Bound by Spells (Bound Series Book 2) (38 page)

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FAMILY SECRETS

book one in the Secret Societies Collection

by Kat Nichols

Chapter One

Mrs. Grey was sitting alone at the table, holding a piece of paper in her hand, with what looked like an alcoholic drink in front of her. She didn’t drink often, so seeing that glass of amber colored liquid made my stomach drop to my toes. She gestured to the chair across from her, and as I went into the kitchen and slid into the hard-backed chair, my pulse spiked. “Did you know that your father has family in Illinois?”

I shook my head; that wasn’t possible. My parents would have told me if I had other relatives. God knows I asked often enough growing up. My mom was killed in a car accident a year ago, and my dad died when I was eight, so I was all alone until the Greys took me in. If I had family, wouldn’t they have shown up before now? I started twirling the tips of my long wavy hair in my fingers, a nervous habit I’d had since I was a little girl. My stomach began to churn, and I gripped the table in front of me with my other hand, my head spinning.

“I received a letter from your grandmother. Isn’t that wonderful?” She took a gulp of her drink and pursed her lips as she swallowed it down, refusing to look me in the eyes. I just stared at her. “And,” she continued when I didn’t respond, “they want you to come live with them.” She picked up the letter and her voice shook slightly as she read, “‘to be raised with the family you deserve to know and who you have been kept from for all these years’.”

I pushed back from the table, the chair scraping loudly on the linoleum floor and paced away from her, hands shaking. “You don’t expect me to go, do you? Where the hell have they been the last year or all the time before that? My dad died over nine years ago, and they decide to show up now?” I yelled. How could this be happening? I was finally getting settled with the Greys, learning how to be happy again and finding my place in this new world without parents. How dare these people come along now and ruin it for me.

I continued to pace the small room, my shaking hands pressed to my stomach. My breathing accelerated until I was almost gasping for air as Abby came crashing down the stairs. She slid to a stop in the kitchen doorway, a look of apprehension on her face. “Um…what’s going on?”

I couldn’t talk yet, couldn’t put a voice to all of the thoughts racing through my head, so I nodded at Mrs. Grey who gave her the news. When she found out her mom was sending me away, she did all of the things I wanted to do, including begging that I be allowed to stay. She cried, she yelled, she offered to get a job, and, when those didn’t work, she threatened to leave with me. That was the final straw for her mom.

Mrs. Grey held up her hands. “Sit down, both of you,” she ordered. We sat and Abby grasped my hand, squeezing it tightly, for reassurance or in solidarity, I didn’t know. Blood was rushing through my veins and thrumming in my ears, making it hard to hear her when she spoke. “Girls, you know I love having Sophia here, but this is family we’re talking about.” She looked right at me. “I think you need to get to know them. Now that your parents are gone, they’re the only family you have left.” Abby’s grip on my hand grew tighter as her mom spoke, and my fingers went numb. “Don’t you shake your head at me, Abigail Grey. I really think this is the right thing to do. I don’t feel I can keep Sophia from her grandmother. Sophia, you’ll have your cell phone. We’ll keep paying for it so that you can call or text us anytime; and if it doesn’t work out, we can revisit it then.” She turned back to Abby, who had her mouth open, ready to argue. “This is my final answer.”

“So that’s it?” Abby asked. “You’re just going to ship her off? End of discussion? This is the most ridiculous conversation ever. I can’t even talk to you right now.” She stormed out of the room, her feet stomping each stair on the way up. Moments later, our bedroom door slammed shut.

I shook out my hand under the table as the feeling came back to my fingers. Mrs. Grey said, “I’m not sure what happened between your parents and your dad’s family all those years ago, but I don’t want to keep you from them any longer.” I tried to speak, but she just continued. “I know you’re upset and I’m sorry. I just feel like this is something your mom would’ve wanted me to do.” Her blue eyes filled as she reached across the table to pat my other hand. Then her voice cracked. “I miss her too. Every day. And having you here has made that so much easier, but I have to follow my heart and my heart says you deserve a chance to know your family.” Patting my hand once more, she stood up and walked out of the room, taking the paper and the drink with her.

****

After that night we didn’t discuss the move, which was fine with me. I wanted to put the whole thing in the back of my mind, and I had, pretty successfully I might add, until Mrs. Grey showed up with boxes. Big, ugly, brown boxes to pack up everything I ever owned and ship it to a place I never planned to go. I wanted to fight. I wanted to kick and scream until I was too hoarse to be heard. I wanted to demand that I stay in California, but how could I? My vision blurred before tears began to fall down my cheeks. I didn’t even try to stop them as they rolled off my chin and spilled onto the box I had just filled. Pushing it away, I stood up, dusted my hands off on my jeans, and crawled into bed, letting the tears flow.

The door opened and closed, then the bed dipped as someone sat down. “We can still figure this out,” Abby said, rubbing my back.

“There’s nothing we can do,” I said, my voice muffled by the pillow I clutched to my chest. “It’s time to give up.”

“Greys never give up,” she replied, pulling me away from the pillow.

“Abby, it’s over,” I said, blowing out a deep breath. “I’m going to Illinois in two weeks and I’m not fighting your mom anymore.” Two days after her big announcement, I’d overheard Mrs. Grey on the phone negotiating for more time to pay her bills. Things had been tight ever since Abby’s dad had disappeared a few years ago and I was a drain on her resources. With me gone, maybe things wouldn’t be so bad for them.

