Echo

Chapter 7

"Time to get up!" Gabriel yelled as he and Blake pounded down the stairs.

We both jumped awake at the sudden noise and tears began to fill Karlie's eyes.

Blake grabbed Karlie and lifted her easily over his shoulder. I immediately jumped up and grabbed him clawing at his face.

Gabriel came up behind me and wrapped his arm tightly around my neck. I struggled to breathe and turned my attention to getting his arm off me. All of the sudden he let go and elbowed me in the head knocking me down.

"Please, please, don't, hurt her." I plead gasping for air.

"That's up to you" Gabriel said closing the door as soon as Blake had climbed out of the room with Karlie screaming for him to let her go.

"You're are a terrible person! You would seriously hurt your own daughter?!" I yelled angrily.

"For all I know she could be Blake's, he recently informed me that he climbed on top of you after I did. So whose is it?"

"I don't know." I said looking at the floor.

Gabriel stomped over, grabbed me under the chin and lifted me off the ground.

"You do know! Now whose the father of that annoying little brat?!"

"I don't know!" I chocked out tears falling down my face.

"Let go! Your hurting me" I yelled trying to pry his hand off of me.

"Fine!" He yelled throwing me back into the ground.  "If you won't tell me I'll just have to fine out for myself. I'll just have to decide what to take for her DNA sample.. Maybe a strand of hair, or maybe a finger." If finished walking up the stairs.

"Wait.."

"What? You don't like that idea?" He laughed turning around.

"Yours, she's yours" I cried "please don't hurt her!"

"See was that really so hard? To bad you didn't have a boy, he could have taken over the family business." he smirked as he closed the door above me.

He doesn't know about Braxton.. How does he not know? There's no way he had someone working for him in the hospital, they would have known that Karlie has a twin brother. But if not from there then how did he find out about Karlie? I wondered

Part of me was relieved he only knew about one of the babies, while another part was in full on panic mode about how he knew about Karlie. I sat there in thought trying to remember if I had told anyone about her. There's really not many people that knew I was even pregnant. And soon after they were born Luke and I moved across the country.

The door above opened and Karlie ran down the stairs straight into my arms. And it dawned on me as I wrapped my arms around her.

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Six months after Luke and I had moved in a new couple moved in right next door to us. I always thought it was a little different how friendly they were and how much they wanted to get to know us, but I just figured they were overly friendly and didn't know anyone around.

I had just received my first photo of Karlie moments before there was a knock on the door....

"Ivy, hi" I said opening the door.

"Hi Emma, are you ok? You look like you've been crying."

"No, I'm fine." I said smiling "come in"

"I just wondered if you wanted to go to lunch today?" Ivy asked sitting on the couch.

"Um. Sure, yeah, let's go. I'll just go grab my purse." I said walking into the kitchen and grabbing my purse off the counter.

"Who's this?" Ivy asked.

I walked over to Ivy and took the picture from her hand my heart began to race.

"That. Is. My. Daughter." I said slowly.

"You have a daughter?" Ivy asked curiously.

"Well I gave her up for adoption."

"Oh, do you know her name?"

"It's Karlie, but that's all I know about her." I said trying to get the conversation to end.

We went to lunch that day and after that I didn't see much of them, she stopped coming over and rarely came out of their house.

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I felt a tugging at my arm and snapped back into reality.

"Emma? Emma? Are you ok?" Karlie asked looking at me with eyes full of worry.

"Sorry, I was just thinking, are you ok? Did they hurt you?" I asked.

"No, but they locked me in a room. One guy said that my mommy isn't my real mommy." She said tears in her eyes. "Is that true?"

I hesitated unsure of what to say.

"Your mom did not give birth to you, but that doesn't mean that she isn't your mom." I explained as best I could.

"I wanna go home." Karlie cried. "Why won't they let us go home?"

"These men are not good people, Karlie. They're using you to try and hurt someone else."

"Who are they trying to hurt?"

"Me." I whispered. "I'll find a way to get you home, I promise."