Taken By Choice (Taken Trilogy Book 3)

by Jessica Frances

  I’m free from P.A.G.E. now, we all are. I can have a future.

  I’m shaking from the possibility and fearful to hope that maybe they can be real, maybe Charlie and I will get that future I want for us after all.

  ***

  The next two days are a blur. I help to pack away my room, and although I don’t think I’ll come back to live in Boston, I let Mom set up a room for me in her new house, which is small; only three bedrooms and one bathroom. It’s one level and as Mom puts it, “A great house to retire in.”

  She’s eager for me to call Charlie and Rose, but I feel like I need to see them in person for this conversation, although I do let Mom take me shopping for a dress. I don’t think I’ve been shopping with Mom since I was thirteen or fourteen. It feels strange, but it also feels good. I get to talk to Mom, like really talk to her about everything. She is a changed woman since I left. She cut back her hours at work and she says she’s just enjoying the reading, not the selling and marketing that comes along with her clients.

  I’ve had a government official come to visit me, and I’ve got a meeting scheduled next week to discuss what happened to me. Mom needs to attend, too, and I can bring a lawyer if I want. Mom said that I’ll probably get a lot of money for what I went through, but I’m not sure I want any of it. In the end, money won’t change what I went through.

  It’s the day before Rose’s wedding and my flight leaves later tonight. I’ll be arriving at LAX early tomorrow morning. This time tomorrow, I’ll be seeing Rose and Charlie. It’s something I never thought would be possible again; well, at least not in person.

  I’ve left one thing for last, and it’s something I badly need to do.

  I carry future Drew’s ashes with me and kneel in front of Dana’s gravestone. The stone simply has her name, date of birth and death with a short comment about being Daryl and Donna’s daughter. It doesn’t seem like enough, but I know it’s not the time to focus on such things. I didn’t bring any flowers with me, but when I see several fresh ones around her, I know without a doubt that they’re from Drew.

  I look down at the ashes still in the Pringle container and try to find the words I want to say.

  “I’m so sorry about everything, Dana. I should have been upfront with you. I should have confided in you. I should have left on my birthday. I should have realized what my dream really meant.” I pause, breathing deeply to pull myself together. “I wish you were still here with me and I think that maybe you are. I know you helped me get through everything that just happened to me and I want to thank you for that. I haven’t been able to look out for Drew, but I promise you that I will now. I only just got your present. I love it. I promise I’ll write more of our stories down.”

  I look away from the headstone and run my fingers through the grass in front of me. I focus on the feel of it for a while, trying to take a few deep breaths to hold the tears away. I want to try to get through this without breaking down.

  “I did something horrible, something unforgiveable, and I don’t know what I’m meant to feel. I really need you, Dana. I hate that I don’t have you with me anymore. You would have known what I should do.” I try to shake away the thoughts of Corby. I don’t want to bring him into my talk with Dana, so instead I think of Charlie.

  “I’ve met someone; you would love him. I love him. I know, Zoe Holloway in love. Who would have thought? It makes me realize just what Drew has lost. I’ll take care of him, Dee, I will. He’ll always be a part of my life. He will be my family.”

  My hands grip around the Pringles container and I open it up.

  “I have a favor to ask of you. This is future Drew, and he died to tell us the truth. He sacrificed everything and he is the only reason we all made it out alive. I don’t know what life you guys had or where would be familiar to rest his ashes, all I know is that he was with you. So I’ll leave him here so you can look after him. You can still be together.”

  I tip out Drew’s ashes in front of me and, while some are picked up with the light breeze, most just scatter amongst the grass in front of me. Tears have finally broken through now, but I keep talking. I still have one more person to say goodbye to.

  “Joel… I don’t know what to say to you. I still feel angry and betrayed, but then, you saved my life. From what I found out from Ethan and Doctor Pratt, you probably didn’t have a choice for what you did. The person I should be angry at is your future self, or just you for being such a bad shot. I didn’t want to see it or acknowledge it before, but I know you were truly sorry.

