Page 10 of Stone

After they talked for a bit more, Sage telling her that she’d love living with them, she decided that she was going to run away and never come back. It wasn’t going to be a good thing, she was just a kid, but she didn’t want to move again and be with people that she didn’t know again.

“When I was a little girl, my mom used to have her friends over all the time. They were mean to me, and I decided that I was going to run away.” She looked up at her, shocked that she knew just what she was thinking. “I didn’t get very far before the police found me. But I did learn a valuable lesson in it. I was only a child, and there were far more scary people out there than my mom and her friends. People that would take me and sell me off for unthinkable things.”

“You mean like sex?” Sage looked at her and asked her where she’d heard that. “My mom used to say it to me all the time. How she was going to sell me off to one of her friends so they could have sex with me. It’s how she punished me. Telling me that anyone would want me as I was young and pretty. You bet that I straightened up right then after telling me that. I don’t know what sex is, but it sounded dirty, and I didn’t want that to happen to me.”

“That’s a horrible thing to frighten someone with.” Hailey told her that she didn’t mess up anymore after being told that. “I would think not. My goodness, I’d never say that to a child of mine. Or any child, for that matter. That’s horrible.”

She decided not to tell her the other things that her mom used to tell her. There were a lot of things, too, that she didn’t think were right. Like the time she told her that she had to go to school or she was going to have to watch her and her husband, not her dad, have sex while she watched.

“We can’t have it with you around. I like to get loud,” her mother had told her. She’d heard them in the middle of the night once, and it scared her enough to keep her door locked. They were more than a lot noisy, and it terrified her. It sounded to her that the mister was beating her mom, and she kept telling him that she wanted more. It made her sick, too, that night when her mom screamed that she was coming. She never asked her where she was going but kept her mouth shut even the next day when she had breakfast with them.

She never called the man that mom lived with anything but mister. If he had a first name, she didn’t know what it was. He would be mean to her when she called him anything but dad, but she knew for a fact that he wasn’t her father. The man hadn’t been around all that long, and her mother told her that he wasn’t her dad, but she was hoping that he wanted the job someday. She didn’t. She hated him.

Hailey was free to go and play with the other little girls. They were so nice to her that she sometimes forgot about her mother being dead. It didn’t matter to her all that much. She’d never treated her like Mrs. Griffin, or Paige as she said to call her, treated the little girls. It shocked her that they called Mr. Griffin, his name was Jeffery, Dad when he wasn’t. He didn’t even seem to mind, either.

“Did you know that they’re going to be getting married?” She asked one of the triples, she couldn’t tell them apart just yet but thought that her name was Libby. “Maybe they’ll take you in, andyou’d be our cousin. That would be awesome, don’t you think?”

“But I don’t want any parents. I didn’t like the one that I had.” Amy told her that they’d be better because they were the Griffins. “How is that supposed to make a difference? I don’t want someone selling me off for sex.”

“They’d never do that. I swear it. They’ll make sure you have everything you ever need too. Not that we ask for anything but it’s nice to get a hug or two when we need one. And parents like them is something that you’re never going to get with humans.”

“What do you mean? They’re all humans, aren’t they?” She told her that they were wolves that shifted into men. “No, I don’t believe that. They’d be really hairy all the time. And what happens if they bite me? Then I’ll be a wolf, too.”

That had merit. If she was a wolf, she could scare the grandparents and they’d not want her. It was something to think about, but she listened to Glory when she explained that it didn’t happen like that. That just a bite wouldn’t do it.”

“I don’t think I want to know what would make it happen.” She said that was fine, but when she did, they’d tell her. “How come you know so much? I mean, you’re not a wolf, too, are you? Any of you?”

“No, but we’re not human either. We have magic, too. See?” When Libby changed into another outfit, it startled her. After doing that a couple of more times, it was clear to her that she was going to have to get away from this family sooner rather than later. There was something very wrong with them all. “You try it.”

She could do it as well. It scared her at first, being able to change with just a thought but the girls were confused about it as much as she was. She wasn’t a part of their family and so she shouldn’t be able to do it. Hailey asked if she should tell Sage.

“I would. Or Uncle Stone. He might understand more. He’s been a wolf a lot longer.” She didn’t want this to be a fluke. Hailey had never had new clothing before other than the stuff that her mom would pick up at the clothing drives. The little dress she had on was one that one of her classmates had had, and she fell in love with it. “Come on, we’ll go with you to see what is going on.”

She didn’t want to interrupt the family. They were having a good time, but food had been brought in and she was suddenly starved. Almost as soon as she asked to speak to Mr. Stone, he noticed that her dress was different. That got the whole table staring at her then. She didn’t much care for that either.

“That could only mean one thing, you know that, don’t you, Stone?” He said that it could be plenty of things that he didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t either and moved away from the big man in favor of going to see the girls again. They had beautiful rooms, and she loved hanging out with them. It wasn’t until after they ate that Sage came to talk to her again.

“I just heard from your grandparents. Your great-grandparents, I mean. They had something happen that makes it so that you can’t go and live with them just yet. Mrs. Danielson passed away in her sleep last night.” She asked her what that meant, knowing what passed away meant, but wanted to know if this was somehow different. “Margaret had a bad heart, and she was very stressed out about your mother dying, and she had a heart attack while sleeping.”

“Now, what am I going to do? Do I live with my great-grandda?” She said that she didn’t know yet as Earl was still trying to figure out what he was going to do with his life. “I’m betting that it has nothing to do with me, huh?”

“I don’t know, to be honest.” She sat there on the edge of the bed and looked around the lovely room that Amy had. “You’ll have to stay with me, I guess, until things are settled up. I don’t want you to think that this is going to affect you in any way, but with her passing on, it’s going to be doubly hard on Earl than it was before to care for you.”

“He’s old, too.” She told her that he was eighty-three. “Libby told me that when I’m able to drive that he’ll be gone, he’s so old.”

“I don’t know but they’re both in poor health as it is.” Sage pulled her into her arms. “This is alot to take in. I only came here to get you and then go back home. Now I find that I don’t want to leave, and I think I might well have purchased my forever home with Stone.”

“I’ll be a good girl for you.” Sadly, Sage told her that it wouldn’t be up to her but to the courts. “You tell them that you think I’ll be a good girl. You don’t even have to take care of me. I’ll go and stay with my friends until they toss me out.”

“If I take responsibility for you, honey, it’ll be me taking care of you. But we’ll talk some more, all right? There is plenty of time as Earl has to go through the courts on his end as well.” She looked at her, lifting her chin up so that she could see her. “It’ll be all right, Hailey. I have this under control but I have to talk to Stone too. If and right now, that’s a big if, if he wants to take you into our home, we’ll have to go through adoption just like everyone else has.”

“I don’t think that anyone wants me.” She started crying and held onto Sage as hard as she could. “My mom didn’t want me around, nor do you guys, and I have nobody to love me like the girls do. I’m so hurt right now.” She might only be almost six years old, but she knew that the pains in her heart were there because she knew what she was talking about.

Chapter 5

Leslie looked at the newspaper that had been left at her door this morning. She was surprised to find her daughter’s name written in the headlines about some man, but she didn’t know much about what the article said. She could read her name and that of her daughters, but not much more than that.

She’d been a child when they told her that she’d have trouble with reading, and it was like a challenge for her to not learn to read at all. By the time she was sixteen and old enough to get out of going to school, she was in the sixth grade, having failed every class at least twice to get as far as she had been.

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