Chapter 16

“Addy, everything is going to be fine,” Aaron reassure for the twentieth time, as they made their way up the pathway toward the blue one story house.

“But what if they don’t like me?” Addy questioned, panicking. Aaron squeezed her shoulder lightly before hugging her close to his side.

“They’re your parents, I’m sure they love you,” Aaron said. It had been hard for him to be happy for Addy since they found her parents. Whenever he thought about them he realized that he probably wouldn’t see Addy ever again. Aaron glanced down at the girl he had known for only a summer, and didn’t want to let her go.

“Really?” Addy said, hopeful. “What if they’re the reason…” she looked up at Aaron and lost what she was saying. He looked so sad. Aaron glanced down at her and smiled. “The reason I…” She didn’t know how to say it, mainly because she couldn’t remember what really happened. “I was…”

“They’re not,” Aaron assured.

“How can you be sure?” Addy asked. “Unless it was yo…”

“No it wasn’t me! Why would I do that?” Aaron asked her. Addy shrugged. She had known he hadn’t stolen her. Well she didn’t know, but she didn’t want to think it was him.

“Someone ring the bell,” Jack said from behind Aaron and Addy. Aaron turned his eyes toward Addy, meeting her gaze as he silently asked her if she wanted to ring the bell. Addy shook her head no. Encouragingly Aaron squeezed Addy’s shoulder before he reached forward and rang the bell.

“But what if they don’t want me? What if they don’t recognize me? What if…”

“Addy,” Aaron said, trying to get her to look up at him. That’s exactly what she did. Addy tilted her head up so that she could see Aaron’s light brown eyes. Softly, he caressed Addy’s lips with his own before pulling away. “Everything is going to be fine,” he spoke softly, trying to calm Addy down.

Jack stood behind Addy and Aaron, rolling his eyes, as he watched his own feet, trying hard not to think of the girl he had met back home. Aaron and Addy, together, were making that very hard for him.

The door opened a couple seconds later, causing Addy to jump into Aaron’s side. Aaron looked up to see what had scared her so bad to find an angry looking man and the barrel of a gun. Aaron’s free arm instantly came up and around Addy, pushing her behind him.

“What do you want?” The man barked. Aaron and Jack stared at the man. Aaron thinking that Addy had been right, cursing himself for making Addy go through this, and Jack praying that he’ll survive to see the girl he’d met one more time. Neither could think of anything to say. “Well, why are you here?” the man growled.

“Excuse me sir, they are only kid, maybe if you put down the gun they’d answer you,” Sherri suggested, coming up to stand by her son. Mumbling, the man leaned the gun up against the inside wall of the house.

“What do you want?” The man growled.

“We are simply returning your daughter,” Sherri answered.

“Daughter?”

“You do have a daughter by the name of Addison Benson, don’t you?” Sherri asked.

“Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. Why?” the man asked. “Are you the cops?”

“No, should we be?” Sherri countered, looking up at the man calmly.

“No, no, no problems here,” the man answered swiftly. “No need to call the cops.”

“So I guess you don’t know about you’re daughter’s current condition,” Sherri wore a look on her face that said she wasn’t going to move.

“Current condition?” the man said. “What has she lost her memory or something?”

“Funny that is the first thing you said,” Sherri commented.

Addy started to struggle against Aaron, trying to get him to let go of her wrist so she could run. She was ready to have to use her nails when Aaron just let go of her wrist. Confusion clouded her eyes as Addy glanced up at his face to see him looking over his shoulder at her, silently telling her to run. Not wasting a second, Addy turned and started across the drying up lawn, running as fast as she could. As she ran, a dark haired, haggard looking woman pushed passed the man in the doorway and called after Addy, a note of desperation in her voice.