I Used To Wonder | BOOK 2 | COMPLETED

|| Chapter 29 ~ Scarlett ||

'I'll be one minute!' Mae seems desperate to not miss the film. She lets me in as well, running up the twisted staircase.
I'm left by her fathers desk as he appears from around the corner. 'Oh, hello!'
I smile glancing at the pictures he has of Mae when she was little, 'she seemed like a happy child. Apparently I never stopped crying.'
I laugh a little and so does he, 'I guess it was hard for Mae,' he starts, placing some files on his desk, 'she was adopted, you see.'
I never would of guessed, 'Oh. Does she know.'
Mr Wilson laughs a little, 'no. But we are planning to tell her tonight, when she gets back. We want her to start her life knowing who she is and where she came from, especially with a new friend.'
We weren't as close of friends yet but Mr Wilson had probably took it another way. I give a slight smile in response to his statement.
'When we adopted her, she wanted us to call her Scarlett,' I froze. I remember the day at the police office. Everything. The tears. The sadness. The loss. 'But we just changed her name to Mae, my mother in law's name.' He smiled while my eyes drifted off. Is this a coincidence or could this be real?
'Do you,' I stutter, 'Do you know how she was put into an orphanage?'
He gives a slight nod and my stomach flips like I did on Ivy's trampoline when we were younger, 'something to do with a fair. She was lost and had no idea -,' tears are in my eyes but not one had leaked. He is rambling on but I already know the story. I know all of it. Mr Wilson doesn't look me in the eyes once.
When Mae comes back down stairs with a smile I feel sick because I know that all I had been doing was be friends with Isaac's sister. I gulp down my feelings and smile back, even if I didn't mean it she didn't see past it.

All the way through the film I was tense. Rethinking everything. Am I mad? Do I tell Isaac? Do I tell anyone? Once I drop her off home, she just smiled and waved, shutting the door and walking into her house. She had no idea what would come her way. I was surprised she couldn't tell I was off about something, about anything. The way I smiled. The way I acted. The way I spoke as though I wanted to make a good impression.
'You're back!' Isaac hugs me as I look down, barely hugging back. 'What's wrong?' I take him to the sofa and tell him to wait there. I go to the toilet, texting my dad what had happened to me from the past 3 hours and now. Sitting on the toilet seat, phone in my hand as the 3 dots move up and down. I would want to know. Even if it would hurt.
I didn't want to hurt Isaac! Never.
Once I come back to him he is twirling his thumbs in a loop. 'So?' He asks stopping as soon as I sit down next to him.
'I don't want to hurt you. You know that, right?' He nods unsurely of the situation, 'I know talking about Scarlett is hard -,'
'Leora,' he stops me, 'I don't want to talk about it.' He stands up, walking away from the situation.
'Isaac, please.'
'No. You know how hard it is for me to even say Scarlett.'
'Then say Mae.' Silence has taken over. He has his back to me but I can slightly see his jaw clenching. I look down at my hands. What had I done?
'What?'
'Mae,' I repeat slowly, 'I think... I'm sure, I don't know.'
I have my head in my hands as he comes to sit next to me, 'go slow. I won't be mad if it's a mistake. Tell me everything.'
And I do. Hearing the weird details makes his eyes flicker to my hands. It's not like Mae would come running back to the Hunters. 14 years without them and they are practically strangers. 'If I hadn't gone to the library,' I repeat over and over again.
'All this time,' he trances my palms with his index finger and thumb, 'I knew I recognised her. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. But she won't ever see me as her brother and never should she have to.' I look up at him, 'she is with them, legally. They want a closed adoption.'
I nod rethinking over and over how I could ever treat her the same as I knew she was being told the same information in that moment, not knowing Isaac was right in front of her.