Page 40 of Chasing Football Dreams

“They wanted a son. And now that they have one who is on the brink of dying, they want my help,” She shook her head, my guess is to get rid of the silly thoughts of her mother.

“Well,” My mother took a step forward. “As Zoey said, you are her sister and, in this case, we are her parents which makes us your parents as well,”

“What? You don’t have to do that,”

My mother nodded. “We don’t have to but we want to. You mean a lot to our Zoey. Which means you mean a lot to us,”

“Really?” The small, insecure Eliza presented herself. “I would love that,” Her voice was so small it was barely recognizable.

“Yes, darling,” My mother hugged her tightly and I saw my father nod his head sending me a wink.

I looked at the doorway, doing almost a flip when my whole team stood behind Duncan wiping away their tears.

Duncan rolled his eyes at them but I saw him secretly wiping wetness from his eyes. “Don’t you guys have better stuff to do?” He asked, his voice making them shuffle away.

I chuckled softly knowing he was only being this mean man to protect my modesty. I know when I fell in love with that, I won the lottery. I walked over to him, uncaring that I was breaking the rule of hiding our relationship. I could finally hug him as I wanted to since we got back from the coffee shop.

He opened his arms and took me in without question and held me there. He had seen the devastating look on my face when we showed up but we couldn’t talk about it much now he knew and he didn’t look thrilled with Eliza’s mother but he didn’t say anything but hold me. No questions asked. No judgement. Just the beat of his steady heart against my ear. I wassurrounded by his strength and it’s all I needed. His love and care.

Chapter Twenty

Eliza and I made our usual run at the orphanage—only this time we could afford to give the kids stuffed animals that weren’t given to her by a stalker. The football team held a fundraiser and chirped in on buying clothes, gifts, food, and toiletries. They even came with us in their numbers to the orphanage to share some love and help with the meals.

Now and again, I will catch a few of the squad members looking at me with empathy when they hear and see the conditions of the orphanage. I didn’t plan on showing them to my old room, but the kids had other ideas as they pulled half the squad around the orphanage. They all ended up teasing me about the tire I tied to the tree to practice my throws.

I hate to have my team look at me differently. In the beginning, it was about me being a girl and now it’s seeing my living quarters when I used to live here. The past always had a way of catching up and clinging to a person’s future vision.

Eliza and I were putting the kids to bed while the guys cleaned the kitchen. “I still can’t believe Shane and his wife adopted me and gave me a copy that I am now rightfully their daughter. I am twenty-one years old, and I feel like ten when I always wished to have a family,” Eliza babbled smiling.

While Eliza was living in the fantasy world of getting the family she always wanted, and I was still trying to come to terms with everything. I am happy for Eliza that Angela and Shane were so understanding and took her in because she has always been at my side. We were inseparable from each other and having her as my sister was something I always had and will forever have.

“You don’t seem too excited about all the changes,” Eliza noted following me down the corridor towards the office where we wanted to tell Kelly we were leaving. It was hard facing her when I knew she was part of the scheme that got me kidnapped.

“It feels too good to be true,” I looked up to Shane Martin as my idol—not thinking that the universe would turn a page as horrific as this on me. To be an orphan was already the tough part of my past but to be a victim of kidnapping was something I couldn’t just accept.

“I understand. For seventeen years you were aware you had no family and seventeen later you find you are the daughter of the man you always stalked,”

I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t stalk him,”

We entered the office, expecting to find Kelly but it was empty. Except for images of me as a child lying scattered over the desk. “What the hell?” Eliza exclaimed.

I walked up to the desk, taking a closer look at the photos. They were of me, and it almost seemed they were taken the night I was taken. I was in a room sitting bundled up in a corner, looking terrified. Each image consisted of me until the drop-off point. The orphanage.

“Well, this without a doubt proves that the orphanage had something to do with your kidnapping,” Eliza said with anger.

“Why would someone have these?” I asked.

“As proof,”

“Do you think Kelly didn’t work alone or that she was working for someone?” I asked, picking up the image of me looking straight at the camera. I had no idea what life had in store with me.

We looked at each other when we heard footsteps. “We gotta hide,” I told Eliza hearing the footsteps and voices growing closer.

“The window,” Eliza whispered. We ran for the window and climbed out, ducking down when the door opened. Eliza gestured for me to follow her, but I was stuck in a faze as I watched Candice enter the room with a broody man who looked oddly familiar.

Where have I seen this man before?

“The Martin girl is causing problems,” The man with the familiar spoke. “How did she find out that she is Shane Martin’s daughter? For years we covered up the abduction,”

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