Scarlet Awakening (Sweet Secrets #2) (4 page)

Chapter 6

The next day Ella came barging into my room with a heavy frown on her face. She stepped in and out of the piles of clothes that still littered my bedroom floor until she was standing near the foot of my bed.

I turned my attention away from my sketchbook. I had the urge to draw something, but I didn’t know what, so instead I had gotten lost in looking at my old sketches. “What’s up?”

She didn’t hesitate to tell me what was on her mind. “I can’t stop thinking about mystery man.” She groaned, then with a pout, she climbed up onto my bed and sat with her feet tucked under her.

“Well, I can’t offer you any answers, so I don’t see why you came to me.”

She squinted her eyes at me. “Well, aren’t you snarky?”

I sighed, sat up straighter, and closed my sketchbook, placing it down on the bed beside me. “Sorry, I’m just tired. It’s been a long few days full of restless sleep. Finding the picture, seeing Carter; I’m just emotionally exhausted.” I swept a strand of hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear.

“I know,” Ella murmured, meeting my eyes. “You don’t think I understand? I just want to find out who this guy in the picture is and see if he leads us to the twins.”

“What if he doesn’t?” I wondered aloud, playing devil’s advocate. I just didn’t know how we would find out who he was without asking the specific people who were trying to keep us in the dark about the adoption.

She scoffed, shaking her head. “He will. We just need a name.”

Shifting positions so I was sitting crisscross applesauce, I placed a hand under my chin and leaned forward until my elbow pressed against the fluffy comforter that covered my bed. “Well one thing’s for sure, Grandma and Grandpa are not going to tell us what they know.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s how I know that this guy is our ticket to finding them. Did you see Grandpa’s face? He looked like he’d seen a ghost.” She flicked her hair back over her shoulder and pursed her lips; a sure sign that she was thinking about something.

I sat quietly, waiting for her to finish her train of thought.

After a few more moments of silence, she spoke. “Okay, so if they won’t tell us, and we can’t ask Mom or Dad, then what other choices do we have? I was thinking that maybe we could scan the picture into the computer and see if we could use a reverse image search engine to find a match, but there probably wouldn’t be any matches.”

“Why wouldn’t there be?” I asked. It sounded like a good idea to me, so I didn’t see the problem.

Ella shrugged her shoulders, and said, “Because the picture was taken with a disposable camera, and the only way we’d have a match is if there was a copy, and the person with that copy scanned their image onto the computer and posted it onto a public website. It’s kind of a stretch, but we can try it.”

“Maybe we can come up with something better,” I suggested. We could return to that idea if nothing else we came up with worked. I yawned loudly, covering my mouth as I did so.

Ella smirked at me, her eyes twinkling. “Tired?”

I raised an eyebrow. Had she forgotten that I had just said that I was emotionally drained? “Exhausted.”

“Well, you can sleep after we’ve found our long lost blood brothers.”

“Or sisters, or sister and brother,” I corrected.

She rolled her eyes. “I have a feeling that they’re boys.”

“I do too,” I agreed. “They’ll probably both be girls since we think that they’re boys.” I laughed, and Ella joined in lightly. “So, have any more ideas?”

“Let me think.” She rolled her bottom lip into her mouth and squinted her eyes. She was quiet for a bit as we both thought of ways we could match a name to the guy in the picture.

My thoughts were focused on my grandparents and how we could figure out a way to get them to crack and spill the beans. I was sure they wouldn’t be able to keep a secret long if we separated them and tried to wear them down. Grandma would probably be the easier target of the two. She was notorious for speaking her mind and wasn’t the best with secrets. When my mom was pregnant with Ella, my parents had wanted to wait to tell me together about the fact that I had a little brother or sister coming into the world, but Grandma had ruined the surprise.

I remember the day perfectly. We were having a family dinner here, and Grandma asked me if I was excited about the new baby. She hadn’t realized that my parents were planning to tell me after dessert.

