The Heiress They Ignored

Chapter Six

Amera

I was just about to sit on the bed when I heard a knock on the door.

“Co… Come in.”

It was the younger man from earlier.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’m feeling better… Thank you.”

“Please, walk with me.”

“Huh?” I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly.

“I was wondering if you wanted to take a walk by the garden. I heard you were inside all day.”

I nodded in response.

We sat across from each other on the bench between the garden and the fountain.

“I brought us cookies and hot chocolate. You haven’t eaten much. I thought you might be hungry.”

“Thank you,” I said as I took a sip from my mug.

The evening breeze was wonderful. The way the coolness of it blended so well with the hot chocolate made it even more refreshing.

I let out a little sigh and felt my shoulders drop.

“Can I ask you something, Amera?”

I looked up.

“How did you end up out there last night?”

I expected this question sooner or later. You could almost say I was prepared, but as I stared down at my hands, I was suddenly unsure of where to begin.

“I… I was going home.”

“From where?”

“A party.” I swallowed. “My boyfriend broke up with me there.”

His eyebrows furrowed slightly, but he didn’t interrupt.

“Then I got home and…” I paused, trying to find the right words. “My family threw me out.”

“Apparently, I’m not their biological daughter. They said they couldn’t keep housing me anymore.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“So, I left with my bags. I didn’t have anywhere to go.”

I looked away.

“Then those men showed up.”

His expression changed.

“The men from last night?”

I nodded.

“They tried to rob me… and then…” My voice trailed off.

I didn’t want to finish the sentence. Thankfully, the look on his face told me he understood.

“You don’t have to tell me the rest if you don’t want to.”

I looked at him.

“I just want to understand what happened to you.”

“Can you tell me about your childhood? And your… former parents?”

I lived with the Pauls pretty much my whole life, or for as long as I could remember.

“My mom, Alice, worked in real estate with my dad, Alex. We moved around a few times because the company they worked for had them visit new locations for work. Before we moved here, we lived on Ashford Street, by, uhm… Halston Avenue.”

“I’m really sorry to interrupt you, but did you say Halston Avenue?”

“Yeah. You know it?” I asked.

“I stayed there once with my grandparents during the summer of 2008.”

“2008? We left after the summer of 2008. Could it be that we met?”

“Could you hold on for just a moment?”

That was unexpected.

Well, maybe he needs to use the restroom.

“Can you look at these pictures for me, please? I had a small camera when I was younger. These are the pictures I took during the summer of 2008.”

I took one look at the photos, and a rush of nostalgia hit me.

“I remember these sunsets, and the neighbours in the area. The children’s playground… Oh my goodness, I can’t believe you lived there as well.”

I was stopped mid-giggle when I saw a picture of our house from back then.

It got worse as the pictures became close-ups, with each one closer than the last, until there was one taken right at our doorstep.

I thought it was creepy because I didn’t see pictures of other houses in the neighbourhood, until I saw pictures of myself.

There were about five pictures of just me, and I didn’t know I’d let my intrusive thought out when I said, “This is very creepy. Were you stalking me?”

“I don’t think children knew what it meant to stalk, Amera. I was only seven. I was very fond of you, but I couldn’t talk to you. The up-close shots of your house were me trying to keep a record of how many times I showed up at your house but just couldn’t knock. Looking at it in hindsight… it looks like I was stalking you.”

We both laughed.

Wow, this is so weird.

Jeremy

I realise now that I should have probably looked at those pictures before showing them to her.

“To clear the air, though, me running into you that night was entirely… unplanned. I wasn’t stalking you. We didn’t come back to the area the next year. The next summer I visited was when I was eleven. My grandparents said your family had moved after I left, so I never saw you again.”

The news about the reason for their move wasn’t exactly business.

It was more like they hurriedly left, and two days later, some people came looking for them.

It was something about a child.

Wait!

Could it be that Amera was the one they were looking for?

“How many siblings did you have?”

“There were four of us. There are three now. Why?”

“When you were thrown out, did they say any of your siblings were also not biological?”

Her countenance changed a bit. Maybe I’m asking difficult questions.

“No, they didn’t. Where are you going with this?”

I can’t tell her anything until I know for sure, so if I’m wrong, it won’t be disappointing.

“Nowhere. I was just wondering. I’ve kept you out for too long now. I think we should go to bed.”

“No, it’s okay. I needed the fresh air. Thank you again, for everything.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll walk you to your room.”