Page 8 of Where We Began

She sighs loudly. “What Joseph did isn't your fault. But because of him, you're being yanked from your family. If you need to hate anyone, hate him.”

Her barbs are too precise. I can't hold back, so I stop trying. “I love my dad. I always will. Unlike you, he's a wonderful person.”

“Wonderful?” She tastes the word, running her tongue over her teeth. “He really told you nothing. I knew he was a coward, I didn't know how big of one.”

The way she smiles is plastic, sickly-sweet. Her disgust for my dad is tangible. “You're wrong. You don't even know him.”

“I know him much better than you do.”

Scrunching my eyebrows, I face her fully. “Liar.”

She hunches forward. There's something smoldering in her eyes. It makes them look like pennies held up to the setting sun. “Then ask me. I'll tell you what he did, why this is all happening to you, if you just ask.”

My pulse begins to flutter. I'm holding my breath, poised to accept her answers. Annie's lips are stretched tight over her teeth. She's excited... eager to destroy my image of my father. And I worry that she can do it...that whatever she's going to say is venomous without an antidote.

“No.” Swallowing, trying to get saliva in my dry mouth, I turn away. “I don't want more lies.”

Annie doesn't push the topic. Two hours later we pass over the dark tops of oak trees. Evening has cloaked the world below in shadows. I can make out a long, paved road. Then I see something baffling.

The flat roof rises up ahead. Rows of golden-yellow light shine bright in the windows. There are hundreds of them—maybe thousands, I'm not sure. More than I can count is all I know. “What is that?” I whisper, the hum of the helicopter muting me.

She must have read my lips, because she says, “Bradley Estate. I guess you've never seen a house that big before. Don't worry, you'll get used to it. I've worked hard to make the place what it is today.”

Shock makes my eyes throb. “That's where youlive?”

“No. It's wherewelive.” In the reflection of the glass, Annie's expression is transparently cruel. “Welcome to your new home.”

- Chapter 4 -

Laiken

“Stop it!” I scream, struggling out of the arms of the hefty woman. She's red-faced and sweating, her hand clutching a pair of scissors. “Leave me alone!”

Her partner—who is her opposite in every way—wags a bony finger at me. “Quit acting so childish! You're a mess, we only want to clean you up.”

“You want to chop my hair off! I won't let you!” Panic makes me strong, but it's the hot-need to keep my promise that turns my hands into claws. I'll fight until my heart quits.

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