“Wait!” Ella brought me out of my thoughts instantly. “What if we find out from Mom without actually asking her?”

Okay, now I was confused. How were we supposed to do that? “How is that even possible?”

“Well, do you remember how Mom used to keep a journal? Her therapist made her write in it every day. Apparently it helped with her depression.”

I shrugged, not understanding. “And?”

“We could try to find her journal and see if she wrote down the name of the man in the picture. She had to have written about him at some point. She gave her children to him, after all. That’s the depressing stuff she was supposed to write in the journal since she couldn’t always talk about it.” Ella smiled brightly, obviously pleased with herself.

I squinted at her. “So, let me get this straight, you want us to sneak into Mom’s room, find her journal, and then, since we didn’t invade her privacy enough already, you want us to read it?”

Her smile faltered. “Well, when you put it that way it sounds kind of bad.”

“It is bad!”

Now her smile was gone. “No, you want to know what’s bad? Knowing you have two little siblings in the world and never being able to meet them, or even have them know that you exist. That’s bad.”

I sighed.

“So, unless you have any other ideas, is this our plan or not?” She crossed her thin arms over her chest, waiting for my response.

I sighed again; this time it was deep. “Fine,” I began, but was interrupted instantly by Ella’s excited clapping and bouncing on the bed. “On one condition.”

“What is it?”

“We have to find a way to get Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa out of the house first. I don’t want to take any chances with getting caught.”

Ella smiled brightly. “Deal.”

Chapter 7

The sunlight shone through the open blinds and lit up my grandmother’s features. Her hair sparkled in the afternoon light, making it seem pearlescent.

“Come on, Grandma,” I begged, making direct eye contact. I remembered reading somewhere that one of the keys to getting someone to do what you wanted was to make direct eye contact. Hopefully it worked.

Grandma raised a graying eyebrow. “I have things to get done around the house, Lena. I can’t just drop all of my responsibilities and go to the
spa
.” The way she said ‘spa’ was as if she thought it was the most absurd place that she could go to. Like only people with buckets of time to waste went there.

“But that’s what Mom needs, a little mother-daughter spa time.” I waved Grandpa’s credit card in the air tantalizingly.

In order for this plan to work, we needed to get her and my mom out of the house. Grandpa was easy to convince. Yesterday I told him that a spa day might help Mom relieve stress and would be good for her, and he handed his card over without any other questions. Ella and I didn’t even have to come up with a way to get rid of him for the day, because we knew he would be out of the house already. All day yesterday he had been going on about how he was going to hit the golf course today with some friends to play a few rounds. He was more excited about his golf trip than he was when Ella and I first arrived. He left the house an hour ago with a smile bigger than the moon glued to his face. If only Grandma was that easy to get rid of.

She still didn’t look convinced.

Sighing, I added, “If you take Mom out for a spa day, then Ella and I will help you with anything you need done around the house later on. That way you can have a few hours to relax. You both deserve some relaxation time.”

Grandma puckered her lips and squinted her blue eyes. “Well, I did used to enjoy going to the spa, and it has been a while.” She pursed her lips. “Why are you trying to get us out of the house is the real question.” Her eyes squinted even more, and she focused them on me, as if she was trying to read my mind or something. “Are you trying to sneak a boy in here?”

I scoffed instantly at her assumption. “Yeah, right. Trust me, that is the last thing I’m trying to do.” If my run-in at the grocery store two days ago was any predictor of my love life this summer, then I would be doing more sneaking
away
from boys than sneaking around with them.

She continued to squint at me from behind her thick glasses. After searching my face a moment longer, she finally gave in. “Okay, all right, I’ll bite. Your mom could use some fresh air, and a few hours at the spa wouldn’t kill me. I’ll go tell her that I have a surprise for her.”

My smile grew larger. She noticed, but didn’t say anything about it. Instead, she pulled the credit card from my hand and went to exit the living room.

“Oh,” I called out behind her, gaining her attention. “Grandpa said not to go overboard with the spending. I guess he knows that spas are pretty expensive.”

