Page 89 of Forged in Flames (Made of Steel 2)

"Sadie?" I whispered, but she didn't respond. Maybe because that wasn't really her name. I studied the worry-line in the middle of her forehead and the crow's feet by her eyes. I tried to focus on what made her different from my mother. "Jane?" I said.

She blinked her eyes and slowly looked up at me. Her taunting smile was gone. She looked utterly terrified. I wasn't sure if it was because she was tied up or because she saw a little bit of herself in me too. She looked away from me and more panic rose to her face when she realized just how high up we were. No one would hear her scream. Just like no one had heard my screams when I lived with Don.

"You look just like my mom," I said. I had never been this close to her before. I had the undeniable urge to hug her. A stranger. A monster. Stop.

She shook her head. "No. Your mother looked like me. I was the older one." She pulled against the restraints. "Untie me."

I ignored her icy words. "What happened in the woods, Jane?"

"How do you even know I'm related to your mom? It's not like they kept a picture of me on the mantle."

"You're right. They didn't. But we ran a strand of your hair for DNA. It fell on the copy of Heart of Darkness you gave me."

"Well, it doesn't matter now." Her eyes frantically darted around, taking in our surroundings. "You have to untie me before it's too late."

"Tell me what happened and I will."

"Your mother ruined my life, that's what happened!"

"How?" I feared I knew how. Don had been following her. Jane had stepped in to protect her. That's what the reports made it seem like. That Jane had died saving my mom. But really she had been taken by the devil himself.

"Your mother always got everything she wanted because everyone loved her. And she loved being the center of attention. She couldn't get enough of it. She smiled too much. Her skirts were too short and her shirts too low. She was a naive, dumb girl."

"She was only 13."

"Of course you'd say that. You were only eight when she died. You never saw how self centered and egotistical she was!"

Her words made tears pool in my eyes. "People change, Jane. She was a wonderful mother. She was selfless, she always put me first."

Jane laughed. "She and my mom gave up on me. They thought I died and they just moved away and disappeared. I needed them and they ran away. That's not selfless."

No, it wasn't. But I understood the desire to run. Part of me wanted to run right now. I didn't want to know these things about my mom. I liked the memory of her I kept in a bubble. That bubble was about to pop. I took a deep breath. I needed to butter her up so she'd tell me what I wanted to know. "So you tried to save my mom in the woods? That was very selfless of you." And it was. It's possible that I never would have been born without Jane's sacrifice. I owed her my life. I owed her for the extra years my mom got to live.

"Saved your mom?" Jane laughed. "No."

"What do you mean? You fought him off. You..."

"I told him the truth. That your mother was a tease. That she would never give him what he wanted. That she wasn't woman enough for him. That she was just a dumb girl with a pretty face. She ran away because I made her cry. By telling her the truth that no one else would. That no one would ever see more to her than her beauty."

"That's not what the reports said."

"Of course not. Why would your mother tell them the truth that she didn't even want to hear?"

"I don't understand," I said. "They said there was blood. They found one of your shoes on the rocks."

"I hated being second. No one ever saw me. And that man in the woods was so handsome. When I saw him promising the world to her if they ran away together, it made my blood boil. She didn't have anything to run away from. I was the one that needed a fresh start. From her."

"What do you mean saw? Weren't you and my mom on a walk together?"

Jane laughed. "We never did anything together. I hated her. I always hated her. And when I saw that handsome guy that was too old for her, I intervened. I told him the truth. I told him everything he needed to know about my so called perfect sister. And even after everything I said, he ran after her. He was so blinded by infatuation that he couldn't even see it. That there was nothing behind her pretty face but a sad, pathetic girl."

There were a lot of things I could have focused on in that confession. But there was one piece of information in the forefront that made my heart stop. "My mom knew him?"

"Knew him? She was dating his best friend. And honestly I wouldn't have been surprised if she had been screwing around with him behind her boyfriend's back. It's not like she wa

s a good person."

What? That didn't make any sense. "It was Don in the woods, right? Don Roberts?"

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