Hidden (Hidden Series Book One) (32 page)

She crawled in bed with them like she’d
written in the diary. Her back was to Cecilia, but she held on to
Lydia as she bawled.

“I met her two weeks later,” Sophia said,
pulling me away from the bed. I was staring at Lydia, trying not to
feel sorry for her.

Cecilia and Vincent’s closet opened to a
smaller house. The poor person’s home, as Lydia had called it.

Lydia and Sophia were in the kitchen. She
knocked a glass off of the counter. It shattered and Sophia kneeled
to clean it. Then she dropped another and laughed as Sophia
snarled.

“I’m going to teach you a lesson one day,
little girl,” Sophia said to her.

“I’d like to see you try, witch.”

Lydia was rude, bratty. Even worse than
she’d been with her mother, like living with Julian had hardened
her. This was the girl I’d met at the beginning of the diary, the
one who hated everything.

We walked out of the back door of the house
and into a coffee shop. My throat closed. I knew who she, who we,
were about to meet. The soft strumming of a guitar stopped while
she was reading a book alone in a booth. He knocked on the end of
her table.

He was … so obviously my father. I looked
just like him. His skin was a little darker than mine. Caramel and
beautiful. He leaned his guitar against her table, waiting for her
to notice him. She didn’t. Or didn’t care to show that she did.

“Can you get me another cup of coffee,
please?” he asked.

She grunted, but her face softened when she
looked up at him. “I don’t work here.”

“How about I get you one since I do? What’s
your name?”

“Lydia Shaw.”

He smiled and reached to shake her hand.
They were both staring, deeply captivated already. “I’m Gavin. Well
… Christopher Gavin, but everyone calls me just Gavin.”

Christopher Gavin? Not Raymond Grant? So I
was Christine Cecilia Gavin. How many different names could one
person have?

He came back with two cups and sat across
from her. He had her laughing in under a minute. They were holding
hands in five. She hadn’t lied in the diary. It was obvious she
loved him. It was instant and strong for them both. My eyes watered
as I stared at the man I was the spitting image of. Then I forced
my heart not to feel, not to buy into her story, because even
though he was the love of her life, she’d given his child away. She
didn’t love me like this.

“Come on, dear,” Sophia said, pulling me to
the door.

“Wait,” I said. “I … uh … don’t think we
should watch for a while. They get pretty out of hand.”

Sophia laughed and tugged at my arm. “I
remember,” she said, cringing. “She brought him to Mona’s house
once when she thought I wasn’t there.”

The thought of Lydia and Christopher going
at it anywhere near Sophia was enough to make me gag.

I looked over my shoulder to my handsome
father, thinking I’d look way better as a guy. The bell chimed over
the coffee shop door as she opened it. Of course, it led to another
memory.

Cecilia fluffed Lydia’s bangs and corrected
her postured at a dinner table decorated exactly like the one in
Paris. This room was bigger with a chandelier hanging from the
ceiling and far too many paintings on the walls. Her father walked
in with his hand on Christopher’s shoulder.
My
dad looked
terrified.

“So, is Christopher a family name?” Cecilia
asked.

“I don’t know,” he answered and sat next to
Lydia. “Never met my family.”

“Oh, how awful that must be for you,” she
said, like it wasn’t awful at all. Lydia narrowed her eyes at her
mother. “You two are perfect for each other. Lydia also lives like
a wayward orphan who doesn’t have to answer to anyone.”

“Mom!”

Cecilia smiled and lifted her fork to her
mouth. “Elbows, Lydia.”

Lydia grunted and Christopher rubbed her
back, calming her and stopping her from acting like her old self,
it seemed. This was the
in love
version of the famous woman.
The psychotic, overly sexual girl from the diary. Did Cecilia and
Vincent not have
the talk
with her? Did she not know that
all that fun they were having would lead to an accident like
me?

“Mrs. Shaw, I’ve apologized to Mr. Shaw, but
I also wanted to tell you that I’m deeply sorry,” Christopher said.
“I wasn’t thinking about her family when I asked her to marry me.
It all happened so fast. I regret not including you.”

Vincent swirled his wine around in his glass
and took a sip.

