Page 1 of The Unknown Colton
PROLOGUE
Fifteen years ago…
Once the bell rang for recess, ten-year-old Lakin Colton rushed through the open doors of the school and headed toward the swing set on the playground. Before she made it there, a small group of kids, three boys and two girls, formed a circle around her, trapping her. Then the taunts began.
“Nobody wants you!”
“Your parents dumped you at the grocery store like bad fish they didn’t wanna keep.”
“Like cans they were dropping off.”
“You smell like fish.”
“You’re ugly.”
Lakin closed her eyes, trying to hold back the tears that rushed up. It wasn’t just what they were saying that made her want to cry. Raised voices terrified her, making her shake and sob, and sometimes she even threw up. They’d done this to her before. Maybe because they’d seen how she reacted, they were trying it again.
If Parker was here, these kids wouldn’t be picking on her.
Parker was her older brother by two years and an adoption, but he’d just moved from elementary school to middle school. They had two older brothers, too, but Eli was in college and Mitchell would graduate from high school this year.
She had Colton cousins, too. Spence was in middle school with Parker, though. Kansas was the only other girl among Lakin’s siblings and cousins, but she was tough. Usually she would be at school, but she was home sick today.
So Lakin was alone like the day she’d been left at the grocery store seven years ago. Although she didn’t remember much about that time, about her life before, she hated being alone. Since Will and Sasha Colton adopted her, she rarely was.
If Kansas was here, they would meet up at the swings which was where Lakin had been heading. But she couldn’t see over the kids skipping in a circle around her like they were playing ring-around-the-rosy.
“Nobody wants you.”
“Nobody wants you.”
“Shut up!”
She’d opened her mouth to say it, but the words didn’t come from her. A boy broke up the circle, separating the kids and shoving them away from her.
“Stop being mean!” he said, his face scrunched upwith anger. But he was still the prettiest boy Lakin had ever seen.
Troy Amos. He had dark skin and really light green eyes. And he was bigger than the other kids even though he was just a few months older than she was. Maybe that was why they didn’t pick on him even though his skin was darker than theirs, like hers was. He was half Black while she was probably half Inuit. But nobody really knew for sure what or who she was since she’d been so little when she’d been left at the grocery store.
“Stop picking on her,” he said.
“What? Is she your girlfriend?” Billy Hoover asked. As usual, Billy’s nose was running, and his red hair stood up all over his head.
“You like her!” one of the girls said. She was a pretty girl with blond hair and blue eyes, but that prettiness disappeared when she glared at Lakin.
“Yeah, I like her,” Troy said. “She’s nice. Everybody likes Lakin.” Then he leaned closer to the blond girl, narrowed those pretty green eyes and added, “Nobody likes mean people.”
The girl’s bottom lip quivered, and tears filled her eyes. “I’m gonna tell on you.”
“Go ahead,” Troy said. “And I’ll tell on you.” He fixed his gaze on all the kids. “I’ll tell on everybody this time. The next time you mess with Lakin, I’ll do more than that. Me and my family and the Colton family will make you regret picking on her. So nobody better mess with Lakin again.” There were evenmore Amoses than Coltons. Troy had four older siblings and two younger ones.
The boys scrambled away in fear while the one girl ran off crying. The other stayed for a second and mumbled, “Sorry, Lakin,” before running off, too.
And Lakin was left alone with Troy Amos, her hero with the prettiest eyes. She decided right then, at ten years old, that she was going to marry him someday.
CHAPTER 1
“Are you married yet?” Billy Hoover asked the minute Lakin walked through the door of Roasters, the local café in Shelby, Alaska.
