Secrets Return (Leftover Girl Book 2)

by C. C. Bolick

Steps sounded behind me.

  “This is more than you can handle,” Mrs. Pearson said. “We will try again tomorrow.”

  Tomorrow? I was never going through that again. “I don’t care what happened to Jessica Naples.”

  “What did you say?” she whispered.

  Turning, I looked up at her. “I’m not Jessica Naples, and I’d honestly rather not know the truth about what happened to her. I have enough nightmares already.”

  Mrs. Pearson dropped to her knees in front of me. “You remembered?”

  I considered the raw emotion in her voice—the desperation, the hope. “I remember getting on the ship. I wasn’t kidnapped…”

  “Kayden…” she said.

  I nodded.

  Her lower lip quivered as her eyes filled with tears. She bit down on her lip. “I feared never seeing you again. You cannot understand what it feels like to lose a child.”

  I swallowed back the ache in my throat. “I know how it felt to lose you and Chadsworth.”

  “Why couldn’t that part stay hidden?” Chase asked, from the porch.

  Mrs. Pearson, my mother, opened her arms, though her face revealed hesitation. Anxiety. Fear.

  Inching forward, I sat perfectly still as her arms touched my shoulders. For a moment, she closed her eyes and ran her hands up and down my arms. Those hands began to shake, reaching further around me, enveloping me as if I were made of glass. As her arms tightened and her shoulders relaxed, gentle sobs began.

  The sound was sad, bringing me to tears, as I inhaled the lavender smell I remembered from all those years ago. It was her.

  Mrs. Pearson had been my mother all along.

  Leaning forward, I buried my head in her chest, crying as she touched my hair, my face, and kissed my forehead.

  The street had emptied around us. Even Chase had disappeared, leaving us to this moment, a reunion twelve years in the making.

  “Mom,” I whispered.

  She smiled through her tears and hugged me again.

  More Secrets

  “He won’t hurt you,” Chase said.

  Standing next to Chase, I made no attempt to approach the bed, which looked softer than it actually was. “You said that last time.”

  The doctor wore the same white suit as the night Chase tried to kidnap me. “I can do this with you standing, but you’ll be more comfortable sitting on the bed.”

  Chase gave my arm a squeeze for support, but I pulled away and stomped over to the bed. “Fine, run your tests.” Why did they insist on checking me out when I felt fine?

  Tapping on a device that looked like a tablet, the doctor gave a faint smile. “This won’t hurt a bit.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Is that universal doctor-talk?”

  This time he laughed. Drawing a circle in the air, the room darkened and a light shot down from the ceiling, surrounding me and expanding to a three-foot circle around my feet. Sparkles spun across my shoes, morphing from blue to red and then green, finally fading to a solid white light.

  “Look at me,” I grumbled, “the Christmas tree. Want me to hold still?”

  “Sure,” he said.

  Minutes passed as I fought the urge to move, until a cramp seized my neck. I rubbed my neck, fighting against the cramp that grew stronger as I tilted my head. “Can I move now?”

  “You could move before,” the doctor said.

  “Why did you tell me to hold still?”

  He shrugged. “Sounded good.” Reaching for my arm, he scraped the surface of my skin with some type of scalpel.

  “Ouch,” I whined, but his eyes were trained on the knife.

  The doctor placed the scraping on a white counter with a series of black circles, like the top of a stove. The sample rested at the center of one of the circles and I wondered why he didn’t use a petri dish. “Amazing,” he said as the circle lit up.

  I turned to Chase. “How can I understand him? Does everyone on this ship speak English?”

  Chase nodded. “Our language on Golvern is complex, but it’s only one compared to thousands of languages on Earth. Whenever a team is assigned to an Earth mission, they spend the first twenty days learning the most popular language of their destination.”

  “How did you learn?” I asked.

  “TV shows, movies, books. The Internet. Anything I could download I read, which is why I sound nothing like Mom. She sticks to that Shakespeare junk.”

