AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you,” I reply, biting back the words I truly want to say.
Witnessing the man I love murder my dad was hard, of course it was, but shooting the man I love and sending him away, harder still. That loss is something I don’t think I’ll ever get over. Not in this lifetime, anyway.
“Losing a parent is so terribly difficult. Christy knows that better than anyone,” Sandy continues as she guides me towards the wooden studio at the bottom of their very large, neatly kept garden. I can hear instrumental music playing, and my stomach flips with nerves.
“I understand her mother died in a fire when she was eight, and that she’s been living with you both for the last four years, is that right?” I ask as we stop outside the studio, standing slightly back from the French doors that open out to the garden. I can’t see into the space from our position, but right now I’m keen to learn how Christy ended up with Frank and Sandy, and not my dad and I after her mother died.
“That’s right. To everyone outside of this house we are her aunt and uncle, but in truth we’re not blood related.”
“You’re not? I thought you were her mother’s sister?”
Sandy shakes her head. “No, Christy’s mother was my friend.”
“So why didn’t she come to live with us when her mother died?”
Sandy gives me a small smile. “Because your father didn’t want that.”
“He didn’t?”
“No. He wanted to keep her safe,” she says, giving me a knowing smile. “I understand that your father was a man who lived on the other side of the law to the rest of us.”
I nod. “Yes.”
“And you?” she asks, but there’s no judgement in her question. In fact, if I’m not mistaken there’s an edge of sympathy in her tone, like she can see deep inside of me and know that I’m a product of my upbringing.
“I’m my father’s daughter,” I reply with a shrug. “This life is all I know.”
Sandy gives my arm a squeeze before letting it go. “I understand,” she says, and for the first time I see some hesitancy in her expression.
“What?”
She sighs. “You are Christy’s blood relation. You have every right to make a decision about her life and what happens from this moment on, but I will say this, Kate, we love her as if she’s our own flesh and blood. She is a bright star in a world that can be incredibly dark, and she is special in more ways than one. Neither Frank nor I will stop you if you decide that her living with you is best, but before you make that decision there are things you must know about Christy. She isn’t like everyone else—”
“Kate!” a delighted voice screeches, interrupting our conversation and drawing my attention from Sandy to a girl with bright red hair and a deep purple birthmark covering the right side of her face.
“Christy?” I gasp, taken aback by this beautiful girl standing before me.
She nods, and with a huge smile spreading across her face, runs into my open arms like this isn’t the first time we’ve met and we’re not strangers. For a split second, I stiffen, but when she hugs me closer and leans into my embrace, I hug her back just as fiercely, a well of protectiveness expanding in my chest.
It’s sudden and overwhelming, and I know in an instant that I’ll protect this girl with my life.
Sandy smiles at us both, tears pricking her eyes as we hug for long minutes. Christy’s face is buried in the crook of my neck with my cheek pressed against the top of her head. Eventually I let out a small laugh and lean back, cupping her cheeks in my palms so I can get a good look at her, gasping at her eyes. One is a blue so bright it rivals the cloudless spring sky above us while the other is so brown it verges on black.
“Look at you, you’re so pretty!” I exclaim, shaking my head in wonder at the little girl before me. Her colouring is completely different to mine, but I see a likeness in the shape of her eyes and the way her lips tilt upwards when she smiles. Even the small dimple in her left cheek is the same as my own.
“And you’re just as beautiful in real life as you are in my visions,” she replies happily.
“Your visions?” I question with a small laugh, looking from her sweet face to Sandy’s and back again.
“That’s right. Come on big sis, show me that musty old fairy tale book you’ve got in your bag. Those Grimm brothers were kind of messed up, right?” she says, laughing at my shocked expression as she slides her hand in mine and tugs me towards the garden table where Frank is waiting for us with a pot of tea and a plate of biscuits just like he promised.
“How the hell—? I begin, only for the questions to die on my lips when Sandy steps into stride beside us.
“Like I said, Christy isn’t like everyone else.”
* * *
“Doyou have to go back to London this morning?” Christy asks me two days later as we sit and eat breakfast in Frank and Sandy’s kitchen.