Grandma waved her hand and rolled her eyes. “Men. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them,” she said before she exited the room.

Moments later I heard her going up the stairs. Ella had made appointments for them for two o’clock, so they had two hours to get ready, leave, and get there on time.

I plopped down onto the sofa nearest me and curled my legs up under my body. I had nothing else to do except sit here and wait for them to leave. That was when our plan was going to be set into motion. I smiled to myself, realizing that it hadn’t taken long for us to act on our idea considering it had only been two days ago that Ella had come up with it. I’d figured that it would be much harder to get everyone out of the house since Mom hardly ever left her room, and Grandma rarely went anywhere. I was just grateful that we didn’t have to wait as long as I thought we would.

The sound of footsteps descending the stairs caught my attention. It couldn’t be Mom and Grandma so soon. There was no way they were ready to leave already. Unless it was Grandma coming back down to tell me that Mom didn’t want to go. I silently prayed that wasn’t the case.

I was right—Ella came walking around the corner. My eyes widened. She was wearing a cute black romper that stopped mid-thigh and showed off her long, lean legs. A gold necklace adorned her neck. Finally, there were her black heels that made her a good four inches taller. She looked like she was ready to head out to a party. Her hair was even styled nicely into thick ringlets that framed her made-up face.

“You like?” she questioned, holding her arms out from her sides and doing a little spin.

I nodded. “Wow, don’t you clean up nicely?” I felt underdressed in comparison in a pair of jean shorts and a tank top.

“Thanks,” she replied, coming to join me on the couch.

“Why are you dressed up though?”

She shrugged, and began twirling a lock of hair around her finger. “For fun mainly. I brought a lot of cute outfits that I haven’t even had a chance to wear yet. We’ve spent our first few days in the house.”

“You’re right. After we figure out who this guy is, we’ll hit the mall or the beach or something. Maybe we can go to Neece’s Place and grab some burgers and shakes.” My stomach growled at the mention of food, despite the fact that I had just finished eating a lunch of leftover lasagna not even thirty minutes ago. I wasn’t hungry—just the mention of the burgers I used to love caused the reaction.

She nodded, her curls bouncing. “Okay, that sounds fun.”

“Yeah, it does.” I was actually excited at the idea of going out. I just hoped I didn’t run into anyone and managed to keep a low profile. “Hopefully this plan works. If it doesn’t, and we have to go back to the drawing board, I don’t know what we’ll do.” Our only other option right now was to scan the picture and do a reverse image search.

Ella leaned farther back into the couch and grasped her hands together tightly. “Oh, it’ll work.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I know Mom. She definitely wrote this guy’s name down at some point.”

“I hope so.”

We sat in silence for what felt like an hour. Finally we heard footsteps on the stairs. Grandma emerged first, dressed comfortably in a sundress, and Mom followed behind her. She was also dressed in a sundress, but despite the brightness of her clothing, there was still darkness in her eyes. She smiled when she saw us.

“Hey girls, we’re going to head out for a few hours for a mother-daughter spa day. If you need us, just give us a call on one of our cells.” She adjusted her purse on her arm before saying, “See you in a bit.”

“Have fun,” Ella and I said simultaneously.

They thanked us, then waved and headed for the door. Mom exited first, and as Grandma pulled the door shut behind her, she poked her head in and said, “No boys allowed.” Then she winked and shut the door.

We waited until we heard the car backing out of the driveway before we both made a mad-dash off the couch, up the stairs, and down the hall toward our mom’s room. Even in heels, Ella moved just as quickly as I did. We came to a stop at the door, both glancing at each other, silently asking who was going to open the door.

“It was your idea,” I said, earning a groan from Ella.

She reached out to twist the knob and push the door open. The room was neat. Bright sunlight streamed through the windows.

Ella took the first step inside and I followed.

“Where do you think she would put it?” she questioned.

I shrugged, walking toward the bed. “Under a pillow? Or is that too simple?”