  “Shakespeare is better than anything on the Internet,” said a voice from the doorway. “How is she?”

  “Excellent,” the doctor said, “which I find extraordinarily hard to believe with the radiation on this planet.” He shivered. “It’s everywhere—in the air, seeping from the food supply.”

  “But you have more,” she said.

  “Oh yes,” he said, with a goofy grin. “I couldn’t believe the level of health your daughter has maintained, until I found this…” Touching the screen, he stepped back as a string of blue molecules appeared.

  “What is that?” Chase asked, shoving me aside to get a better look.

  The doctor pointed to several locations on the screen, using a series of words I didn’t understand. “Truthfully,” he finally said, “I’m not sure. It was covering Kayden’s skin.”

  “Sunscreen,” I said.

  Shaking his head violently, the doctor stabbed at the screen as if upset at my suggestion. “This is no human product. These chemicals are a thousand years more advanced.”

  “Can you determine the purpose?” my mother asked. “Can you replicate it?”

  He threw his hands over his face, seeming to understand for the first time. His voice shook as he spoke. “You have no idea what your daughter has discovered. If I can replicate it, I will. We need more.”

  She looked at me strangely and then back at him. “Why?”

  “Because this is what has kept your daughter alive all of these years.”

  “Sunscreen?” she asked.

  “I told you,” he said, with a dose of urgency. “Humans did not make this. A team on Golvern has spent years attempting to synthesize a barrier to protect us from Earth’s sun. If only such a chemical could be designed…and your daughter walks on board with it coating her skin.”

  “It doesn’t make sense,” I said.

  “It healed you,” Chase said, eyes wide with excitement. “Do you know what this means? We could visit Earth without having a deadline to return.”

  Mrs. P—my mother’s expression was unreadable. “I will be in my office,” she said and turned for the door.

  * * * * *

  Following Chase down the long hall, I recognized most of the ship that almost took me home last fall. Black glass extended along the walls and ceiling, with no reflection. The people we passed wore green uniforms that covered everything but their hands and face. Some stopped to stare, whispering as we passed the door to the control room where I once convinced Mrs. Pearson I wasn’t her daughter. My mother. Mom. Instead of picturing her in my mind, I saw Lorraine.

  Guilt swept over me. Lorraine would always be Mom. Somehow, I must find a way to think of Mrs. Pearson as my mother. She deserved my love, including the chance to know me and make up for the last twelve years.

  A gap formed between me and Chase. I ran ahead to catch up, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Mom. Had she and Dad found me missing yet? “What time is it?”

  “Two o’clock in Credence,” Chase said, without looking back.

  Another woman in green whispered to a man, both scattering as I acknowledged them. “Did you hear what they said?”

  Chase stopped before a door with a square handle. He touched the handle and the door opened. We stepped into a room surrounded by the familiar black glass, with a desk and a black office chair that seemed almost human. Mrs. Pearson sat in the chair, drinking what looked like a cup of coffee.

  She noticed me looking at the chair. “This is one of only a handful of treasured items I brought back from Earth.”

  Looking around the ro
om, my eyes stopped on a white frame along the wall of glass to her right. Within the frame hung a penciled drawing of a creek. Crossing over to it, I touched the glass that protected the drawing I’d made for Chase last fall. Closing my eyes, I pictured the water, the smell of pine trees. The smooth rocks beneath my feet. “I can’t believe you kept this.”

  “It may be hard for you to believe, but you were never far from my mind.”

  I thought about what Chase said in the hall. Two o’clock. Enough time for me to sneak back into my room, without anyone knowing I left. If only I could have one more day with my parents to explain why I had to leave.

  Taking one of two metal seats in front of her, I inhaled the steam that rose from the cup that waited for me. The yellow liquid looked like mustard, but with the sweetness of an orange and the spicy, pungent aroma of hot wings.

  “This was your favorite drink,” she said.

  Chase sat to my right. “You first.”

