AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course you did,” I say, attempting to inject humor with a chuckle, but the knot constricting my throat prevents it.Trying to bring back the memories from that day is almost impossible.There’s this continuous dream I have with Beacon and Grace in it, and the guys are rescuing us.But is it just a dream?
“Beacon.I remember him covering me with a blanket, murmuring, ‘Hang in there, tiny dancer.We’ve got you,’” I recall, squeezing the bridge of my nose as I struggle to remember those moments.“Grace was with Grey.She wouldn’t leave his side.It was real, wasn’t it?”
Sanford’s nod confirms my theory.“What else do you remember?”
My mind comes up blank from the moment they hustled me into the ambulance until three or four days later when I regained consciousness in the hospital.
An FBI agent filled me in on the kidnapping, my sister’s assistance in the case, and our placement into WITSEC.Because of my injuries, I had to stay in the hospital for a long period.Suddenly, I was Evelyn, and they expected me to fully cooperate.
“Enya visited me often, but we didn’t speak much.There was always a guard in my room,” I say, trying to remember if there’s anything important that might’ve happened.
A dismissive shrug accompanies my next words.“Enya and I fought a lot.I kicked her out.She would threaten to give your name and Grey’s to hired assassins if I didn’t shut up.Sometimes, she threatened to kill me.”
A smirk flits across San’s face.“I wish she had tried.I would’ve been able to find her and kill her with my own hands.”
“Sanford, you need to let go of the past.”
He dismisses me with a wave of his hand.“Please, continue.Let’s not get into this right now.”
“Well, once, when I asked one of our handlers about Grey, they instantly shot me down.They forbade me from mentioning his name or talking about anyone outside my immediate family.”
Sanford’s brows knit together, a shadow of perplexity darkening his features.“That’s a strange demand, but then again, I’ve never been part of the program so I wouldn’t know if it’s a standard protocol.”
“I was in the hospital for almost a year—”
“It said three months in the book,” he interrupts abruptly.
I scoff at his statement.“There’s some fiction there, San.I tweaked the timelines.The reality was different.The doctors wouldn’t let me leave the hospital until I was able to not only walk, but be strong enough to run, defend myself, and ...”
Sanford’s eyes narrow sharply, his gaze piercing.
“What?”I ask, taken aback by his intense scrutiny.
“Nothing, please proceed.I read about the deals some of these people signed—including your father.Did that push you out of the program?”
“Yep.We were living in a small town between the border of Arizona and California,” I mumble.“Enya was always tucked in some corner, looking pale and lost.Dad and I didn’t speak.I divided my time between working at a bakery during the day and tending the bar at night.”
A particular day comes to mind, when one of the FBI agents came to question my father and Enya.
“She doesn’t know anything.”My father had pointed at me dismissively.“You don’t need to continue protecting her.”
“So your father is the one who got you kicked out of the program?”Sanford’s voice seizes up with barely concealed fury.
“Yep,” I respond with a bitter snort.“Enya began to yell at him.She wanted everyone in jail.If he signed a deal like the rest, she had nothing.Absolutely nothing.”
I recall the moment when Bill Hill handed over the keys to my current apartment.He suggested that I could return to New York and reestablish my life as Aerin Cooperson-Bancroft but sternly warned against contacting anyone from my past.
“I brought her with me.Enya,” I confess, my voice barely audible.
My sister was so broken that I couldn’t leave her in Arizona.She would have ended up homeless within a week, and that was a guilt I couldn’t live with.So, I returned to NYU to finish the other degree I had started while at Juilliard.
Once I was done, I pursued a Ph.D.Enya, on the other hand, chose to live in silence.Despite my repeated attempts to get her help, she refused.But she was always scribbling away in her diary.
The few times we spoke, was when she asked me about my guys.She couldn’t understand how I could be in love with Greyson and Sanford at the same time—or how they could be in love with each other.
I told her how we’d met and how they’d taken care of me.How we slowly fell in love with each other and molded into one soul that occupied three different bodies.There’s no explanation other than love isn’t something you plan, but something you feel.
We just knew we belonged to each other.And even with all the years apart, my heart still remembers them.But I had to keep them safe from Enya’s mess.
