SORROW WOODS (35 page)

I look away. I stare at the boats that float across the sea in the distance. I swivel my head

and try to make out Kaiden’s house. “Why did you take me Mother? Why did you pick the Scotts?

Why did you take their baby?”

She grunts, picks up her knife, and twirls it around on the table. “They didn’t deserve you,

Serena. What’s so fucking special about Angela Scott? Why did she get to have children and I

didn’t?” She huffs and rubs her nose with her hand. “They didn’t deserve you, Serena. Not one little bit.”

I open my mouth but stop when the waitress appears at our table. We both watch as she

places the two plates down in front of us. “Enjoy your meal,” she mumbles.

I wait until she’s walked away before I lean forward and continue. “Why didn’t you think they

deserved me, and why shouldn’t Angela have children? I don’t understand.”

She shrugs at the same time that she stabs her fork through the sausage. “You wouldn’t

understand because you’re just a clueless little girl.”

I blink at her and can’t believe how easy those cruel words spilled out of her mouth. “Why

were you annoyed that Angela had children?”

“It should have been me, Serena. I should have been the one that was picked from the

orphanage, not her and her stupid sister. It should have been me and my sister that were living in that big house on the beach with a family.”

“Orphanage?”

She nods. “My sister and I were left when our hooker Mother overdosed. Stupid bitch. We

were orphaned when we were a few weeks old and grew up in a group home. Angela and Carol were

there too.”

Angela and Carol were abandoned? Why do people have children and then leave them? “I

don’t understand.”

She huffs. “Couples would come into the orphanage who couldn’t have children and pick

little boys and girls that they wanted to adopt. This couple came in and they looked really nice and really wealthy. They sat and played with Helen and I for ages and we really thought that this man and lady would take us away from the home and look after us. We just wanted a Mom and Dad but

Angela got in the way.”

“How?” I breathe.

My Mother shrugs. “She toddled over with her big green eyes and cute blonde hair and that

was that. The couple didn’t want to talk to me or my sister any more. Angela and Carol left the home a few weeks later.”

I shake my head as I try to process everything she’s just said. “So you were jealous that she

got picked and you didn’t?”

“It was so much more than that, Serena. When I found her when we were older, I saw this

life she had and I knew it should have been mine. She was popular and attractive, and her husband was as handsome as they come. I was nothing. A nobody.

She didn’t have you at that point and I decided that I couldn’t live my life on the back of

hatred, so I tried to sort myself out. I’d had a shit life, but I could change that. I got a job and an apartment. I met a man and we married, but we couldn’t have children. We tried for years but the

doctors told me it was my fault, or my body’s anyway.

Our marriage couldn’t survive after that and he left me. I was distraught. I couldn’t eat. I

wanted to die, and that’s when I started to slip into a black hole. I had just been to a disciplinary meeting when I saw Angela in the hospital with you. She was lying there fast asleep while you slept in your crib.” She starts to stir her beans around on her plate and shakes her head. “How could

anyone just fall asleep and completely ignore their baby?”

“Maybe she was tired?” I offer. I imagine all new Mothers are tired after they’ve given birth.

She shakes her head. “They had too much money.”

“So you punished them for being successful and wealthy?” I ask incredulously.

“I didn’t think they’d miss you,” she responds.

“Why not?”

“I just didn’t. They could always have another one. Clearly there was nothing wrong with her

womb or ovaries, was there?” she asks.

I can feel my face wrinkling up. Did she not ever stop to think about how much it would hurt

Angela and Auden? A thought suddenly occurs to me and I ask, “What were you doing in the hospital when I was born?”

“What?”

“You said just now that you were in the hospital when I was born. Why were you there, and

how come you didn’t take me until I was two?”

She chews the sausage and eggs that are in her mouth around and around. It feels like

forever before she finally leans back and wipes her mouth with a napkin. “I worked in the hospital. I used to clean the wards after those women had been in labour for hours. I didn’t take you until you were two because I had to get everything ready for us in the woods.”