  Lifting the cup to my lips, I took a small sip, coughing on the explosion of taste in my mouth. Instead of one flavor, the foamy drink seeped a thousand tiny bursts against my tongue, leaving me cozy and energized at the same time.

  “What does it taste like?” she asked.

  “Everything,” I said, downing the rest of the cup.

  “Easy with that,” Chase said. “It does the same thing to your insides.”

  Wiping my lips with my arm, I leaned back in the chair and stared at the woman before me.

  She took a sip, trying not to meet my eyes. “This is strange for you, but your honesty may help our situation.”

  “I’m trying to figure out what to call you.”

  “Evelyn,” she said and looked up. “First call me by my name. One day we shall figure out the rest.”

  I nodded. Evelyn I could do. “What is my real name? My dad said I once insisted on him calling me Kay Ray, but he thought Kay was short for Jessica.”

  “You are Kayden Raven Draigon.”

  “Seriously?” I asked, turning to Chase. “And you complained about Chadsworth. Bullies are creative with Delaney, but I can only guess what they’ll make out of Draigon.”

  “No one will make fun of your name here,” Chase said. “Everyone likes Mom.”

  “I meant to ask about that. Does everyone here work for you?”

  “Yes,” she said, but offered nothing more.

  Silence settled over the room as Chase and Evelyn finished their drinks. A faint beeping sounded from one of the instrument panels, but neither moved. Finally, she pointed and the noise disappeared.

  “Why did you point?” I asked. “You didn’t need to.”

  “You might call such a thing consideration,” she said.

  “Considering what?”

  “No,” Chase said. “Consideration, like being respectful. On Golvern, most people have the same power, so we try to let someone know before we use it.”

  “You said most, but not everyone?”

  “Other powers are rare, but do exist.” He smiled. “Have you found any new powers?”

  “Yeah, right. I worked hard enough to figure out how to move stuff again.”

  “Your powers did not return because of hard work,” Evelyn said. “The treatment for your sunburn reactivated them.”

  I crossed and then uncrossed my legs, unable to find a comfortable position. “The woman in the hall said something that sounded like ‘Honra Ril.’ So did someone at the house. I thought I imagined it at first, but this time I was sure. What does it mean?”

  Evelyn frowned. “You were given that name, but not by one of us.”

  “It doesn’t translate to English,” Chase said.

  “Try,” I insisted.

  Chase sighed. “In literal terms, Honra Ril means leftover girl. You might refer to Honra as a ‘loose end.’ Others have either been lost or disappeared during missions on Earth.”

  The night was getting stranger with every second. “Why would they whisper about me?”

  “Most of the people on this ship know we came to Earth seeking Kayden,” Evelyn said. “No doubt, the rumors have spread fast through the night.”

  “What does it matter if they know?” I asked, remembering the time Chase thought I might be in danger. “Does someone want me to stay hidden?”

  “They’re called the Lucha Noir,” he offered.

  “Chadsworth!” Her voice was bitter. “You will only hurt Kayden more.”

  Chase closed his eyes and a full cup appeared before each of us. “You suggested honesty. She deserves the truth.”

  For a moment, they stared at each other, waiting for someone to flinch.

  “Enough.” I jumped to my feet. “Someone please tell me what’s going on.” I looked at Evelyn. “Start by telling me who you really are. Then tell me why it matters who I am.”

  “You matter because of me. You already noticed I am the leader here.”

  Chase shoved his chair back. “And you worried I might hurt her.”

  “Sit back down,” she said.

  I lowered into the chair, but no longer tried to get comfortable.

  Taking a sip of her new drink, she seemed to make a decision. “You have a twin. So do I. So did your father.”

  “Okay.” I raised my cup to my lips.

  She took a deep breath. “So does everyone else on Golvern.”

  I spit the drink back into the cup. “A planet…of twins?”

