The Secrets We Keep

Chapter 1-A Birthday Suprise

        Yawning I walked downstairs, I had my thrown blanket wrapped around my shoulders. My hair looked like a rat’s nest and I did not feel like brushing it yet so I wrapped it into a bun. My glasses were dirty; I have not worn them for quite some time, but my last set of contacts fell down the drain and my new ones will not be in until next week.

         “Happy Birthday,” Everybody shouted cheerfully.

         I had almost forgotten what day it was. Jana and Jack Stevenson had taken me in all those years ago. They already had their hand full with both of them of being police officers. They also had two children, just a few months older than me. Their children were twins, Emily and Lucas.

         Emily smiled at me, “How does it feel, to finally be sixteen?” she asked handing me my plate at the table. It was stacked with chocolate chip pancakes, strawberries, and bacon.

         We ate our food and then Jana pulled out an envelope.

         “Krystal, sweetie, we have some news for you and we thought today would be the perfect day to tell you.” Jana said, taking a deep breath. “We have found two of your relatives, your aunt Margret, and you grandmother, Eliza. Those aren’t their real names of course, they received new identities nearly fifteen years, that’s why they were so hard to find.”

         “New identities, what for?” I was curious about why my family had new identities and if it was at all related to my parents murder.

         “I don’t know, you can ask them yourself, because you are going to meet them tomorrow.”

         I was still in shock that I even had an aunt and grandmother. “I’m meeting them tomorrow?”

         “Yes, you are, and your grandmother agreed to let Lucas and Emily join, but Jack and I cannot come, we have some cases to work.”

         “Well can’t you take vacation days or something,” I urged.

         “I’m sorry sweetie it’s just not that easy, but we will see you all in a week.”

         The rest of the day I packed my luggage. I thought about what I was going to do first. What was I going to say? First impressions stick with you. What if they don’t like me?

         Emily was texting all of her friends that she is going on vacation with no parents, just with her bro and sis.

         Lucas was trying to find his books so he can read on the trip; the best vacation is the one you get by escaping in a book he always says. Therefore, I hid all of his books.

             The next day we hurried to pack up our things in the van, I almost forgot Patch, my bear from when I was a child. I always keep him with me.

             “Are we there yet,” Emily groaned. We had just left the house ten minutes ago.

            “No the airport is an hour away, and you need to turn off your phone, your friends will still be there when you turn it back on,” Jack said taking it from her hands and turning it off.

         “No, Ari was just about to give me the deets about her and John’s date last night,” She whined

         “Well I guess the ‘deets’ are going to have to wait.”

         “But dad,” she went on. ”He took her to a fancy restaurant and didn’t ask her to pay,” she used a more convincing voice for her case. “Do you know how many guys do that for rich girls?”

         “I don’t know how many?” he was not really asking, just playing her while she thought she was playing him.

         ”Rarely any, now can I have my phone back pleaseeeeeee,” she begged.

         He looked like he was going to cave. “No.” he handed me Em’s phone. “Now Krystal, read the text,” he winked.

         I grinned, he didn’t want me to read the real text, just make something up to make Em want it more than she did before, knowing she wouldn’t get it. I pretend to read it and she got mad and is now shunning us all.

             We made it to the airport right on time. “So where are we going exactly,” I asked Jana.

         “Well you are going to a Louisiana, when you get off the plane there will be a car waiting for you and the driver will take you Grayson manor, in a small town called Phaire Haven,” Jana told us before we left to get on the plane.

         “Be safe, and we love you,” Jack and Jana said in union.

         Lucas and Emily didn’t hear them but I did. “I love you too,” I told them.

         We boarded our plane, Em and Lucas got seats next to each other on the left, while I was by a window a row across from them.

         “Is this seat 32B,” a guy asked me, he looked to be my age or a little bit older.

         “Uh, yeah this is it,” I replied Em and Lucas turned my direction.

         “He’s cute,” Em mouthed to me.

         Lucas just shook his head and turned back to his book, I forgot all about hiding that one.

         I blushed for a split second when he sat down and was not looking my way.

         The whole flight we talked, there was no awkward silences, nothing of that sort. He is staying with his uncle while his dad is out on business. He is seventeen years old. He loves books more than films. That is really the only important things in our convosation. 

         We reached our destination, I said my goodbyes to the perfect strange, and Darren was his name.

         We were picked up and dropped off at the manor. Margret and Eliza were already out there waiting for us.

         Grandma Eliza ran up to me and hugged me tightly. “Krystal” she said.

“Yeah,” I smiled.

         “You are the spitting image of your mother when she was young, oh how I miss her and your father Frank too,” she smiled back at me and I knew already that she loved me unconditionally. “Well I’ll let you and your family get settled in.”

         Margret showed us to the rooms we will be staying in. I put my things away in the closet and placed patch on the bed.

         Eliza knocked on my door, “can I come in?” she asked.

         “of course,” I said.

         In her hands was an old wooden box. “This was your mother’s; she told me once that she wanted you to have it when you were older. I have no idea what’s in it, I just know that it is actually a steel box disguised as being all wooden,” she laughed and smiled, then she left.

         “Wait where’s the key?” I asked.

         “I have no idea, she never gave me it.”

         Carved on the top of the box wrote ‘the key is to patch a broken heart’. I didn’t understand it until I turned and saw Patch lying on the bed. ‘Patch a heart’ that is what mom did when Patch was ripped. I knew it would be hard to stitch it back on but I took a leap of faith and cut off the stitched on heart and sure enough, I found a key. I picked the stuffing off it before trying to fit it in the key whole. It didn’t fit, if the key was not for the box then where does it lead, and if she went to all that trouble to write a message on a locked box that only I would understand then why does the key not open the box. There is definitely more to this that meets the eye.