Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Merri’s story continues: I felt a cold sweat in the small of my back as I walked onto Mrs. Smithfield’s wide-planked front porch. But that was nothing compared to what shocked me after Mrs. Smithfield opened the door. Read More
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Merri speaks: Paradora Smithfield had lived in her sprawling oceanfront home for as long as I could remember. People said she had been married once and had a daughter, but I Read More
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Merri tells her story I never intended to raise my darling Palmer in this place. I knew she would either stand out as awkwardly as I did, or mold herself into one of them, the Read More
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 I had to put the letter down and stare at the ceiling just to absorb this new development. Sterling had been in contact with his mother! I was stunned. We had only talked about his mother once, Read More
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 I sat completely still for a very long minute. I knew Hawk was walking Manning into the house, and that within seconds this boy of my nightmares would be within my sight. I understood that Hawk and Merri Read More
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 My parents wouldn’t let me leave the house that first day, and truthfully I felt exhausted. I spent most of the morning back in bed, snuggled up with Cleo. Merri’s mother called to check on me, and later a bouquet of Read More
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 The earth stopped spinning for a second, and when it again moved, everything was different. “Where is he?” I asked, because I couldn’t wrap my head around the moment. I felt like a firebush plant, as though most of my body had blended Read More
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Water Oak Park wasn’t far from Sterling’s house, maybe a 1/2 mile, and it wasn’t very big. Merri took me there when I was a kid to play hide and seek behind the trees, and to be in a place where we could see the Read More
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 When we stepped onto Mrs. Smithfield’s porch, the kitten was sitting in her lap. But it bolted inside as soon as it saw us, and Mrs. Smithfield insisted we follow. I took a last glance at my dog before I walked over that threshold; Cleo sat there Read More
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 I didn’t want to go to school the next day, but I went anyway because Hawk said I had no reason to feel ashamed. But I wasn’t the only one there with a black eye. Manning Vanderwart sported a shiner that rivaled mine for size and color. “I told Read More
Recent Comments