My Baby Girl

Chapter 7.

After handing over the diary to the cops, they kept it for evidence. I couldn't read more than I had already, but somehow I was fine with that. I didn't want to read more. I was kind of scared to find out who Hayden's real Dad is. After all, the way my sister was talking about him she didn't want me to know who this guy was.

"Are you okay, Aaliyah?" Eric asked as we drove back home.

I kept starring outside the window, not wanting to look at him or anyone. All I could think about was Grace, and this mystery guy whose actually Hayden's father.

"I'm fine, just confused with everything that's going on," I admitted. I felt Eric place his hand over mine.

"We can invite Charlotte and Isiah over, or we can meet them up at Java Beans. I didn't know your sister the way Isiah did, I feel like you should talk to him."

I heard Eric's words, and I felt like he was right. I felt like I should talk to Isiah, update him on what I learned about Grace's situation.

"The house should be fine, I just want to go home," I said to him.

I felt Eric give my hand a squeeze. I looked over at him and tried to give him a smile. It felt like it was a very lopsided smile, but he happily returned a beautiful smile.

~*~

After about what felt like an hour, or even two hours the garage was clean. I wasn't keeping track of time, there was something just telling me to finishing cleaning Grace's things. I used three boxes for things that will be donated, and one single box that was going to be kept.

As I was closing up one of the boxes to be donated, a box caught my attention. I pulled it out, and immediately tried to open it. The box was locked, I needed to key to open it. I looked at the box closely trying to see if the key was in some secret compartment, or something. There was no key. I gave it a little shake; maybe it's just an empty jewelry box? It wasn't though. As I shook it a bit a rattling sound was heard. There was something in here.

I left the jewelry box hidden under a few blankets we kept in the garage. Whatever is in this box must be important to Grace. I myself had never seen it, and its locked for a reason.

I'll figure out the jewelry box another time. Eric has been telling me for the past minutes that Isiah and Charlotte are here. Now that her things are cleaned out, I felt a bit more relaxed than I did when I first found the notebook.

I walked out of the garage and into the living room. Isiah, Charlotte, and Eric were all sitting around the coffee table probably waiting for me. At this point, I figured Eric had already told them the news, but they showed no signs of that they knew. They just seemed happy to see me.

"Aaliyah, your belly is too cute," Charlotte commented as she got up. She wrapped her arms around me, and I did the same.

"Thanks," was all I managed to say.

Isiah stood after her, and he also came around to give me a hug. I love being with Eric and I love his touch, but there was something nice and familiar about Isiah's embrace.

"How have you been? Eric told us you had something to talk to us about," Isiah said as he pulled away from the hug.

"Yeah, sit down," I instructed him.

Isiah took his seat next to Charlotte, and I took one next to Eric. I wanted to just blurt it out, get the news out there right away. I couldn't though, the words were harder to find than I thought.

"As I was cleaning Grace's things, I found a journal. In that journal Grace mentions that Lucas isn't Hayden's father."

I looked over at Charlotte and Isiah, trying to see what their reaction was. Charlotte looked speechless, and Isiah had an unreadable face.

"Does it say who is?" Isiah questioned.

There was something about the way he asked. He seemed a bit shocked, but at the same time not too much.

"No it doesn't, I don't know who it is," I answered.

"Well did you tell the police? What's going to happen now?" Charlotte questioned. She seemed more concerned than Isiah. Maybe he's at a lost for words?

"We gave the police the journal," Eric started to say. "They're still looking for Lucas and Hayden, but still no luck."

Charlotte shook her head like she was having trouble accepting the news. Isiah on the other hand no longer looked shocked, he looked more worried or scared.

"Are you okay, Isiah?" I questioned him.

Isiah quickly looked at me. He gave me a small smile, and shook his head.

"I just wasn't expecting this type of news," he answered.

I didn't push the matter more, I just dropped it. This was news for us all, and Isiah is just taking it the way he can. Just because he isn't reacting the way I would of assumed, it doesn't mean he doesn't care or isn't shocked.