“So you planned it?” I ask, feeling sick to my stomach.

She nods and smiles as if she’s proud of it. “It took a long time but I finally got you.”

All the things that my real parents have told me swirl around in my head. I hate the way my

mother is sitting there looking smug. “They never had any more children,” I tell her.

“Didn’t they?” she asks, sounding bored.

“That was your fault,” I say, my voice betraying my shock. “They said they couldn’t have any

more children because they missed me too much. The way they were feeling and how they dealt

with those feelings was all because of something that you did.”

She shrugs. “It wasn’t my fault they didn’t have any more children. They made that choice

themselves, not me.”

“They were too busy grieving for me!” I shriek. “They couldn’t love another child when their

hearts were filled with the sadness of losing me.”

“I really don’t care about Angela Scott,” she says. “You’re really boring me now, Serena. I’m

not gonna talk about it anymore.”

I huff, feeling hurt and annoyed. I feel sad for Angela. I haven’t really bonded as much with

her as I have with Auden and maybe I should make more of an effort with her.

“What are you gonna do now?” I ask after a few awkward minutes have passed.

She sighs and glances across the beach, looking at nothing in particular. “We’re gonna go

and find some new woods and start our lives again. Together.”

I shake my head. “I’m not, Mother. I told you that last night.” My eyes sweep over the beach

and the turquoise waters that lap gently against the shore. “This is my home now.”

She laughs and leans forward on her elbows. “That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard, Serena.

You’re gonna finish your breakfast and then you’re coming with me.”

How can she say that’s the biggest lie she’s ever heard, when she’s been lying to me every

single day for the last fourteen years? “No.”

She slams her fist down on the table, making me and the cutlery jump. “They’ve

brainwashed you, haven’t they?”

“What? No, of course they haven’t.”

She leans back in her chair and folds her arms across her chest. “That’s bullshit. If they

haven’t messed with your brain, then you’d be coming with your Mother right now, no questions

asked.”

Something has changed. She’s changed. I can feel a tension between us that’s never been

there before.

Why is she swearing and saying things in a nasty voice? That’s not her. That’s not how I

remember my Mother.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I sit and wait for her to say something back to me, but she doesn’t. Instead, she picks up her

knife and fork and finishes the rest of her food without speaking a single word to me.

After the waitress clears our plates away, my Mother stands and nods towards the beach.

“Let’s walk. Just you and me.”

I take a deep breath and follow her over the sands. We walk along the path until we come to

the bushes and palm trees that begin to line the long, winding coastal road. “I’ve got some of your things,” she sighs.

I step over the little stones that line the path and walk across the concrete that’s sweating in

the heat. “You brought my things from the woods?”

She nods. “I thought you might want them if you decided that you didn’t want to come with

me.”

I think about the things I had in the woods and remember that I didn’t actually have much. I

can’t imagine what she’s brought with her. “Okay.”

The sun is so hot today that within minutes of walking, I’m sweating. I think about Kaiden

and wonder if he’s woken up with a hangover like my Mother presumed I had. He was really drunk

last night. I know I’m not an expert at judging the amount of alcohol that people have consumed,

but from what I saw last night, he was wobbling and slurring his words a lot more than the other

people at the party.

“Where did you see Kaiden, anyway?” I ask.

“What?”

“You said you saw Kaiden last night. Where did you see him?” I stop next to her and stare at

her half-covered face.

“Oh, that idiot. I saw him on the beach,” she says dismissively.

“What was he doing on the beach?”

She shrugs. “How should I know? That boy’s a wrong ‘un. He could have been up to anything

for all I know.”

“Why did you talk to him?” I persist.

“Why not?”

“You’re hiding your face. If you’d have spoken to him about me, then he wouldn’t have

known who you were.”

“Don’t question your elders, Serena. It’s rude and annoying.”

