Since Birth

Chapter Twenty Nine

Once again he had already made up our mind for us. Told us that he had paid for movers to help get our things out so we could be at his place by Thursday. The other news was that mom was not coming with us, he told us she had refused which was not surprising. Our mother still had her pride and wouldn't scoot to his level to compromise. His excuse was that we weren't safe in the house anymore and that his home was reclusive and out of the public eye.
"What's next we're going to have to go to a new school because too many people know us?" Aimee sneered to me when we had gone upstairs. "I mean, you do find this ridiculous right? We grew up in this house em!"
"Whoever kidnapped you is still out there." I reminded her and she snapped back at me angry.
"Don't you think I know that!? I fucking lose sleep over it!" She rolled her eyes and turned her back to me. "I really just want things to go back to normal for me and going to live with dad will not be normal."
"But it'll be safe." I swallowed hard expecting her to turn and yell at me again but instead she sighed slumping her shoulders.
"Sure," she mumbled. "Safety first."

•••

It was Monday morning now and Aimee had not come downstairs yet.
I kept checking my phone to see the time as I ate breakfast alone wondering when and if she was going to come join me. I knew this was a big step for her so I didn't want to push it further than I had. I figured she needed the extra minutes and no breakfast to prepare herself, but of course I was still awfully worried. I had no idea how this day was going to pan out, this was just the tip of the ice berg.
"Morning!" She came running down the stairs and I jolted out of my seat to look at her. She wasn't wearing dark makeup or any dark clothes really. Actually, I think she had went into my closet... "Couldn't think of what to wear." She said smiling brightly at me and then looking down to her outfit shyly. "I hope you don't mind." She looked back up to me with big eyes and I furrowed my brows shaking my head trying to get out of the trance.
"No, no it's fine I don't- I haven't worn that skirt in months!" I brushed it off looking back to her with this teal blouse neatly tucked in my frayed white skirt. She looked good in it I couldn't lie. She looked so innocent, even pinned her hair back with bows. I was throughly surprised, shocked even.
She did a little twirl and beamed at me giggling excitedly. "Em, I feel like a new person." After last night, I was not expecting this but I was going with it. For her.
She said she was too nervous to eat breakfast so we left together to go to school. We were still early but not early enough to be the only people there so she kept getting preoccupied with people waving to her and apologizing for what happened to her. Some people including myself still curious as to what had happened to her. What had happened to my sister out in those woods?
Someone had nicely decorated her locker with flowers and people were dropping things off at this shrine saying Welcome Back Aimee Meyer! She was so happy that someone had done that for her and honestly could not believe it. She was getting hugs left and right, teachers being so nice to her and adoring her. She deserved it, I couldn't deny that, but I couldn't help but feel like I was walking in her shadow. Half of the people didn't even take the time to notice I was standing right behind her. It was puzzling but I would not hold that against her. It was her day and I was going to let her have it.
"Good Morning Emelie." I turned around taking in a deep breath as Mr.Holland approached me and I forgot that I hadn't messaged him about tutoring Saturday.
I hit my forehead shaking my head at him. "I totally forgot about tutoring!" I bit my lip gently and he shut his eyes briefly chuckling.
"Please don't worry about it." He assured me putting his hands on his hips and looking down to me.
"How can I ever make it up to you?" I looked to him with pleading eyes and he smirked looking me straight in the eyes. I'd have to admit that it made my heart flutter when he did.
"I'm sure you'll find a way." We held our gaze for just a moment before my face sunk remembering that we were in the hall. I spun around to Aimee and he walked past me smiling to her.
"Welcome back Aimee." He nodded to her and kept walking to his classroom. She turned back to me smiling and waggling her eyebrows making my skin grow cold from fear. Did she know?
"I think Mr.Hot pants has it out for me." She winked at me and I gave a quick smile trying to shrug it off. She knew I wasn't good with hiding things. I had no idea how I had kept it from her for so long..
"Well you better hurry to class Aim, I'll see you third." She came over and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you for this Em, I wouldn't have been able to do it without you." I gave a small smile and she kissed my cheek again.
"Lets not get all sentimental here." I laughed and patted her on the shoulder. "See you third." I walked past her and into first period with Mr. Hot pants... I immediately and totally accidentally made eye contact with Riley who rolled her eyes at me and moved her bag. I ignored it and sat as far as I could away from her to avoid all contact. She was toxic. I knew that now.