Ella shook her head. “Check. I’m sure she didn’t hide it expecting people to try and find it. She probably hid it in a simple place.”

With a sigh, I slid my hands under her pillows, feeling for the journal. When I found nothing, I checked the inside of each pillowcase to see if it was hidden there. While I searched the bed, Ella went to her dresser to pull out each drawer and go through it.

“Find anything?” Ella asked.

“Nope,” I answered simply, popping the ‘p.’

“Me neither,” she mumbled back. Then with a groan she added, “Goodness, Mom sure does have a lot of thongs.”

I laughed at that. “More than you?”

“Hell yeah. She has a drawer full.”

I shook my head, still laughing lightly as I put a throw pillow back into place. “Good for her! She’s single now, and she’s lost weight. She deserves to feel sexy, if you ask me.”

Ella gagged. For a girl who was nearly seventeen, she was still very immature. “I guess,” she muttered, closing the drawer.

I ignored her words and bent down to check under the mattress. I lifted it lightly, and did my best not to mess up the neat way that the sheets were tucked in as I did so. As I swiped my hand under the mattress, my fingers brushed along the edge of a book.

“I found it!” I screeched, happy that no one was here to hear my cry but Ella. It truly was a good thing that we got rid of everyone for a few hours.

Ella was beside me in a heartbeat. “Open it,” she demanded.

“No,” I responded to her order, handing it to her. “Your idea,” I reminded.

She huffed, but still grabbed the book and flipped it open to the beginning. My mom’s neat handwriting covered each page from top to bottom. It looked like she wrote in it every day. The entries began in late August, not long after the twins’ birth—around the time that she had started seeing a therapist.

My eyes scanned over the first entry, which was about how her doctor had given her this journal and told her to write her feelings down each day. She thought the idea was stupid at first, and she didn’t understand how this would help.

Ella flipped to the second page. The entry began with the words:

I guess I will give this “keeping a journal” idea a chance.

Then it continued by talking about her day, and small decisions that she had to make. It wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, so we flipped past it. Ella held the book open and I was leaning in close, scanning the page. We stood like that for a while, just paging through the journal. The first entries were basically her just getting use to writing in the journal daily. It wasn’t until about a month or so of using the book that she started putting in real thoughts and feelings.

Finally, after what felt like a half an hour of looking, the entries began to mention the twins. Specifically she started to write about her feelings toward having to give them away. She thought her depression stemmed from their adoption, and that she couldn’t live without knowing all of her children. That was definitely something I could relate to. No, I had never had to give up my children, but I had experienced the feelings that came with not knowing your siblings.

My mom would never be a part of the twins’ lives, just like I would never be. Her youngest children may never know her name, or what she looks like, or even who she is as a person. All of her accomplishments wouldn’t matter. They might even grow up resenting her for giving them up for adoption, but in her case, at least they’ll know she exists, or existed at some point. In my and Ella’s case, who is to say that they would ever know that they have sisters? A mother is a fact because everyone who is brought onto this Earth has had one, whether they knew her or not. Siblings are different. Siblings are out of sight, out of mind. They are not guaranteed.

Near the bottom of the page were the words:

I hope that John takes good care of them. Taylor and Cameron will forever be in my heart and mind, but giving them up was probably the best for them. At least, I hope it was.

“Taylor and Cameron,” I said, the names feeling unfamiliar and odd as they rolled off my tongue. I had gone nearly a year without knowing the names of the twins, and now that I knew their names, it felt strange.

Ella met my gaze, and said, “Is it just me, or are those names both unisex?”

I nodded, an annoyed feeling overcoming me at the realization.

“Well, at least we know their names now. That must mean that John is the guy from the picture.”

I opened my mouth to respond, just as the sound of the front door opening met our ears.

Ella sprang into action. She closed the book and put it back in place, and we hurriedly exited the room, just as the sound of our grandfather’s voice called out that he was home.

As Ella and I headed to greet our grandfather, Ella whispered back to me, “At least we found what we were looking for.”

I couldn’t agree more.