house at eleven thirty, and I got home at eleven thirty.”

  “Yeah, you saw me earlier,” she laughed. “I didn’t mean to freak you out, but you said you missed a date with someone, so I rolled back the clock a little.”

  “So you can go back in time?” I asked.

  “Yes,” rose said. “It’s my only power.”

  “Can I have a minute alone with her?” Violet asked.

  “Of course,” Elizabeth said as she shooed everyone into the living room.

  “It wasn’t hard to imagine what you would look like.” She smiled. “All this time, I thought you were dead.”

  “I didn’t know about you until the other day, I would have done something.” I felt a tear stream down my cheek. She got up and wiped it away.

  “There was always a part of me that hoped, but I had become so wrapped up in the grief, that I guess I may have neglected your siblings,” she sighed.

  “Is that why they don’t like me?” I wondered.

  “I suppose, but they’ll come around and Rose doesn’t hate you, but she went through the same pain I did. You two were inseparable, like most twins.”

  “Twins?” I asked in disbelief.

  Chapter 8: Ambush

  We all sat in the living room, next to the fireplace. I didn’t know why it was such a shock to realize I had a twin. Just earlier today, I was staring down my three sisters, whose similarities were eerie. Soon I snapped out of it; I just didn’t know how to react. The woman sitting there, who I never really knew, was my mother. I didn’t know how this would work out, would we only see each other occasionally? Would I go home with her and leave Dante behind? And what about my new sisters? I had no idea what to expect from them. Rose sat by me, waiting for me to talk.

  “So, I thought you would be happy that I decided to tell mom about you. I just felt so bad, when you said you had no family,” she explained.

  I cleared my throat, “yeah, I am. Just a little shocked is all.”

  “So were you surprised?” Lily laughed.

  “Yeah,” I smiled at her. “Where’s Annabelle?” I hadn’t seen her since we got home.

  “She left…” Lily answered. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to say good-bye.”

  “What she left? Why?” I demanded.

  “She called her neighbor, Brian; I think that was his name. He came and picked her up,” Lily answered.

  “I—I just don’t understand why she would leave without saying good-bye,” I sighed.

  “I think she was afraid,” Lily confessed.

  I shrugged it off and turned toward my mom and Rose. “So, I’m curious, what led you to believe I was dead?”

  “The cop in charge of the case, he seemed very determined to find you. He was so young though, I wasn’t sure I could really trust him with finding you. He tried so hard, or so I believed, but you were never found—”

  “What was his name?” I wondered.

  “Officer Rowley. I don’t remember his first name though, maybe Jake or Josh—”

  “Joe?” I said in a flat tone.

  “Oh yeah, that was it Joe Rowley.”

  “Do you know Joe’s last name?” I looked over to Dante. He nodded. “Well what was it?”

  “…Rowley,” his voice cracked and then he cleared his throat.

  At first, I felt bad that Joe died. I thought maybe he was another victim of Ann’s beauty, blindly following her orders. Now I realized he was almost single-handedly responsible for ruining my life.

  “What’s going on here?” My mom asked.

  “Joe is the man who got me locked up after Grace disappeared, and he was the one who kept you from finding me,” I responded.

  “I’ll kill him,” Rose snarled.

  “Too late, we already did.” Both Rose and my mom gasped.

  “There’s been a lot going on,” I said, feeling ashamed. Apparently, it wasn’t normal to be this way, even in this world.

  “They did what they had to do, you can’t even imagine what they’ve been through,” Elizabeth stuck up for us.

  “No, you’re right; I can’t. I’m so sorry that you had to go through all of this. I think you should come home with us.”

  “I—I can’t. I’m sorry,” I stuttered.

  “And why not?” she said in voice that just screamed, you will listen to me, I’m your mother.

  “For one, this isn’t over yet, and two, I’m very happy to have found you, but I can’t go home with you and expect it to feel normal, to fit right in.”

  “You will. I promise,” Violet said.

  “I’m sorry.”

  I walked outside. I heard leaves crunching, and someone came running at me. I flinched and put my hands up, but before I knew it, Dante had grabbed me from behind and dragged me back inside the house.<
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  “Come on,” he said reaching out for my hand after he locked the door. He led me into the kitchen. “There is someone out there, that wasn’t a lie, but they don’t know that anyone is out there. Your mom and Rose had come over just a few minutes before, Elizabeth was planning a birthday party for you tomorrow, but they decided to just have it tonight.”

