Page 68 of Love in Sight

Lainey slides into the seat and shuts the door while I slowly lean up so I can see her. Salty tears fall from my eyes as I look at her. She’s here.

What if she doesn’t recognize me? What if she doesn’t want to be in my life?Come on, Lya, get it together.

I work up the courage to speak to my sister and croak out, “Lainey?”

Lainey jumps out of her seat and her eyes are as wide as saucers when she turns to look at me. She blinks them a few times like she’s trying to figure out if I’m real or not.

“Lya?” Her eyes fill with tears, but her mouth turns up into a beaming smile.

Relief slams into me as I look into her beautiful eyes.

Lainey. I have my Lainey at last.

Thirty-Seven

Tears well up in Lainey’s eyes as her expression changes to horror. The look in her eyes tells me she must realize she’s never going back to that house.

“You have to turn the car around. Take me back, now!” she howls.

“It’s fine, Lainey. You’re safe with us, I promise.” My words don’t seem to calm her down. She turns around in the seat and lowers her head between her knees before she starts heaving.

“Take me back! He’ll find me and punish me. Please. I’m begging you. Please, Lya.” Her sobs grow louder as her breaths quicken. Her begging and pleading breaks my heart in two. The heart that started to heal the moment I saw her face again.

It must have been bad if she’s wanting to go back out of fear of Sutton.

“Please just trust me. He won’t find you!” I try to convince her.

“Yes, he will. He always finds the ones that try to run.”

“What happened in that house, Lainey? Tell us and we can fix this,” I plead with her to tell me something. I hate not knowing what she’s going through.

“No. JUST TAKE ME BACK NOW!” Her fear-filled screams ring throughout the car. Her sudden outburst causes Thiago to flinch.

She’s too far gone in her wails to hear me out right now. She’ll understand eventually, but not right now. She wants so bad to go back to Sutton, but I just got her back. I can’t let her go.

She calms down a little when we get to the house. I introduce her to Zep and Rian, but she won’t say a word to either of them which doesn’t surprise me. It’s going to take her time to get used to this environment.

I settle Lainey into Thiago’s bedroom, which was fine with him since he spends most nights in my bed anyway. I give her a pair of my shorts and one of Rian’s t-shirts to sleep in. The guys are hanging out in the living room while I wait for Lainey in my bedroom. I leave her to shower and get changed for bed.

When she emerges in the doorway, my breath stutters. I don’t know how I didn’t notice before, but she is so scrawny. She has Rian’s shirt tied in a knot to her side, but she’s still swimming in it. The shorts I loaned her are practically falling off of her small frame. Did she ever get to eat?

Her eyes roam around my room, taking everything in before landing on me and giving me a small smile. “Did you get settled okay? Do you have everything you need?” I ask in a rushed voice. She’s right here in front of me, but I’m still so worried about her.

“Everything’s perfect, Lya.” Her voice comes out hoarse from her freak out on the drive home.

Once the initial surprise wore off, she screamed and cried about us taking her.

“Okay, well… Are you hungry? I can have the guys order pizza or we can cook something.” I need to calm down before I scare her.

“Pizza’s fine…” she says with a smile that doesn’t meet her eyes. “Hey, uh, Lya… how’s Mom?” she asks, as she moves to sit on the edge of the bed. Of course she would ask about her, she has no idea what’s happened over the last nine years. I’m not sure how much this will hurt her, but I have to tell her the truth.

“I honestly don’t know. She went off the deep end and got caught up in drugs after you were taken. She was fired from her job and spent all her time doing drugs or looking for drugs. I had to fend for myself most of the time. When I was able to, I got out of there and left her behind. Now that the guys and I have a successful business, bringing in good money, she only calls me looking for drug money.” I can see the hurt and confusion etched into her face.

“She wasn’t the best mother, but she loved us, Lya… She did what she could. Why would she do that to you?” Lainey whispers, as she holds back the tears building in her eyes.

“I guess I wasn’t enough for her. You know she always loved you more,” I blurt out, realizing how bitter I sound.

“No... That’s not true… No… I’m sorry you had to go through that,” she whispers as she looks down at her hands that she is wringing in her lap.

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