Fighting For America

Part 4 (Chapter Eighteen-Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Eighteen

A New Family

I hated my life.  Seriously.  My life was like a soap opera with all the bad stuff that was happening to me.  How many people can actually say they were kidnapped as a toddler and raised by another family and eventually reunited with their biological family after the kidnapping parents were dead?  Not many.  Unfortunately, I was one who could.

Jessica was so relieved and happy when she found out that I was her missing child.  Mark and Collin were a little more cautious, not even coming into the hospital room.  I was okay with that.  Jessica was smothering me enough as it was.  Of course there was a DNA test to determine if I was indeed Amanda Ward, but the test only confirmed what Jessica and I already knew.  I was Amanda, the child that was kidnapped by Jackie Mills, also known as Martha Martin.  Mark and Collin were less cautious after the DNA test came back and once I was discharged from the hospital I was relieved.  I could finally get away from the Wards long enough to have some time to think through what was happening to me.

I hadn’t seen Nathan since my true identity was revealed.  I knew Collin told him who I really was, and I’m sure that it was bringing back horrible memories of Meredith and giving him and his family false hope of being able to find her alive.

I had been out of the hospital for a week after being admitted for the longest three days of my life.  There had just been too much smothering.  It was May twelfth and I hadn’t seen another soul in seven days.  That was okay with me, but there were two people I wanted to see that I couldn’t. 

My parents.

I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stop thinking of them as my parents.  They had kidnapped me, hadn’t loved me, and had no right for me to call them my parents.  But that was who they were.  I wanted to talk to them and ask them why.  Why had they kidnapped me?  Was I the first child, or had they kidnapped for other people before? 

After a week to think things over, I began to suspect why they had stolen me.  I was the daughter of Mark and Jessica Ward, known opponents of the Jameson Nation.  Jeffery and Martha Martin were staunch supporters.  I was stolen because of who my parents were.  My entire life, even the life I didn’t know about, had been shaped by the identity of my parents.  I had been kidnapped because my parents didn’t want more people joining the rebels or because they wanted to break the hearts of rebel supporters.  I wasn’t sure why, but I was sure it had something to do with Mark and Jessica being rebels.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about my new family.  Actually, I knew I didn’t really want anything to do with the Wards.  Jessica would hover, Mark would be uncomfortable around me, and Collin, I don’t know what Collin would do.  The first few days I knew him he flirted with me relentlessly.  At least that would never happen again.  Collin was pretty much the only positive to come out of this situation.

For the first time, I had a brother.

And I was a little disappointed in him.  Jessica and Mark had both came by my room, knocking on the door, asking if I was taking my medication and eating.  I would slide a note under the door saying I was and that I wasn’t ready to talk to anyone yet, but Collin hadn’t stopped by.  I was actually pondering letting him in if he stopped by.  Hannah had dropped by too.  She would ask the same questions as Mark and Jessica, but not as forcefully and not as often.  I actually dignified her questions with a verbal response through the door.

I wanted Nathan to come by, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.  Okay, I guess technically he did come by.  We had texted over the last several days, and he would bring me lunch and dinner.  I wanted him to knock and come eat with me so I wouldn’t be alone, but he didn’t.  He would just text me after he left it at my door and I would text back my thanks.  I guess he assumed I wanted my privacy, but if he asked I would let him in.