“Sophie, I don’t want you to go.” Abby grabbed me in a hug, squeezing me tightly.

“I don’t want to go either, but I have no choice.”

“Yes, you do. Fight back, Sophie. Stand up for yourself for once.” Her voice was sharp and she pulled out of the hug, looking directly at me. “Don’t let people walk all over you.”

“Abby,” I snapped, warning clear in my voice, before I heaved a sigh. I didn’t want to fight with her, not now, not when we only had two weeks left. “I can’t. I just— I can’t.” She let me go with a sigh of her own before moving to her bed.

“Do you want to leave?” she asked in a tiny voice while staring at the ceiling.

“No, Abby. I already said no, but maybe it will be better if I’m gone.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Abby, come on. You know it’s hard on your mom, having me here.”

“I’m not speaking to that woman right now, so I really don’t know what you’re talking about.” She sniffed.

No matter how I felt being shipped off like a package no one wanted, I didn’t want to be the reason they were fighting. “She’s doing what she thinks is best for me. If I thought she had anything but my best interests at heart, I would fight - but I don’t.”

Abby sighed. “You’re such a girl scout. I’m leaving before I get mad at you too.” She pushed off the bed and stood next to me. “Standing up for yourself doesn’t make you a bad person, you know,” she said before she strode from the room. We’d had this fight before. I knew she was right, but I hated to rock the boat. I curled back into a ball, wrapping my arms around the pillow, and cried myself to sleep.

Over the next few days, I spoke with my grandmother a few times on the phone. Although the conversations were stilted and a little uncomfortable, she did mention some of the other family I would meet when I got to Illinois. Apparently, I had a second cousin my age who couldn’t wait to meet me. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all, or at least that’s what I told myself as I cried silently into my pillow each night.

****

I managed to get Abby and her mom together on Christmas morning, and we opened presents on the back porch in honor of my last warm winter. It was twelve degrees in Chicago, and I shivered just thinking about it. I was going to miss San Diego, the sunny days, the cooler nights, the smell of the ocean — all salt and seaweed. I’d miss the cute boutiques, even if I couldn’t afford to shop in most of them. But most of all, I’d miss Abby. My other friends were more Abby’s friends than my own, so it was really only leaving Abby that left a hole in my heart. I knew I had to be strong. I’d been through worse things than this, but then I’d always had Abby at my back. This time I would be on my own. Thank goodness Abby was only a phone call or text away. Besides, there was less than five months until my eighteenth birthday, and then I could do whatever I wanted, including moving back here.

On the last night before I left, Abby and I put on our comfiest pajamas and ate a dinner of raw cookie dough before ending up in the room we shared for the past year. We sprawled on her twin bed and spent the entire night talking, laughing, and crying.

“You better keep in touch,” she said fiercely, tears welling up in her eyes.

“I will,” I said, my voice thick with emotion. “I pinky promised you like three times already. And stop crying.” I made a face, trying to look stern.

“I know, I know,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I just hate this.”

“I’m gonna miss you too, Abs, and your mom.” Abby grumbled at me and I bumped her with my shoulder before continuing. “You don’t know how much it meant to me when you both took me in after…”

“We’d do it again in a heartbeat,” she replied, throwing her arm around my shoulder. “If things get bad there, your bed will always be here waiting for you.”

“Promise?” I asked, holding up my pinky finger, tears forming for what seemed like the hundredth time.

“Promise,” she laughed through tears, grabbing my pinky in hers.

The next morning, before leaving for the airport, I did one final check of the bedroom. The only personal item left in the room was a framed photo of my parents from before my dad got sick. I ran my finger over the glass, touching first my mom’s face then my dad’s, as if I could feel them living and breathing behind the frame. I looked just like my mom, petite with brown hair and light green eyes. My dad was the exact opposite. Six foot plus, with straight blond hair and bright blue eyes. I’m not sure I got anything from him, looks-wise that is, but my mom had always told me that I had his sense of humor. It was unfair that they died so young. I sighed and tucked the frame into the suitcase, carefully wrapping it inside a shirt to keep it from breaking on the flight. I tossed my carry-on over my shoulder and heaved my one large suitcase down the stairs, thumping each one on the way down.

Mrs. Grey heard the racket and met me at the bottom. “Let me take that out to the car for you.” A quick glance at her face revealed puffy, bloodshot eyes and a bright red nose.

Dropping my carry-on, I grabbed her tight around the waist and buried my face in her shoulder, squeezing as hard as I could. She wrapped her arms around me and sniffled into my hair. My eyes filled again. I was so damn tired of crying.

Abby started down the stairs but stopped halfway. I turned my head to peek at her, and she raced the rest of the way down. She slammed into my back, wrapping her arms around us both, and almost knocking us over in the process. We stood there for a moment in one giant amoeba-like hug until Mrs. Grey pulled back. “We need to get you to the airport, Sophia, so you don’t miss your flight.”

“Or do we?” Abby asked as she looked, hopefully, at her mom.

Mrs. Grey gave a watery laugh. “Yes, we do. Everyone out to the car.”

We walked out the door, and I stopped for a final look at the place I called home for the last year. My eyes filled with tears but I blinked them back, walking towards the car with my head high.

Family Secrets is now available!