"Good Morning class!" Everyone came in and sat down chatting quietly amongst themselves. I sulked however in my chair and began writing down notes. It was really all I had to look forward to. Learning and being ahead of the game. Keeping my head down really made the classes fly through.
"Hey sunshine!" A hand went across my back and I jumped turning to see Leigh smiling up at me. When I said she was small, she was small. Her head came almost up to my shoulder.
I placed my hand over my heart taking slow breaths. "Hey, you scared me!"
"Sorry, was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me in the library today?" She asked batting her eyelashes at me like some sad puppy.
I gave a short laugh and scratched my head saying, "I'm not sure, Aimee is back today and I don't know what she wants to do for lunch."
She bit her lip and shrugged looking down to the ground sadly. "Well if you don't, if it's okay with you, could I pos-"
"Of course!" I cut her short nodding quickly. "That's like no problem at all, please come join us seriously." I think I was a little too eager but I kinda needed someone else right now. My friend of several years has become bitter and jealous so I needed this, someone who looked up to me- not literally speaking.
"Thanks Em and em! I really do appreciate it. Nolan skipped out on me today."
"That might be my fault." I didn't want to get into it but she had to know right? They seemed like besties.
"Well he sorta told me about that and I wouldn't blame you. Nolan can be such a player sometimes." She shook her head in thought I'm assuming they had a thing before... I couldn't tell. "But he likes you, always have." She shrugged looking down to the floor again.
"Always have?" I questioned and her big eyes shot back up to me always frightened, like she had said too much. "Come on little bird, tell me." I pushed her and she grinned searching my eyes intently.
"Little bird," she said and then giggled. "I like that."
"Well you can't say he's always liked me and not tell me since when!" We started heading to the cafeteria finally and she nudged me.
"Just like everyone else, it was the moment they saw you." She grazed the back of my arm and I looked back to her laughing nervously.
"That's a lie and everyone knows it." I rolled my eyes thinking back to Riley.
"That shit head Riley doesn't know anything." She shrugged and I wish I could believe her or anyone who said she was nothing. I loved Riley, she was my best friend. How could I not have realized how terrible she could actually be?
Aimee was sitting at our usual table and she was surrounded by people. She had the biggest smile on her face and I knew I should've been happy for her but it was weird.
We both made eye contact with one another and it felt like things had begun to move in slow motion, like it was only us. She was staring and laughing and then she looked to me and winked. She winked at me and then things sped back up to normal speed. I went to join them all with Leigh beside me but it was impossible to get close enough to Aimee.. there were so many people blocking the way to get to her that I couldn't.
I turned back to Leigh and she put her hand on my shoulder sympathetic. We had left as fast as we had come in. I felt I really couldn't open up to her but I had no one else and she was here for me right now. I needed a friend right now, no drama.
"This is what I wanted." Normalcy. I had to remind myself that even if it was a little bit abnormal. I turned to Leigh as we walked to the library and I asked, "What research do you have on my sister?"
"I-I can show you." She was a bit hesitant and I wasn't sure why. "Come to my house, after school."
I stopped walking and turned to her frowning asking her honestly, "Do you think it's something I'd want to know?"
She looked over my face and nodded quickly. "I think it's something you should research about, especially if we want to catch him."
"Wait, catch him?" I leaned to her making sure I heard her correctly.
"He deserves to pay for the damage he's caused to this town and I know where to start looking." I believed her... I wanted to know. I wanted to find him still and make him pay for what he had done to Aimee.
We shortly parted ways and I spent the rest of the school day thinking of who he could be. It had to have been someone we knew, someone that felt threatened by Aimee or maybe even turned down. I had absolutely no idea and that was because I knew I didn't know Aimee as well as I thought I did. She had secrets that she kept from me and I knew that now. In order to find him, I had to learn more about her. I had to know everything I could about my sister.
She had let me know during gym class that her and Trevor were going to hang out and that he was going to give her a ride home. I was hesitant to say yes but it would give me time to look in her room before I went to go see Leigh. So I was okay with it and went home by myself seeing that my father was home along with some moving guys.
"Hey Emelie how was school?" He said walking past me and patting me on the shoulder. "I got some of the guys to come by today so don't be alarmed about the strange men."
"School was okay, Aimee did surprisingly well at school today. People showered her with adoration and attention."
"Was it too much for her?" He stopped to look at me concerned and I shook my head shrugging.