  “So who’s out there? What do they want?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, but it’s definitely the person who attacked me before. I was going to come get you, take you over here for your surprise party, but then you just showed up,” he explained.

  “We need to go out there; I’m tired of being afraid—”

  “Scarlett, we may have powers, but we don’t know if whoever is out there does, too, and if they do, we have no idea what they are.”

  “It’s only one person. What are we going to do when the Alliance comes, hide forever?” I questioned.

  “Do you want to know the truth?” He whispered, pulling me closer. “Yes, we probably would have to hide forever. I’ve already given up my life for you; I’m not going to lose you.”

  No matter how sweet the end of his sentence may have seemed, his tone was ice-cold.

  “I don’t want you to give up anything for me.” I walked away before he could see the tears in my eyes.

  I became invisible and busted out the front door. I wasn’t going to sit in there afraid. I was going to take care of this before the fear I had crippled me. I wandered through the woods until I heard something moving, and they heard me, too. They stopped in their tracks and turned in my direction. I looked around on the ground for anything to use as a weapon, just my luck, an empty beer bottle. I simultaneously smashed the bottle against a tree and went visible. Before I could do anything, they ran. I chased after them, but it did no good; they were gone… for now. I walked back in the direction I’d come from, but it seemed like I should have hit the house by now.

  Someone came up behind me and put their hand over my mouth. I tried to squirm free, but it was pointless.

  “Shh,” Dante hushed as he took his hand away.

  “Get away from me.” I pushed him and walked away.

  I didn’t know exactly where I was headed, but I was sure I could figure it out by myself. Someone else grabbed me, all I could see were black gloves holding a shard from the beer bottle I smashed. I saw a flash of neon light from where Dante was. I took a deep breath, balled up my fist and hit them as hard as I could. The glass cut my neck, but not too bad, at least I didn’t think. I made a run for it, with whoever they were following close behind me. I heard a loud bang, and when I turned around they were laying on the ground with Dante behind them. I held my sleeve against the cut on my neck as I bent over to see their face.

  “It’s me, Sienna, your sister.” Dante and I exchanged the same worried glances.

  “Was that you I saw wandering around out here?” I wondered. She couldn’t be the one who attacked Dante; I was with them when it happened.

  “No, I just came and I wasn’t going to hurt you; I just wanted to scare you away,” Sienna admitted.

  “Why? I don’t know what I did to make you hate me.”

  “You should have seen mom’s face when Rose told her she found you. I knew once she saw for herself, it would be as if I didn’t even exist anymore,” Sienna whined.

  “I’m not trying to steal your mom away. I only wanted to know who my mom was,” I cried.

  “Well now you know, so just leave us alone.”

  At first, I stood there motionless. Her worries made sense, at least in her mind; she was just scared. Then I thought about her holding the shard at my throat, and telling me I couldn’t get to know my real family, and I snapped. I lunged at her. My hands balled up into fists. I really wanted to hurt her, but luckily, Dante grabbed onto me before I could reach her.

  “Fine, I don’t care. I’ve gotten this far without a family. I don’t need you or your family, and I don’t need to be told what to do,” I snapped.

  We stumbled through the woods, searching for the house. I kept my sleeve pressed against my neck. I was starting to feel a little light-headed. Finally, we found the house, and I barged right in.

  “Hey,” Rose said as she jumped up.

  “Look Violet, I’m sorry, but you should just go on pretending I’m dead; it will be much easier that way.”

  “Wait Scarlett, what’s wrong?” She asked.

  “Your daughters don’t want me to get to know you, and I guess I’m just going to have to accept that.”

  “You don’t have to listen to your little sisters; they’re just jealous,” she reasoned.

  “Well this is what just jealousy gets me.” I took my sleeve away from my neck. I felt the blood dripping down.

  “Oh my god what happened?” Rose shrieked.

  “Your sister—I think she said her name was Sienna—cut me with a piece of glass.”

  “I’ll talk to her that doesn’t mean you can’t—”

  “It does, at least for now. I’m sorry,” I interjected.