  “Having taken a life myself, I know what that does to you. I have a hole in my heart from losing Dana that won’t ever go away, yet I also have a hole in my soul from taking a life. I’ll forever be linked to Corby just like you were forever linked to Dana. She would have forgiven you, and I’m here today to tell you that I’m going to work on trying to forgive you, too. You were right about me carrying around so much anger and I’m going to let that go, as well. I’m sure, if there is an afterlife, then Dana is probably with you right now. Listen to her. She’s pretty wise when she wants to be.” I imagine Dana arguing with Joel about her forgiving him. She never held grudges and, while I doubt she would have ever wanted to die—especially so young—she no doubt would have searched for the positive in it and embraced it.

  “I owe you all a thank you; Joel for saving my life, Drew for putting us on the right path and Dana, thank you for being there every day for me since we met. Thank you for being my family.”

  When I can no longer see anything, I pull out a tissue from my pocket and blow my nose.

  “Zoe?” a woman’s voice speaks from behind me and I jump to my feet, recognizing that voice straight away.

  “Mrs.Hen! I’m sorry I—”

  She cuts me off by hugging me tightly.

  “We were so worried about you when we thought… well, we all thought you ran away. We prayed you would come back to us all safely. To hear on the news what’s been happening… well, I could hardly believe your mother when she said you returned.” I feel her shudder in my arms.

  “I’m okay. I thought you might be… angry at me. Blame me.”

  “What?” Donna pulls away. When I can’t look at her, she roughly grabs my head and places both hands on either side of me, forcing me to look at her directly. “We never blamed you. We blamed that boy who shot her, but even now I realize how damaged he must have been. He even killed himself over his guilt. This is nobody’s fault, just some twisted work of fate. You were Dana’s best friend and I’m so happy my daughter had you in her life. You were both such good kids. It’s a huge fear that your child won’t be accepted, or will end up in a bad group of friends that lead them astray. You were both such good influences on each other. I wouldn’t change anything.”

  I nod, feeling more tears leaking out of my eyes before Donna quickly wipes them away.

  “Now, as I hear it, you have a wedding to attend.”

  WILL PARKER

  Chapter 27 – THE FAMILY

  Ohio

  June 4th

  I watch Freddie leaving Fran’s house, locking up behind him. It’s late and my nerves are eating away at my stomach. This almost feels the same as when I was shot in the chest, minus the pain. I feel the shock, the fear, the not knowing what is going to happen to me.

  What will happen when I emerge from behind the bush I’m cowering behind? What will Freddie say to me? The last he saw of me I was running away, and that was six months ago. What about Fran? What will she say about the fact that I ran away? What am I supposed to say about her going behind my back and contacting child services?

  On one hand, I feel betrayed and angry, but not like I did before. Before, I was forced out of here and nearly caught and it was her fault. Now that it’s over and I’m not on the run, it doesn’t feel the same. I understand that even if Fran had stayed quiet, I still would have had to leave. Rose would still have been in danger and so would Zoe. I was always doomed to leave Ohio. So should I still be angr
y at Fran? Should I leave things how they are between us?

  Freddie slowly makes his way to his car parked out in front, fumbling with his keys and dropping them to the ground. I quickly decide approaching him will be easier and less taxing than seeing Fran, so I stand up from the bushes and make my way towards him.

  “Hey, Freddie,” I call out, deciding the late hour might put him on the defense if he can’t see who I am.

  “Will?” Freddie’s voice croaks out. He drops his just picked up keys again on the ground.

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  Freddie takes several steps towards me, his keys remaining forgotten on the ground. He stops only when he’s close enough to reach out and touch me. “Where the hell have you been?”

  I hesitate; hasn’t he seen the news? I’ve heard my name mentioned, but then, they don’t know my real name.

  “It’s kind of a long story.” I decide I don’t have the energy to talk about it yet.