"She seemed to be enjoying it. Barely noticed I was around her." I gave a soft chuckle and turned to go up stairs. "I'm going to go do some homework and then hang out with my friend Leigh after." I said halfway up the stairs.
He shot a look at me and asked, "Leigh who?" Of course he wouldn't know who she was...
"Jordan, she doesn't live too far from here." I looked up the stairs seeing Aimee's bedroom door was cracked and I looked back to my dad. "She's really nice."
"Text me the address and please be careful hun." He turned away from me and continued to delegate to the movers shaking his head in frustration at them before raising his voice. I went upstairs and slipped into Aimee's room as slyly as I could though I was sure I looked like an idiot. Literally no one was watching me or had any idea what I was trying to do. I had to roll my eyes at myself...
Aimee's room wasn't as messy as I remembered it to be. She had a few clothes on the floor from the morning but it was relatively neat and tidy which she never was in her life. I had no idea what I was looking for exactly.. A diary? Something out of place? There was definitely something off about how her room was- which meant it'd be more difficult to search without moving something out of place and being caught. Still, I searched, rummaging through her drawers as quickly and quietly as possible. Nothing. Under her bed there was nothing. I searched the closet and found nothing. I was left scratching my head until I had noticed the bed had been moved. I got down on my knees tucking my hair behind my ear and pushing the bed slightly uncovering a line in the carpet, as if it had been cut. I pulled on the carpet and it unfolded back revealing a missing floor board. A hole in the ground meant to hide things away from anyone.. my heart began to race just thinking of what could be in there. In that moment I had questioned everything about Aimee. I questioned if I wanted to know what was in there, if I wanted to lose my sisters trust... Was this worth it?
I leaned towards the hideaway and stuck my hand in touching and grabbing a book, my sisters diary. I pulled it out and sat it in my lap running my fingers across the top of it and debating if I should go any further. I was afraid of what I would find out but I needed to find out something. Something was wrong. Nothing has felt right.. everything had been off and I was so tempted to open the book, so tempted to find out the secrets of Aimee.... but I couldn't. I couldn't lose her trust. If I did this, how could she ever trust me again? If she wanted me to know, she would have told me right?
I threw the book back into the hole and put everything back exactly as I had found it. I had to trust my sister and know that if she was hiding something from me it was for a reason. She wanted to protect me as much as I wanted to protect her. I figured I could get some answers from Leigh and so I drove to the address she had given me feeling faint and as if I had no more energy. The fresh air had helped but I was still afraid of what she was even going to tell me. She seemed to care more about it than I had or anyone else. She was going to be my way to the truth.
She lived on the opposite side of me where the houses were closer together and smaller than the ones in my neighborhood. The house I pulled up to was made of brick and had several tools and toys in the front of the yard. It wasn't a bad place by any means but like Riley's place, you could tell there were multiple kids inside and parents that got tired easily from the small tasks and so everything was unfinished.
I tucked my keys into my pocket and approached the door ringing the doorbell only once. I stepped back and looked behind me seeing a black car parked on the opposite side of the street, one similar to the one I had seen parked outside of my house that day. I knew I didn't get a good glance at it but I was almost sure it was the same vehicle.
"Hello?" I turned back to the door blinking rapidly and shaking my head trying to remember why I was there.
I smiled brightly to the woman that answered. Despite the autumn weather she was sporting a tank top that showed off her heavily tatted body and very plump breast. She was very small like Leigh but had more attitude in her face, looking to me as if i did not belong in this side of town.
"Hi I was looking for Leigh." I finally said and the woman rolled her eyes and turned to scream behind her.
"Leigh! You have a visitor!" She moved from the door and screamed again, "For fucks sake you have to let me know when you're having friends over."
"I told you she was coming." I could hear Leigh's voice even though it was so much lower and had zero attitude.
"You know I have far more important things to do than to listen to you." She scolded definitely contradicting herself.
Leigh made an appearance at the door shaking her head in dismay. "Sorry," she apologized scrunching up her face. "My sister gets worked up over nothing, come on in, please." She moved out of the way and I walked in trying not to look around too much. Her sister was sitting on the couch in the center of the room with now a baby in her arms and a toddler sleeping beside her. The tv was on and was turned to almost maximum volume despite the sleeping child. I was staring too hard I knew it because her sister had pulled her tank down exposing her left breast bringing the child towards her to feed. I blushed super hard and turned to Leigh who had been grabbing a few things.