“It’s not that you illegally married my
daughter without telling us, Christopher. It’s not that she’s
seventeen years old. I don’t even care that you serve coffee for a
living and have absolutely nothing going for yourself.”

Cecilia huffed like
she
cared. I
walked around their fancy dining table, moving closer to Lydia and
Christopher. They were holding hands under the table.

“I can ignore those things,” Vincent said.
“What I can’t ignore is the fact that my daughter is about to throw
away everything she’s worked for since she was a little girl for
some guy.”

“Dad, please stop. You’re being dramatic.
I’m sorry I kept him from you until now, but he’s not just some
guy. He’s worth it. He’s the most important person in my life.”

Vincent stormed away from the table and
slammed a door somewhere. Lydia kissed her husband on the cheek and
went after him. Sophia and I followed her into an office. Vincent
was crying. She rested her head on his back and hugged him.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” she said. “I didn’t mean
that how it sounded. You’re still important to me. And if you got
to know him, you’d love him.”

Vincent turned around and kissed Lydia on
her forehead. “It’s not him. He seems … fine. I’m worried about
other things.” She wiped his face with her thumbs. “It’s nothing
for you to be concerned with, but will you do your old man a
favor?”

“Sure.”

“Wait to quit,” he said. He pushed a finger
to her mouth to shush her. “Stay married if you want, pumpkin.
You’ve managed to work him into your life this long. Just do what
you’ve been doing. And no children. Please, not now. Let me work
some things out first before we complicate things any further.”

“Complicate what, Dad?”

He smiled and kissed her again. “Don’t worry
about it, baby. If this is the life you want, I will make it
happen, but I’ll need some time.” Lydia agreed and he hugged her.
He didn’t explain any further, but his expression echoed what he’d
written in my hand. This was his fault. “Let’s go rescue your
husband from your mother, shall we?”

In the dining room, my dad twirled Cecilia
around the table and dipped her in the doorway.

“Why didn’t you teach Lydia to dance, CC?
She doesn’t have an ounce of your grace.” Cecilia giggled and
kissed him on the cheek when he pulled her up. He’d won her over in
the short time Lydia had been gone.

“Unfortunately, grace is not hereditary. You
either have it or you don’t, and you, my dear, you have it!”
Cecilia said, swinging out of his arms and into her husband’s. “I
love him,” she whispered.

Sophia held her hand out to me. I stalled,
staring at Christopher, wishing I’d known him. Why would she ever
want to leave someone like him? He seemed perfect.

“Let’s go, my love,” she said, pulling me
away from dinner and dancing and into a quiet bedroom.

Lydia yawned and stretched under a light
blue comforter, her blonde hair severely disheveled. She felt the
empty space next to her before sitting up.

“Gavin?” she said. “Baby?” Lydia panicked in
the bed when he didn’t answer. “Gavin!”

She jumped up and ran out of the room. She
found him in the kitchen bobbing his head to the radio as he
scrambled eggs. She caught her breath and dried her eyes. He’d cut
his hair low, showing me how much better looking I’d be as a guy
again.

“You look nice, baby,” she said. He turned
around, still dancing, showing off his suit.

“So do you.” He ruffled her hair even more.
“Are you really going to make me go?” He kissed her, and I looked
away.

“Yes. I’m not taking no for an answer. It’s
only four hours.”

“I don’t want to leave,” he said.

Sophia rolled her eyes as the two of them
got entirely too comfortable against the fridge. Gross.

“You’ll teach some kids music and be back
before you know it. I just want you to get out of the house for a
while. Make a friend,” Lydia said.

“I have a friend,” he mumbled. “Wouldn’t you
like to be friendly with me right now?”

“Sophia, please show me something else,” I
said. “They
are
my parents, you know?”

“This day is important,” Sophia said.

Lydia squirmed out of his arms, and he
chased her through the kitchen, trying to pin her against the
cabinets.

“You know as well as I do that you want to
do this. You want to play music for more than my ears, even if
they’re kids. I can read your mind. You can’t hide this from
me.”

“I don’t want to leave. It’s too soon after
what happened to your parents, Lyd,” he said, serious now.

“Julian killed two people who didn’t know
me. I lost my parents months ago. I’m done grieving. I can’t bring
them back, and I’m not going to let fear drive you crazy in this
house. I can’t do this to you anymore. Get out of here and live a
real life, baby. Even if only for a few hours.”

