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Chapter Six
Vanessa
Vanessa ran to her window when she got Opal inside, but it seemed he had already gone. She didn’t know what she expected to see him do, but it felt important that she watch him for some reason. When she felt sure he had gone, she turned to Opal.
“What happened?” she asked.
Opal lifted one shoulder and wouldn’t look at Vanessa.
“Did Hunter say something to you?”
“He just asked me about school and stuff. And our old house.”
“Okay.” Vanessa sat down, trying to understand what had happened to make her daughter look so afraid of him. “What sort of things did he ask?”
“What my favorite subject is and how I like our new apartment.”
“He asked about our new apartment? How did he know it was new?”
“Umm.” Opal looked at her mother, the fear still in her eyes. “I don’t know. He asked if I had a lot of friends and when I said no, he asked if we lived here long and I said no.”
“Okay…” Well, that was the truth and there wasn’t denying that. Anyone at the school would know they were new to the area. “What else?”
“I think I said…” She mumbled something that Vanessa couldn’t make out, and she started crying, which made it even harder to understand her.
“Calm down, sweetie.” She held her close and stroked her hair. “What did you say?”
“My name,” she finally mumbled.
“Which name?”
“Opal.”
Vanessa tried not to react, but her heart tightened. Of all people, Hunter and his mysterious nature was the last person she wanted Opal to slip up to. Someone at school might have blown it off or let it go. But Hunter might have been actually trying to get information from Opal. And that made everything worse.
“It’s okay,” Vanessa said. “It’s done now and there’s nothing we can do about it. If it comes up again, just tell him it’s your pretend name.”
“Are they going to take me away now?” She choked out a sob and squeezed her arms tighter around her mother.
“No, baby. I won’t ever let that happen.”
“But you said—”
“I know, but it’ll be okay. I promise. We just have to make sure we keep using our fake names from now on.”
“I will, I promise. I’m sorry.”
Vanessa smoothed down her hair and wiped her eyes. “It’ll be okay.”
But all that day, Vanessa was plagued by thoughts of Hunter. He kept showing up out of nowhere, and it was starting to bother her. But it was also exciting her. The two ideas tore at her heart. Her need to keep Opal safe and hidden versus her need to feel wanted and desired. They took turns winning. When she saw Hunter, it was hard to want him gone, but something always left her thinking that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to spend much time with him. Something just felt off about it all.
When they headed out of the house the next morning to get to school, Vanessa saw a black van sitting alongside the road in front of her apartment. It shouldn’t have alerted her. It was just a plain van sitting there. But it felt ominous. It gave her the feeling that someone was watching, someone was tracking them. She hurried Opal into the car, looking back frequently to see if anyone got out or if anyone approached her car.
She drove them to school, constantly looking in her mirror to see if the van or someone else was following. She thought they got there okay, but the feeling of eyes on her kept up as they entered the building. By the time she dropped Opal off and got into her office, she was glad to shut the door and with it, the chance that anyone could see her without her knowing it.
Was she losing her mind? First, Hunter and now this van. Her paranoia was on overdrive. What would she do if Jeremy found them? Where would she run? How would she get Opal out of there and keep them safe? Too many unanswered questions. All morning, she was on edge. A student came to her office, knocked on her door, and she nearly jumped out of her skin.
When it was time for her lunch break, she had to get up and do something. On occasion, she walked by Opal’s classroom if she had a few minutes. She liked to peak in on her and see her at work. But this time when she walked by the classroom, it was empty. She stood in the doorway for a moment, trying to think if they were at lunch or some special class.
