Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
But however she phrased it, the result was the same. She had the Wolverton CPS social workers eating out of her hand and sending her a steady supply of kids that she used as her own personal slave labor.
The next day, just as I was putting a new load of whites in and getting ready to start the washer, Minh ran into the laundry room with a breathless message.
“Hurry, hurry!” she exclaimed, grabbing my arm. “CPS is here and it looks like they’re going to do an inspection. We have to go get our show room ready!”
“What?” I asked, not understanding her, but I followed her quickly out of the laundry room and up the stairs anyway. I had only seen Minh get slapped once and she had never gone to the box while I had been there—she was good at avoiding punishment so it was wise to listen to her.
We ran quickly up the stairs to one of the spare bedrooms where no one slept. Inside were two twin beds, made up neatly with clean white coverlets and fluffy down pillows. It was a very plain room with no character or personal touches at all.
Minh ran in the room and threw open the closet door. She began pawing frantically through the things inside and throwing some out to me.
“Here—put this on one of the beds and that one on the other,” she ordered, shoving a fluffy purple teddy bear and a colorful embroidered rainbow cushion into my arms.
I did as she said, awed at the amount of things I saw in the closet—it was heaped with toys no one ever played with and clothes no one had ever worn—some still had the price tags on them. Minh got out a few more stuffed animals to scatter around the room as well as a decorative lamp with a ballerina for a base which she sat on the bedside between the two twin beds and plugged in. Lastly, she got out a board game—Candy Land—and set it up on the floor in front of the beds.
At that moment, I heard voices and footsteps coming up the stairs.
“And this is where our spare rooms are that we keep for our darling foster children,” Nancy’s voice could be heard saying, sounding syrupy sweet. “The two youngest are probably playing in their room right now.”
Minh, who was already sitting on the floor, signaled to me frantically.
“Get down here and pretend to play with me!” she hissed, pointing to the game board with its colorful figures.
I sat down on the other side of the board, which Minh had skillfully set up to look like we were in the middle of a game.
When the door opened, I looked up and saw Nancy Spaulding and a new social worker—one I hadn’t seen before—looking in.
“There now, I thought we’d find them in here! They just love to play together.” Nancy beamed at the two of us and Minh and I smiled back automatically, though the smile felt wooden and unnatural on my face.
Suddenly it occurred to me—this was my chance! Maybe my only chance to get out of here. I was about to stand up and beg the new social worker to listen to me while I told her about all the horrible things going on in the Spaulding house, when Nancy said,
“Have a look in here now, and meet your new little sisters.”
And then a new face looked into the room and I lost my train of thought completely.
It was a nice face—the face of a boy only about a year older than me. He had tousled golden brown hair and forest green eyes and I knew that I knew him from somewhere.
And then, at that moment, the brand on my arm began to burn. Luckily, I was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt and the glow of it couldn’t be seen, but I could feel it. It was like someone was pressing a branding iron into my flesh all over again. Suddenly I remembered where I had seen him as the night of the blood and branding in the middle of the woods rushed back to my memory.
Up until that moment, I had thought that night was a dream—a half-formed nightmare my mind had made up to explain the strange mark on my arm. Now, as I looked at him, I knew it was real—it had happened and both of us had been there.
My lips mouthed the name, “Nick?” and I’m sure my eyes widened.
Nick’s forest green eyes widened as well, but he gave a quick shake of his head, as though telling me to keep quiet. I nodded and kept my mouth shut, though I wanted to ask him a thousand questions. It had been years since I’d seen him and I had only met him that once on the fateful night our fathers tied our fates and our families together, but he already felt like an old friend.