The Secret Bearer

Chapter 1

Holly

It had been ten years since Sally Rein had gotten married. She had expected herself to be nervous and scared at the time, but had never expected herself to be angry. But that was before she knew that her groom was going to come with a one-year-old daughter. Despite her anger, she had gone on with the marriage. She didn’t know why she did so, but now, ten years later, she was regretting that day.

Sally heard the doorbell ring. She walked to the door and opened it.

‘Yes?’ she asked the young woman who was standing on the doorstep.

‘Sally?’ The woman asked, her tone filled with amazement. ‘Is that you?’

'Hazel?'

---

Holly Rein sat impatiently in her seat, barely paying attention to what the teacher was saying. She was too desperate for the bell to go. Most of the kids in the class were the same way, but the teacher still went on with her farewell speech to the class.

'And I guess that's it.' The teacher finished with a sigh. She was barely aware that everyone was looking at the clock expectantly. As soon as the clock struck 3 o'clock, the bell sounded indicating the end of classes for the day and the end of the year.

Holly jumped up from her seat rather happy that school had ended.

'Wait up!' she called to her best friend Will who was already pushing past the door to get to his locker.

'Can you believe it's the end of the year?' asked Sevilla, Holly's other best friend.

'Well, I don’t want to hang around the house through the summer holidays,' Holly said with a frown. 'My mom won't appreciate that much.'

'I don’t get what her problem is,' Will said. 'I mean, how can a mother despise her child so much?'

'It's strange; I never met a mother like yours. I really haven't.'

'At least I have dad.' Holly said with a shrug, acting as if she didn’t care but she really did care. It seemed like her mother had hated her from the beginning. Of course, she didn’t know if she had been hated by her mother from the very first day she was born, but as far as she could remember, her mother had hated her. Her father on the other hand, seemed to think the world of her and this annoyed her mother greatly.

---

Arthur Rein sat at his desk wondering back to the night he had been forced to do the terrible sin. He had killed his wife, the one he truly loved. He had done it for good but it seemed just so wrong. He felt as if he had betrayed himself. He loved his daughter a great deal; she was the only thing he had left of Samantha. His wife on the other hand seemed to hate her. He wouldn’t have cared as much if she hated him but Holly had done nothing wrong. She didn’t deserve what she got from Sally. She deserved better. She deserved much, much better. She deserved to know the truth but he was afraid. He was afraid she wouldn’t believe him and that she would leave him forever.