Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Scarlett Belle. I have heard that name. She’s a country singer. A really, really good one.
“That’s...wow.”
Erin nods, clapping her hands together. “You better make friends with them, so she can come over. Can you imagine? Eeek.”
I smile and laugh softly. “I’ll do my best.”
I walk out and into the shop part of the bakery. There are a group of girls standing together, staring at all the baked goods in the glass display cabinet. There are five of them, and they’re all so incredibly beautiful it causes me to stop and just stare for a moment. The first one to turn and notice me, is the gorgeous blond with brown eyes.
By the way she’s dressed, I’m guessing she’s Scarlett Belle.
Also, everyone in the shop is staring. A heap of the have their phones out.
“Hi!”
I stop and smile, feeling the nerves tickle at my belly.
The girls all walk over. Smiling. Friendly.
“Wow, you must be Ellie,” Scarlett says, extending a hand. “You’re so beautiful. I’m Scarlett.”
“I know,” I smile. “Erin is having a fit in the back room.”
Scarlett laughs.
“Hi,” a gorgeous, dark haired woman says. She’s incredibly beautiful. Breathtakingly so. “I’m Amalie.”
“I’m Saskia, and this is Chantelle,” A pretty, bubbly woman and her equally bubbly friend say, smiling big at me.
I wave, a little shy.
Then I glance at the last one, a beautiful red head, who is staring at me in a way I can’t quite explain. I meet her eyes, and jerk backwards, just a little. Flashes of something dance across my mind. I’ve seen her before, only I can’t pinpoint where. Or why. Or who she is. I blink a few times, and study her. She’s familiar, achingly so.
“Ellie,” she whispers, her voice low but gentle. “Hey. I’m Charlie.”
Charlie.
Charlie.
Why does that seem so...familiar.
“My...father was Shanks.”
Shanks.
I flinch at the name. Because Shanks is a name I’ve heard before. And I know, from overhearing conversations, that he had something to do with me being sold. Maybe he helped with it, maybe he was the one who sold me. I’m not sure. I just know he is part of it.
And this woman standing in front of him, is his daughter.
Did she help him?
Did she...
My eyes twitch as a memory flashes across my mind. Hazy, but a memory all the same. I recall her face. Younger. Brief. But definitely her.
The memory is such a haze, it is one of the only ones I have brief flashes of. Everything else after is a cluster of nightmares that I can’t tell if they’re real, or fake. And everything before is...basically non-existent. Anything I do remember, like flashes from foster homes, and a few other scattered memories, are all so hazy I don’t see them clearly. Which is frustrating, because it’s like my own mind isn’t letting me in.
“You...you saw me,” I say, blinking, trying to get the memory to become clear, but it isn’t. Hell, I don’t even know where I was, all I know is someone had me, and this girl, this girl standing in front of me...she saw me. I don’t know when. I don’t know how. I don’t know how long I had been gone. I just remember her face. I don’t even know what I said to her.
But, she saw me.
And she left me there.
My mind starts spinning, and I grip the sides of my head, trying to fight it all back. I’m confused, all these memories, all these things are just spinning around in my head like a jumbled mess. I’m trying to piece them all together, I’m trying to sort fact from fiction, and all it does is make me so incredibly frustrated that I let out an exhausted whine.
I hate that I can’t get my own mind to co-operate.
“Hey,” Erin’s voice penetrates through and she places a hand on my shoulder, squeezing. “Hey, are you okay?”
I take a deep, staggering breath, clenching my eyes shut, and then I open them and stare at Charlie again. “You left me there.”
Charlie’s face shows all the remorse she feels, her eyes are so sad it almost makes me not angry at her. Almost.
But she saw me. She saw me and she didn’t help me.
Maybe she couldn’t, and I’m being unfair.
But... she saw me.
“I’m so sorry, Ellie,” Charlie says, her voice wavering. “I can’t give you a good enough explanation, but I can tell you, that I did try. When I saw you, I did try and get help. But by the time I did, you were gone. You were gone and I didn’t know anything more. I even tried to get help from a police officer, but we couldn’t find answers.”
I swallow.
It’s not her fault.
I’m being unfair. What was she supposed to do?
“It’s okay,” I whisper, staring at her. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I should have taken you with me, then and there.”
Maybe.
Maybe.
God, this is too much.