A Matter of Circumstance by M J Marlow (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud .TXT) 📖

for being here. And then, just when she had found someone who might be able to help her, the old doubts had risen in her mind and she had fled. If she did not stay here then the bad woman would not know where to find her. That old terror that had chased her through the fifteen years of separation from her own family was familiar to her. Keeping people at bay had become a survival skill and kept her from being adopted by people she did not belong to. ‘They don’t want you, Scarlet,’ the woman’s voice echoed in her mind, hounding her steps as she ran through the park and headed away. ‘They would have come for you if they really wanted you.’ “It’s not true!” Juliana sobbed and put her hands to her ears, trying to shut out a voice that was there only in her own mind. “Mommy!” she whimpered as the darkness came to claim here. “Please…” Warren found her thirty minutes later curled in a tight ball of misery just two feet shy of disaster. If she had gone those extra steps, she would have fallen into the old mine shaft. He picked her up and she whimpered but did not fight once she saw the uniform. Vivian came with him as he drove her to the doctor’s house. “Did she say anything about who she was, Viv?” Warren asked as his brother-in-law the doctor worked on the girl. “She never told me her name, Warren,” Viv replied. “For some odd reason, I think she’s trying to convince herself she is where she belongs.” “Another of your feelings?” Warren looked at his sister and frowned. He turned to the backpack. There was nothing there that any other runaway wouldn’t have. Everything was thrown into it as if she had been in a panic when she had taken off from wherever she had been last. It wasn’t until he got to the bottom to an envelope under all the clothing and other items, that Viv found something they could use. “Oh God, Warren,” Viv went white as she read the letter inside. “Listen to this!” She held the letter as if it were something evil. “I named you Scarlet on the day I took you from them. I told you the truth that day, child. If they had really wanted you, they would have paid more attention. But they thought more of their petty concerns than their own child and so I took you away from them.” Vivian shivered as she continued to read, she could feel the evil in this person. “We lived just across the street from your true family, Scarlet. It amused me to watch their marriage fall apart as their efforts to find you proved fruitless.” She handed it to him and turned away. “I can’t read this. It’s evil!” “Your father was killed on a tour of duty and your woman took your sister and left,” the letter continued as Warren read it out loud. “There was no one who wanted you then, Scarlet, so I could concentrate fully on making you my child.” He looked at the girl and felt his heart ache for her. “But you wouldn’t learn the lessons. You refused to believe what I was telling you and so you had to be punished. I left you broken that day and you were taken into the orphanage with no memory of me and the life I had stolen you from.” Her eyes opened and she was looking at him warily. “I leave you with the name that was yours before I made you mine - Juliana Marlow. You can try to reclaim it, but I promise it will only lead you to pain and heartbreak.” “That’s who you were,” Juliana quoted the letter she had read so many times it was burned into her memory. “You can try to become her again, little flame,” Juliana choked on her tears, “but I will only take that from you again. I will not rest until you finally accept the life I had intended for you.” She looked at the people around her and got to her feet, catching herself on the table as her legs refused to hold her. “I can’t be here,” she said softly as she stood there shivering. “She’ll find me if I stay here and people will get hurt.” “You’re not going anywhere,” David Washburn said as he made her sit back down. “When was the last time you ate, young lady?” he asked as he looked over at his wife and brother-in-law and shared their anger and concern. “I don’t remember,” she told him honestly. It was wrong to lie the orphanage director had pounded into her. She looked at the doctor in distress then at the other two people, who were eyeing her in a strange combination of longing and concern. “It doesn’t matter,” she said as she looked around for her backpack. “I have to keep going so she won’t find me. Please let me go,” she said as she tried to get up again and collapsed to the floor. “You should call your sister,” Washburn said to Warren as he picked Juliana up in his arms. “Viv and I will get her settled upstairs for now.” Warren nodded absently, putting the needle into one of the evidence bags he carried in the pouch on his utility belt. He looked at Viv and saw the same stunned look on her face he knew was on his. They didn’t need the results of any blood test to convince them who this child was. “Gloria,” Warren said into his cell phone as he called his former sister-in-law, thankful now that she had settled in the town her late husband had been raised in. “I have something to tell you. I hope you’re sober and sitting down when I get