He tried to protest, but she kissed him, and
he gave up. They sat down for a quick breakfast then she helped him
with his tie.

“Okay, just like we practiced,” Lydia said.
“You can do this. You’re a natural.” They laughed like that was a
joke. She must have taught him a power. Moving himself to his new
job, it seemed. “And don’t strain, you’ll hurt yourself.” He threw
his guitar strap over his chest. “Land exactly where we planned.
They’ll get really freaked out if you just appear out of
nowhere.”

“Baby, we’ve been over this, and you’ve made
me practice this enough that there’s no way I’ll blackout again.
I’ll see you in a few hours. Call the school if you need me.”

After a long kiss, he waved and
disappeared.

Sophia and I followed her into their
bedroom. She flipped on the TV and crawled in bed. “How old is
she,” I asked.

“Almost nineteen.”

Lydia flipped over in bed and groaned. She
stuck out her tongue … like she was nauseous. Two gags later, she
ran to the bathroom and hurled. She wiped her mouth with a towel
draped on the sink. “I’m never sick,” she whispered. Her eyes
widened and she looked down at her stomach. “No way. Not possible.”
She gasped. “Kinda possible.”

Her hands flew to her stomach, and she
smiled. Actually smiled like she was happy about it. She ran to the
phone on the nightstand and picked up the huge receiver.

She pressed two buttons and hung up. I
peaked over her shoulder, the closest I’d let myself be to her in
any of the memories. She grabbed a picture by the phone of Cecilia
and Vincent.

“Shit,” she said. “No. No. No!”

“She’s upset about me,” I said. I wrapped my
arms around my stomach, bracing myself for the fit she’d have about
her accidental pregnancy. I was about to see exactly how much she
didn’t want me. Why did she even bother having me? It was obvious I
didn’t belong in this world. Not with her. Not with anyone.

Sophia motioned me to follow Lydia through
the house. She went into another room, an empty one.

“This could work, right?” Lydia said to
herself. “He won’t … he won’t find us. This will be his … no …” She
rubbed her stomach and smiled again. “
Her
room. Right?”

She closed her eyes and I closed mine too as
she forecasted the future. Her visions were misty and blurred at
the edges like mine. She saw the hallway floor and bloody arms and
hands clawing desperately, trying to reach something. I shivered as
screams – a baby’s and Lydia’s – rang in my ears.

The blurry Lydia dragged herself into the
empty room, now filled with frilly furniture and stuffed animals.
Her legs were limp and she was bleeding like crazy. She screamed
again, a painful howl, when she saw him, Christopher, lifeless on
the floor. Julian stepped in her path and flipped her over. Her
stomach had been cut open.

The handsome boy she’d punched, now a
handsome man, gave me to Julian.

“Kamon, didn’t Lydia make a cute kid?” He
shrugged his shoulders, and Julian laughed. “It
is
cute, but
I don’t need cute. I need perfect,” he said. “I have a feeling you
haven’t been training like you should. You probably haven’t killed
anyone. She would be a copy of a lovey-dovey wimp.”

She squirmed and fought, but she couldn’t
move her legs. The men left the room with me, and water turned on
somewhere in the house. Lydia tried and failed to drag herself to
the bathroom before I stopped screaming.

“My baby!” She yanked her limp body to the
doorway of the bathroom. Julian and Kamon had turned away from the
tub, without me.

“Kamon, close her up. I want her clean and
ready for dinner. Welcome back, pet.”

She pulled out of the vision of our horrible
future. She sobbed on the floor, still holding her flat
stomach.

“I’m not going to let him hurt you or your
dad. I’ll keep you safe. I swear,” she said, to me. “Julian wants
me
. Not you. Not Gavin. He didn’t want my mom and dad. I
have to go back.” Her trembling hand carried a kiss from her lips
to her stomach. “First, I’ll get far away from him. Then you,
angel. And then he’ll stop hurting everyone I love. It will be
over.”

Sophia came into the room that would’ve been
my nursery and hugged me. I hadn’t realized I was shaking. “I don’t
want to see anymore,” I whispered. I didn’t imagine her story going
this way. I expected glory and fame. Not heartache. Not painful
premonitions.