"Leigh, tell your friend that it's really not polite to stare." She grumbled from the couch and my cheeks grew even hotter.
"I-I didn't mean to-" I stammered looking to Leigh for help.
She sucked her teeth and looked over at her sister angrily saying, "You don't have to scare away every guest I bring home Lane, And introduce yourself sometimes. I know mom has taught you better."
"Mom isn't here." She snapped back and her baby began to cry. Leigh grabbed my arm and pulled me along with her to what I believed was her bedroom.
"I'm sorry about her." She opened her door and dragged me along, really having a strong grip. "She can get moody sometimes, she might be pregnant again." She shook it off and turned to face me with a gentle smile grabbing my forearms. "But I'm glad you came."
"Yeah I figured it wouldn't hurt." I smiled back to her and she let go of me,moving out of the way so that I could now see her bedroom. It wasn't big but it was spacious. She had a loft bed in the back littered by several posters of bands, paintings, and art I assumed she had created. Realistic like portraits of women mostly looking solemn and broken but beautiful. All of them full of detail and as if they were alive and standing in this room.
"I'm sort of an artist," she chuckled to me noticing I had been admiring her art. "If you couldn't tell from my hair." She giggled now and my eyes fell down to her grinning at how shy she had become.
"You're so talented, like those artist on Instagram where their art is so realistic that it looks like it was a picture." I laughed and began to walk around getting a closer look at the paintings and becoming more familiar with her room. "I could never do anything like this." I snorted shaking my head at myself.
"Well it takes practice of course, years of doubting yourself and thinking you'll never get better." Her voice became softer, not as cheery as she had usually been so I turned back to face her. I wasn't sure what she actually meant but I could relate to what she had said. "But someday you get there and it'll all have been worth it." She smiled and looked to the floor shrugging. "But you're not here for that talk."
"But I will be from this point on," I was being generous. I wanted to let her know that she had a friend. "Anytime you need to talk."
"I appreciate that Emelie, I really do." She searched my eyes and then sorta smiled to herself before quickly looking to her desk and grabbing the folders that sat on top of it. "But here is everything I found or um, pieced together." She now walked over to her bed and I followed sitting down beside her. She ran her fingers across the top folder and opened it with a sigh. "The first victim, Camille Cole, was pregnant at the time of her murder. Her boyfriend wasn't aware of the baby and was broken when he found she had gone missing, even more so when she turned up dead. She was missing for weeks before they found her body thrown out like garbage by the river. I know everyone had claimed she had been raped and sexually assaulted when they found her but I think it was consensual. I think she knew who murdered her, planned on running away with him and things got complicated when she no longer wanted to be with him because she was pregnant."
"But she lost all contact with her family." I stopped her remembering this was Camry's sister she was talking about. I don't think she would've just ran away with a lover without letting her sister know. Though now I was questioning what Aimee had done to keep things away from me, especially boyfriends.
"No, she kept in contact with her sister Camry during her disappearance but that's not in the police report. Camry never reported it."
"Why wouldn't she? She cared about her sister." I was confused and trying to understand this. It didn't make much sense.
"That's exactly why she didn't, Camille didn't want her to look for her."
"And how do we know it wasn't her murderer that sent the texts?"
"Because it wasn't texts, it was calls." She flipped through her folder and pulled out a sheet with a ton of numbers on it. She pointed to the middle of the sheet which had a date and a phone number beside it. "This is Camry's number and Camille had called her several times during her disappearance. This is evidence that they've stored away and ignored for years until Aimee disappeared and two body's were found. I think they all knew him. Jasmine Bird, the second victim and Gloria Smith the third. There is one connection that ties them all together- one single connection that even ties Aimee to them."
"And what's that?" I questioned looking over her face as it became solemn. I could tell she didn't want to tell me meaning it was someone that I knew too. "Who?" I asked impatiently and she quietly moved a few pages in the folder pulling out this picture of my mom. I frowned confused and grabbed the picture between my fingers. I looked it over and looked back to her saying, "That's my mom."
She nodded replying, "I know, and they all worked for her, Jasmine, Camille, Gloria- before they disappeared, they worked for your mom Sandra. And of course Aimee, she's your mothers daughter."
"So what are you trying to say?" I knew I sounded offended but I was just bewildered at this finding, all of the findings she had just weren't settling in my head.
"Whoever kidnapped your sister must work closely with your mom."