“Did you see him before or after you saw me last night?”

“Why does it matter?” she asks impatiently.

I shrug. “I’m just wondering.” I want to know if he’d already spoken to my Mother and told

her that he didn’t want me before he came to my room. If he did, why did he tell her he didn’t like me and then kiss me? If he didn’t, then why was he even on the beach? Why had he left my balcony, and why was he saying he didn’t like me if he’d just kissed me?

“I can’t remember.”

“You can’t remember?” I repeat at her. Something doesn’t feel right. It feels like she’s

nervous. She stopped walking when I first asked her about him and she hasn’t moved a single muscle since.

“No,” she snaps, “I can’t remember, and after what that boy did to me, I don’t especially

want to talk about him. So just shut up, will you?”

I blanch. What has gotten into her? Why is she speaking to me like that?

“I like him,” I admit. “He’s been nice to me.”

She huffs and starts walking again. “He stole you from me, Serena.”

I think about the night the police came to our house and the look on Kaiden’s face. “I don’t

think he thought of it like that.”

“I don’t care what he thought he was doing. He’s the reason we are no longer living

together. He destroyed us.”

“What about Elodie?” I ask.

She frowns at me. “What about her?”

“Are you going to try and get her back too?”

“No.”

“Why not?” I ask, trying to figure out why she thinks that it’s okay for us to just leave Elodie.

“If you think our family should be like it was, then isn’t Elodie a part of that?”

“It’s too difficult to get her back. We will just have to accept that our family has gone from

three to two.”

She’s still talking as if I’m going to go with her. Before I can ask any more questions, she

gently pushes me towards a small parking lot where two empty cars sit. She strides towards a small black car.

“Here,” she says, opening the trunk, “your things.”

I take a deep breath and step up to the car. When I lean down and look into the trunk, I see

nothing. I blink and look back up at her. “There’s nothing in there.”

She clicks her tongue and shakes her head. “Get in.”

My head swivels quickly around to her. “What?”

She nods towards the trunk again. “Get in, Serena.”

I furiously shake my head. “No.” I start to back away from her. “I’m not going with you,

Mother. I already told you that.”

“Serena, get in the car. Now!”

“No.” I’m worried now. Why is she so adamant that I go with her? Why did she make it seem

like it was okay for me to decide to not go with her, and then suddenly change her mind on me like that?

She half-growls and half-moans as she pulls me roughly towards her with my arm. Her finger

nails pinch my skin together, making me tug and pull away from her. “Get off, Mother. What’s wrong with you?”

“You are not doing what you’ve been told. I know it’s not your fault and it’s because they’ve

got into your head, but you’re making my life very complicated right now.”

“Let me go. Please.” I try to pull my arm away from her, but she’s got a really good grip. I

hate the way her voice sounds. I hate that she’s telling me to do something that I don’t want to do.

Should I scream? If I scream, then someone might hear, or it might frighten her enough to let me go.

The woman that’s trying to make me do something that I don’t want to do is not the woman I’ve

grown up with.

“This is your last chance to do as you’re told, Serena.”

My last chance? What does she mean, my last chance? I thought I had a choice. “I’m not

going anywhere with you. This is my home now and I wanna stay here. Why aren’t you listening?”

“Serena,” she warns.

I shake my head. “I don’t wanna go with you.” I snatch my arm away from her. “You’re not

my real Mother.”

She gasps.

“I’m sorry,” I say, “but you’re not.”

She huffs. “I didn’t want to do this, but you’ve left me with no choice.”

I blink up at her, wondering what she’s talking about now. “You didn’t want to do what?”

“This,” she says, striding towards me with her hand in the air.

Kaiden

I blink my eyes open and immediately register the pain in my head. Everything looks a little fuzzy as I blink again and try to force my eyes to focus on something. At first I think I’m blind, but quickly realise with relief that it’s just dark. I reach out and feel metal, and I think I’m in some sort of container.