“Piper, wait.”Owen panted as he caught up to me, shoving past tree limbs as he went.He caught my arm, pulled me to a halt.“Let me drive you.”
“No.”I shoved him away.“I don’t want you to drive me anywhere.”
“Then how are you going to get back?”
“I’ll walk!”
“Piper—”
I put my hands on either side of my head and squeezed my temples.“Owen, please.I don’t want to be with you or anyone right now.”I needed to be alone long enough to turn grief into anger and anger into questions.
“I’m trying to help you.”
“I don’t want it!Not right now.Take Voss to the bed and breakfast.”
His face fell, creasing with pain I had intended to give him.“What about Tani?”
“She has wings.She can fly.Or use fairy dust.Or whatever it is she does.”
Before Owen could reply, I broke into a run.I reached the road and started down the blacktop—heading straight for my parents’ house.
The walk burned.
Heat and sweat and fury tangled together until my skin felt too tight, my lungs too full.Every step closer to the house made the truth press harder against my ribs, demanding space it didn’t have.
When I reached the porch, I didn’t hesitate.
The door flew open under my kick, slamming into the wall with a crack that echoed through the house.
“Piper!Dear Lord, you scared me half to death.”My mother quickly recovered from her fear and then it turned to outrage.“What is the matter with you?Coming in here like that.You ought to be ashamed.”
“Ought I, Mother?”I sneered.“Maybe you’re the one who should be ashamed.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”She resumed her position on the sofa and picked up her knitting.Ignoring me.As if I didn’t even exist.
“Alice was my birth mother, wasn’t she?”I blurted.
Her needles halted their clickety-click, and she looked up at me, meeting my gaze.My mother’s face was stricken with shock.“Who told you that?”
“So it’s true?”
“I don’t know who’s been filling your head with these notions,” Gladys said stiffly, reaching for denial like a lifeline.
“Answer the question!”
The words hit the room like a slap.For a long moment, no one spoke.Then Gladys stood, abandoned her knitting where it lay.
“I will not have you talking to me like that in my house.”
“Your house.Right.Because you’re the only person who matters.”
“You are out of line, young lady.”
“Am I?Why don’t you tell me the truth, Mother.I’m not yours.I never was.The only thing I can’t make sense of is why.Why would Alice give me to you to raise?”
She stared at me.Her face devoid of all emotion.Even hate.She said nothing when she stalked out of the room and up the stairs.
“You coward,” I shouted.