  “Many of our people settled on Earth over the years. They found life expectancy short because of your sun, but they also found humans were resilient. By mating with humans, their children inherited the same protections. Now twins are spread across Earth, but they are many generations removed, to the point that little or no power remains in their gene pool.”

  “Everyone on your planet has a twin?” I went over the conversation with Mom and Dad in my head, picking out the details. How did they—

  Evelyn leaned over her cup. “There are exceptions to every rule.”

  I considered her words. “Why would anyone go to Earth knowing they would die early?”

  “For freedom,” Chase said.

  Her shoulders sagged. “Those without a twin are treated unequal. In a way, our people are no better than those of this planet.”

  “Let me guess,” I said, with a laugh. “People without a twin are forced to live separately without the same rights.”

  She looked at Chase. “What have you told her?”

  “Nothing about the Lucha Noir,” Chase said, crossing his arms.

  “Who are the Lucha Noir?”

  They both looked at me, but only Chase spoke. “The Lucha Noir fight for independence for all Singles. That’s what we call people with no twin, or do you already know that?”

  “I’ve never heard the name Lucha Noir before tonight.”

  “To us it means dark fighters,” Evelyn said, reaching for a tablet at the edge of her desk. She used the thin metal device to fan her face. “Their last known leader disappeared twelve years ago. No one knows what happened to him. Rumors flow rampant across the stars, but most agree the group dissolved after his death. The remaining members fled underground, scheming and waiting patiently for their time to rise again.”

  I turned to Chase. “Can someone really disappear with all the technology you have?”

  He grinned. “All the technology makes it easier than you think.”

  “Their leader was cold and calculating in battle,” Evelyn said. “He covered his tracks well. The only thing we know for sure is his name.”

  “Which is?”

  She stopped fanning her face and stared at me. Sweat trickled down her cheek. “Justin Delaney.”

  * * * * *

  Dad was a dark fighter? I thought of the night Mom held the shotgun to Ronald’s head and laughed. Yeah, he’d taught me to shoot, but a fighter? I found it extremely hard to imagine Dad ever went into battle.

  “I don’t believe her,” I said as I paced in front of Chase.

  He sat on
the steps of Marsha’s house, now completely dark. “There’s no doubt in her mind about who he is. What she’s not sure of is why.”

  I didn’t bother to ask when Marsha disappeared or if she’d ever return. It was enough they let me leave the ship to work through the storm brewing in my head. All those years, all the lies. Did my parents know the whole time? Did they help murder my father? “They always told me the Naples were my parents, until I remembered they weren’t. Dad found dozens of doctors to help with my memory, but so far I can only remember that night.”

  “What happened after the ship landed?”

  I stopped pacing and stared at Chase. “I thought you said the ship crashed.”

  “That’s what Mom claims, but I’m not sure anymore.”

  I sat on the step next to Chase. “There was an argument. Someone fired a gun and I believe that man killed our father.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “I only remember his eyes as he raised the gun. They were filled with a blackness that seemed like the worst kind of evil. Then I was covered in blood. I ran outside, through the woods, and into a road. Next thing I knew, a man almost ran me down with his truck.”

  “Justin Delaney,” he said.

  “Yeah. My dad…he can’t be…” A horrible thought entered my head. “What about Mom?”

  “Lorraine?” he asked softly.

  Wiping the tears, I failed miserably at detaching myself from the people I knew of as my parents. Less than twenty-four hours had passed, and I already wished desperately for their arms to circle around me. Mom could make this nightmare fade like the night would soon.

  “She might be normal,” he said. “Lorraine Conners is the missing piece to this puzzle. Like Justin, she was born on Earth, but Mom has found no evidence to connect her with the Lucha Noir.”

  “Why does our mother hate the Lucha Noir?”

  “About the time we turned five, our government decided the Lucha Noir were far more dangerous than previously thought. A plan was formulated, in secrecy, to destroy their network. She believes our father left to warn them, and has insisted for years they were responsible for his death.”

  “How would he know about a secret plan?” I asked.