Dreamer ~ A Daniel Seavey Fanfiction

Chapter 23

HARPER'S POV

Wiping tears from my sister's face, I ask weakly, "What happened? Why didn't you come back for me?"

My question only seems to make her cry harder. "We were going to Harper, you know that was always the plan..." She looks to Dexter for help, but he stares silently at his hands in his lap, tears trickling down his face, just like Hailey. "But Mom and Dad threatened to hurt you if we tried to take you with us."

"What?"

Dexter nods and speaks, almost to himself. "'Her pain will be at your hands. It will be your fault.' That's what they told us." He meets my eyes, holding my gaze. 'If you come back for her, she'll only get hurt.'" He shakes his head. "It was a threat to your life, Harp."

"Oh my God..." I breathe, my head spinning.

Hailey jumps in while I'm still trying to process this. "Mom and Dad forced us to change our names so you wouldn't come looking for us, even after they lied to you about us being dead. We knew the whole plan, exactly what they were going to tell you, exactly what was going to happen. We were going to fight them back on it, but they threatened you so horribly and we..." She pauses to steady herself. "We just couldn't let you get hurt because of us."

"We thought maybe the Sun part in our name would've given it away to you somehow, and we hoped you might've found us because of it," Dex explains. "You know, Sun and Moon?"

I mentally smack myself for not realizing sooner. But then again, considering I had no reason to not believe everything my parents told me about the twins, what purpose did I have to investigate their disappearance?

"It's okay," Hailey says, reading my emotions on my face. "I'm sure that even if you had figured it out and found us, we would've had to keep the act up and pretend we didn't know you. Just to keep you safe from them."

You're never safe from them.

"Oh my God..." I say again. "That's why I never heard from you. You never looked back after that, and all this time I thought you just forgot about me."

"Harper," Hailey says, sounding like I just shattered her soul into dust, and it breaks me. "How could we forget about you? You're our sister. It hurt us worse than anything to leave you in that house, to not tell you what was going on."

Dex joins us, sitting next to Hailey on the hospital bed. "Thank God you found us here. Mom and Dad would freak if they knew..."

"You don't know?" I ask. I'd assumed that UCLA would've known about our parents, would've told Hailey and Dexter somehow, even if Mom and Dad had nothing to do with their full-ride scholarships and were nothing more than a sign-off on some sort of application papers.

"Didn't know what?" Hailey asks.

"Mom and Dad are in jail."

Hailey gasps and covers her mouth with her hands, and Dexter looks dumbfounded. "How?" He asks.

I launch into explanation of my pre-birthday incident - the gun, the drugs, the drinks, the crash, the hospital. Everything. Including...

"Daniel?" Hailey asks, wiggling her brows at me.

"Don't start," I warn, laughing. "You're in a hospital bed, and I'm trying to explain my dramatic story, and you're worried about the boy?"

"Always," Hailey laughs.

"This Daniel, he's..." Dexter pauses. "He's good to you?"

I blush. "I don't know how serious it is yet, but yes, he is."