Chapter 3
1137 Words
Sienna
Six days to go.
I keep telling myself that as I walk to work. Six days and I will know if everything Nadia and I did actually worked. Six days is nothing.
I get to the Morrison house and put my key in the lock.
It does not turn.
I try again. Still nothing. I knock.
Mrs. Morrison opens the door in her robe and her face tells me everything before she says a single word.
"Your key doesn't work anymore," she says flatly.
"Why not?"
"Because I changed the locks last night." She pulls an envelope from her pocket. "This is your final payment."
I stare at her. "Mrs. Morrison what did I do? Please just tell me."
She sighs like I am already exhausting her. "I received a call yesterday. Someone who knows you very well apparently. They told me you are going through serious personal problems. Financial trouble. A messy situation with a former partner." She crosses her arms. "I have children in this house Sienna. I need stability."
"Someone called you." My voice goes very quiet. "Someone called you deliberately to get me fired."
She blinks. I can see she has not thought about it that way.
But then she holds the envelope out again. "My decision is made."
I take it. I look at her one last time. "Can I at least say goodbye to the boys."
She steps back and closes the door in my face.
I stand there for a moment. Then I walk away.
I make it one block before my phone rings.
"Miss Sienna Cole?"
"Yes."
"This is Hartwell Credit Services. I am calling about an outstanding balance registered in your name. Eleven thousand four hundred dollars."
I stop walking. "Say that again."
"Eleven thousand four hundred dollars. The account has been open for eighteen months."
"I don't have an account with Hartwell."
"The account was opened with your full name and your identification number Miss Cole."
"I did not open that account." My hand tightens around the phone. "Someone opened it without my knowledge."
"I understand however the legal liability"
I hang up.
I stand on the pavement and I think about Derek. About how he always handled the mail. About how he laughed and said admin was not my strong point and I let him take over without a second thought because I trusted him completely.
I dial Brooke.
She picks up on the third ring. "Sienna I don't think"
"I am not calling to fight," I say. "I need answers and you are the only person who has them right now. Can you do that. Can you just be honest with me for once."
A long pause. "What do you want to know."
"Did you know Derek was opening credit cards in my name."
Silence.
"Brooke."
"I knew he had some financial complications," she says quietly. "He told me it was complicated but that you were aware of it. I didn't ask more questions because"
"Because you didn't want to know the answers."
She doesn't deny it.
"Eleven thousand dollars Brooke." I press my hand to my forehead. "He stole my identity. He has been spending money and putting the debt in my name. And someone called my employer this morning and got me fired." I pause. "Did he ask you to make that call."
The silence that follows is too long.
"He said it was just one phone call," she whispers. "He said you would be fine. He said"
"Where is he right now."
"He left this morning." Her voice has changed completely. The confidence is gone and what is underneath it sounds a lot like fear. "He packed a bag last night and I asked him what was going on and he kept saying everything was fine but Sienna he was packing like he wasn't coming back."
"Did he say where he was going."
"He said he needed to disappear for a while." She exhales shakily. "I asked him about us. About what was going to happen to us and he just looked at me and said this wasn't a good time."
I close my eyes. "Brooke check your bank accounts tonight. Check everything with your name on it."
"Why. What are you saying."
"I am saying Derek does not use just one person at a time." I keep my voice steady even though nothing inside me is. "Protect yourself."
She is quiet for a moment. I am about to hang up when she speaks again.
"Sienna wait." Something in her voice makes me stop. "He said something last night. Before he left. I didn't understand it then but." She pauses. "He said you were not who you thought you were. He said your whole life, everything you believe about where you came from, has been a lie."
My blood goes cold. "What does that mean."
"I don't know. But he said the people who know the truth are dangerous. He said they have been keeping this secret since before you were born and that it was bigger than anything you could imagine." Her voice drops to almost nothing. "He sounded scared Sienna. Derek was actually scared."
"What people." My voice comes out barely above a whisper. "Brooke what people was he talking about."
But the line is already dead.
I stand there on that empty street with the phone in my hand and the cold wind cutting right through my jacket and I think about what she just said. Everything you believe about where you came from has been a lie.
I grew up in an orphanage. I know nothing about my biological parents. Nothing about where I came from or why I was left or who I belong to. I made peace with that a long time ago because I had to.
But what if someone made sure I never found out.
What if it was never an accident at all.
My phone buzzes in my hand. A message from Nadia.
How are you holding up? Thinking about you today.
I stare at it. I think about calling her back and telling her what Brooke just said. I think about hearing her voice and letting her talk me down the way she always does.
Instead I type back two words.
I'm fine.
I am not fine. I am standing on a street in Silver Ridge with no job, eleven thousand dollars of debt I did not create, and a secret about my own life that someone has apparently been hiding from me since before I was born.
And somewhere out there Derek knows what that secret is.
I start walking. I do not know where I am going yet but I know one thing with absolute certainty.
I am going to find out the truth.
Even if it destroys me.
- Writer