  “Look, I’m not saying it was okay what Sienna did, but how could you do that to our mom? She didn’t do anything. I should have just stuck with my intuition and not said a word.”

  “I’m sorry, I’m not saying that I don’t ever want to get to know you,” I looked over at Violet. “But I think they need to get used to the idea first.”

  “No you’re right. I should go home and have a talk with them,” Violet replied.

  “Don’t be too hard on them; they don’t want to lose all of your attention. You said it yourself; you may have neglected them a bit. So spend some time with them, show them that nothing will get worse with me being around, and then when they’re okay with it, let me know.” I smiled. I could sound as tough— and quite frankly, rude—as I wanted, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t killing me.

  “Okay,” she smiled.

  “And one more thing, I don’t know how this whole, reuniting-with-the-mother-you-can’t remember-after-years thing works, but it feels kind of weird calling someone you just met ‘Mom.’”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that, honey, I understand.”

  I felt like crap, why did I just say that? I guess I would need some time to get to know her before I felt comfortable calling her that. Or maybe it was the fact that I called Ann ‘Mom’ for so long before finding out she wasn’t actually my mom. Either way, she seemed okay with it, so I just bit my tongue and smiled. I walked them out, as they were leaving, I gave each of them a hug. Rose stayed behind for a minute to talk.

  “I guess I understand, but I don’t know how long it will take them to get used to the idea of you being around. So in the meantime, do you think we could hang out?” she asked.

  “Sure.” I smiled.

  As she walked away, Dante came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder.

  “I know that was hard for you, I’m sorry. I think you did the right thing,” Dante admitted.

  “I don’t need you to give up your life for me, and I don’t need your sympathy either.” Each word stung. I needed him. I couldn’t dispute that, but if he felt he was giving his life up for me, there was no way this could end well—and it would end.

  “Yeah, you were a little rude to them, too. I don’t know what you want from me, Scarlett,” Dante grumbled.

  “I thought I made it clear that I didn’t want you to give anything up for me. How could you say you gave your life up for me? I didn’t ask you to, and if you feel that way you can leave.”

  “I’m not going to leave you,” he whispered.

  “Well if you really feel the way it sounded like you felt earlier, I’m not worth giving your life up over.” I walked back into the house.

  “Oh come here, let me bandage that up for you,” Elizabeth said as I walked through the door.

  “Thanks,” I smiled. “I hope you don’t think I was being a brat; I just can’t deal with any more right now. I’m so happy I found my mother, and that I hav
e sisters,” I felt the tears coming. “I’ve always wanted a sister, then I find out I have three, but only one is willing to accept me.”

  “They’ll come around. They’re stubborn, but they always do,” Elizabeth assured.

  “How didn’t you know immediately when you saw me? I mean we all look so much alike,” I wondered.

  “I definitely saw the resemblance, so did Lily and Cooper well…” she shuddered, “…I can’t explain that one. But Violet had gone through so much, and you didn’t know, so I needed to wait and see.” Then it hit me. Cooper. That’s why he was so freaked out, but why would he go for someone who looked like his cousins anyway?

  “I guess that’s understandable...” I shrugged.

  “I thought you were dead, just like they did. But when I heard your name and when I saw you, I don’t know what I thought. Some crazy coincidence, not to mention I hadn’t seen Violet in quite some time before tonight, they actually just moved back to the area. I was expecting them to visit soon.”

  “They live in walking distance… I don’t understand. When did they move back?” I asked.

  “A week or so ago I got a call from her that they were coming, but they had a lot going on with moving in and all, and we’ve had quite a bit to deal with here as well,” she explained.

  “I guess you’re right. I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything; I can’t deal with any more surprises.”

  “I know. So Sienna really did this to you?”

  “Yeah, she didn’t mean to cut me, or so she says, but either way she had the broken glass to my throat,” I replied.

  “Well, as far as I remember she was always the trouble maker,” she laughed. “There, all done. Keep an eye on that cut, it could get infected.”

  “Thanks, Elizabeth.”

  “What’s wrong?” She asked. “I can tell this isn’t about Violet or Sienna, so what is it?”

  “Earlier Dante said he gave up his life for me, I guess it hurt a lot more than he meant it to.”

  “Oh come here,” she held her arms out. “That boy loves you; I can see it. You just need to talk to him, and try to hear him out before you say anything.”