there.” Vivian went upstairs and saw her husband checking the child out one more time. As if he couldn’t quite believe she was there. All these years they had prayed for this moment. Now that it was here, the reality was having a hard time being accepted. She sank down in the chair next to the bed and stroked the girl’s hair gently. “Where has she been all this time, David?” Vivian asked as her husband put his hands on her shoulders and they stood watch. “She’ll tell us when she can,” her husband replied. “We’ll just have to be patient.” He looked at the photograph on the nightstand. “I only wish Jonas could have lived to see her come back to us.” 2 Juliana was trapped in the same nightmare. She was running with her arms outstretched calling out to people she belonged to but they would not stop. Behind her the bad woman laughed and taunted her casting out her nets to catch her and make her a prisoner. It hurt where the nets touched her trembling body but she refused to surrender. ‘Give in, Scarlet,’ the woman’s voice was harsh and punishing. ‘You’re my child now. They did not want you. I do!’ “No,” the scream rose out of the nightmare and followed her back into consciousness. “I don’t believe you!” she sobbed as she sat upright. She looked around her as awareness hit and wondered where she was. She remembered the diner and running away and the man with the kind eyes. Was this his home? She looked around the room with its homey décor and felt safe for a moment. She saw the photograph and picked it up. It was of her family; taken just before she had been stolen from them. She got up and stumbled over to the window to look out over the small town main street. She had a vague memory of walking there last night, her mind locked to a purpose she could not keep to. It was wrong to hold on to something that could not be, she sighed as she sank down onto the window seat. She would find her things, thank the kind man, and leave town as soon as possible. It was better that way. She didn’t even know if her mother and sister were still alive. “Juliana?” a woman’s tentative voice entered her musings. Juliana turned from the view and saw an older woman standing in the doorway, looking hesitant. But that hesitancy fled and was replaced by a cry of joy as the woman ran to her and pulled her into her arms. “My baby!” the woman cried as she pulled back and looked at her closely. “It is you!” “Gloria,” a tall man with silver at the temples of his thick dark hair frowned as he came into the room. He was uncertain as well, but Juliana knew it was his defenses keeping himself wary; looking for any sign of deceit. He looked her over as if he were expecting her to admit she was a fraud. This man understood how she was feeling, she realized. He knew what it meant to be lied to. “She has your eyes,” he said in wonder as the wall lowered slightly. He came to stand at his wife’s side, his hand on her shoulder protectively. “You are Juliana, aren’t you?” Juliana looked at the pair, stunned by the force of the emotions in the room. This woman was her mother! She saw the way the man stood there and knew this was her mother’s new husband by the way he stood there, ready to protect her. She had moved on after her loss and made a new life for herself that did not include Juliana. She pulled away and moved off. “I don’t belong here,” she said as she looked around desperately for her things. “You have a new life now and I don’t want to cause you trouble.” She found her backpack and held it to her chest like a shield. “I just needed to see you; to know you were alive. I can go now.” “Go?” Gloria looked at her in shock and then at her husband. He nodded and she got to her feet and went to her daughter. She made Juliana look at her. “How could you think we wouldn’t want you, Juliana?” she choked as she saw how vulnerable her child was at that moment. “You’re my baby! There hasn’t been a day since you were taken from us that we haven’t prayed we would find you again.” “But she said,” Juliana whimpered and backed away from her mother, “that you didn’t want me.” She was crying for real now but she didn’t stop. “She said if you wanted me you would have known where I was and taken me home. She made me watch while you kept on with your life and said you’d forgotten all about me.” “Oh, Juliana!” Gloria cried as she came towards her and Juliana shook her head and moved away from her. “You have to know that wasn’t true. ”We were told you were dead!” “No!” she cried as she felt the wall at her back. “Leave me alone! You went away when Daddy died and left me behind!” She sank down to the floor and clutched the backpack to her chest, sobbing. “I cried and cried for you and you left me behind!” Gloria burst into tears herself and the man took her in his arms and consoled her. Juliana was once more left to suffer on her own. She had no one who would console her and tell her everything was all right now. She should never have come here, she thought as she got her feet and left the room. It was wrong to intrude into a life her mother had built without a place for her. She slipped down the stairs as silent as a ghost and left the house. “Juliana,” Gloria looked up as the absence of the child registered on her mind. She