  Freddie stares at me, and I feel nervous. He appears annoyed with me. “Are you here because of what happened to Fran?”

  “What? What happened to Fran?” I gasp, now nervous in a wholly different way.

  “She had a fall, broke her arm and her leg. I just got her back home tonight. She’s got a nurse visiting her once a day, but she refuses fulltime care.”

  “But she’s okay?” I choke out. Something is in my throat, trying to block the air from entering my lungs.

  “Yeah, man, she’s going to be okay. You know Fran; she won’t let anything get in her way. She asked me to drive her to the library tomorrow morning, said she’s already missed a week off work, and that’s plenty in her book.” Freddie rolls his eyes and some of the annoyance leaves his face as he thinks of Fran.

  I try to calm down my breathing. For some reason hearing about Fran’s injury has got me angry and worried at the same time. I have a need to yell at her to be more careful and the contradictory need to run away and not ever see her again. She’s too breakable, she’s not reliable.

  “So are you here for good or what?” Freddie looks around us suspiciously. “Are we being watched or whatever? Those guys at the restaurant were fucking scary as shit. I went out the back to see what happened to you, and saw three guys out on the ground. I know you can fight, but what the hell, man?”

  “I’m here for good. Those guys are part of the long story. It’s over now, though; I’m free.”

  Freddie nods his head, but I can easily see the questions burning in his eyes.

  “So you’ll still be here tomorrow?”

  “Yes, I think so. I’m not sure where I’m going to stay, though.” I eye Fran’s house. Will she want me there? Do I still have a home?

  “Fran hasn’t touched your room; it’s still there. She’ll want you to go back home.”

  I nod my head, not as sure as he seems to be about that.

  “I need to get back. My mom will flip if I’m out too late. You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Good, tomorrow I’m picking you up and you’re going to tell me everything.”

  “Sure,” I agree, thinking in the morning I’ll have speaking to Fran over with and will feel a lot better.

  “And tomorrow you can see Natalie. She has been driving me insane.”

  “What do you mean?” My attention finally shifts from Fran and suddenly all I can think about is Natalie.

  “If I have to hear your name one more time, I’m going to kill her. Normally, I would slug you one for making my sister like you, but I think I should probably thank you. She’s been on the Will train for six months, man. The longest she’s ever liked anyone and it’s kept the assholes away. So as much as I want to tell you to stay away from my sister, I’m not going to. I’m just going to say that if you ever hurt her, I’ll kill you.”

  I’m speechless. Natalie likes me? Freddie thinks I’ll hurt her? What am I supposed to do?

  “Good to see you still have that deer in the headlights look whenever Natalie is brought up, but if you ever ditch me to see her, I’ll kick your ass. Ninja or not, I can totally take you.”

  I nod, still unable to speak.

  “Good, now hurry up and go see Fran. She’ll love to see you.” Freddie walks back to his dropped keys and takes one off the chain, handing it to me. “I locked up, so take it.” Then Freddie gives me a quick hug, stepping away from me briskly and looking down at his feet. “It’s good to have you back. I’ve missed having a friend. See you tomorrow, Wilma.” Freddie smiles at me and then moves away towards his car.

  I feel a lightness watching him drive away. I haven’t been called Wilma for six months, and I realize I’ve missed it.

  I look back at Fran’s front door, the key in my hand digging into my skin as I grip it harder. It feels presumptuous to just let myself in, however knocking on the door isn’t really an option when Fran has a broken leg. It’s not fair to make her struggle to get to the door.

  I take several deep breaths, knowing I can’t stay out here forever. I have things to do this week, like get to Rose’s wedding. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I need to do. I never really spent any of the money I earned at the restaurant. My only expenses were what I bought to fix Fran’s house, and the few clothes I got while staying here. So I have a lot of money. In my mind, I know what I want to do with most of it.

  On the bus ride here, I thought about my life before The Windmill. I thought about what happened to me after I left Phoenix. I thought about the story future Drew told me about. I still remember his words.

  “Take Will for example. Just over a year from now you would have met a young kid named Ash on Jefferson Street and he’ll be nearly dead. You’ll give him some food and save his life. Gavin and you help him to survive and you become best friends. By coming back here, he ensures you won’t be there to save him. He knows he just sealed his fate.”

  A person I don’t know, named Ash, gave up his future so I could have one. I need to repay that. It’s been just over a year since I was taken, so his time might nearly be up. Before I go to Rose’s wedding, I need to fix that. Then there is the shelter I went to in L.A.; I don’t know why, but I feel like I owe them something. I owe them at least a thank you. I also want to go to school. I want to be normal. I want to do normal things. I don’t know if it’s possible for me to do that, but I want to try it.

  Noises from inside the house bring me back to where I am. I can hear the familiar tune of the news that Fran watches like clockwork. She likes to watch it and then criticize what is being shown. She always yells at least once, “Where are the good news stories?” I don’t really get it, but it’s part of her thing and I don’t question it.

  I take a deep breath and put the key in the lock, turning it. It clicks open and I let myself in, staring at the familiarity of everything. Nothing has changed except for a hole in the far wall, no doubt another handbag incident. I’ll need to fix that up.

  “Freddie, I said you can leave me. I’m not an invalid,” Fran complains, her eyes not leaving the TV.

  “Fran…” I whisper, clearing my throat to say her name again louder.

  Her head whips around quickly when she hears my voice, and for the first time ever, I see Fran crying. “William?”

  “Hi,” I say lamely, ignoring her use of my full name as I step into the living room and stand before her.

  She looks older, frail. She has a cast over her arm and leg, crutches rest by her chair and it looks like she’s settled in to sleep in the chair with a blanket folded on her lap and a pillow already behind her head.

  I have another urge to run. I don’t want to care about her. I don’t want to miss her if she’s only going to leave me. I look away from her, thinking ahead to leaving when I see the short table resting between the couch and Fran’s chair. The leg is broken and she’s piled books under it. Fran would never do that, she respects books above everything else and she hates when people return books to her damaged. Using a book as a table leg would no
rmally be a big no-no to her.

  “You’re really here?” she asks me.

  “Yes.” I stay standing tall, my back straight. I feel like I need to be formal with her, but my eyes stay on the table. It needs to be fixed, and Fran can’t do that. Maybe… maybe I need to stay long enough to fix it, and that hole in the wall. Stay long enough to make sure everything here is okay, as a thank you for taking me in. Then I need to leave. I need to get away.

  “I’m so sorry for contacting child services. I had no idea what would happen. I don’t understand why those men came here. I don’t understand what trouble you’re in, but I know you asked me to drop it and I didn’t.”

  I shuffle on my feet, not sure what I’m supposed to say to that, so I just say the first thing that comes to mind. “How did you fall?”

  She appears taken aback by my question. “It’s stupid really. I lost my balance in the kitchen and tried to break my fall with my hand.”

  I can picture her doing that. I hate knowing that she lives alone, that she fell over when she was alone in the house. What if next time she does something worse? What if no one is here to find her?

  “You need to move.”

  “What?”

  “It’s too dangerous to live here alone.”

  “Excuse me? I am not an invalid. I can look after myself,” she says, suddenly outraged at me.

  “No, you can’t. You’ve just proved that,” I snap back, feeling fearless all of a sudden. I’ve never spoken back to Fran, not like this.

  “I will not ever leave this house. I shared this house with my husband and they will be taking my dead body out of this house. This is my home and it always will be.”

  I blanch when she says her dead body because Fran can’t die. She’s too important… to the library.

  “Listen, I’m tired and I don’t want to fight with you. Are you staying or are you going?” she asks bluntly.

  I shrug, feeling difficult.

  “Fine, go and make yourself useful and get me a cup of tea. Then tomorrow I have some things I want done outside, the garden is in shambles. Freddie is completely useless. But first, for God’s sake, go take a shower. I could smell you from outside.”