Chapter 20: Chapter Twenty

The conversation wraps up and Berik leads the man out of the apartment. “I’m sorry we couldn’t be of any help sir. I wish you the best of luck finding your niece.”

As soon as the door closes, I inch down the hallway toward the living room to make sure that he’s not lingering or anything. “What was that all about?” I ask

“It seems that your family has tracked you down, but I don’t think they know for sure what you actually look like or who you are, but I think we may need to skip the prom and the last week of school.” Freyja says worriedly.

“Fuck that!” If they don’t know what I look like or who I am then I say we stay, finish out the last week and go to prom, we’re not going to run away just because they’re close, granted it would probably be a smart idea, but no one around here knows that I am who I am, as far as anyone knows I am Falencia Black, the adopted daughter.” I trail off as I see a slight problem with my logic.

“Shit!” I exclaim.

“Yeah, we thought about that too.” Berik says as she sits on the accent chair sitting catty corner from the sofa.

“If they dig into my adoption, they’ll see that I was orphaned when my parents were murdered and there’s just too many coincidences that they might actually have pinpointed me.” I sigh.

“And just when I thought things were starting to die down.” I shake my head plopping into the beanbag chair sitting next to Berik’s chair. “What are we going to do? I mean, I have a feeling that he’s not going to go away, not to mention, if we did leave it’d look suspicious, so we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

“Maybe not!” Nik says making me look up from my lap

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Well, I noticed that he was looking around, like he was studying the room. Yes, there are pictures of you and Freyja, but you look so much alike that you could be biological sisters, plus, who actually knows that you’re adopted? I didn’t until your birthday. I’ve always thought that Berik was your bio mom”

I think about all of this for a few minutes. “You have a point, we don’t actually tell people that I’m adopted, I don’t think anyone in the administrative office knows.” I look at Berik “Do they?”

“No, I never told anyone that you were adopted, I had a friend of mine, Patricia, that worked in the registrar’s office put all your paperwork in as if you were my biological daughter, the only people who know who you really are, are Fenirick, Addam, us, and my friend Patty, but she passed on a few years ago. So, there is nothing linking you to your parents.”

I smile feeling the stress lift off my shoulders “Well then, I say we continue as planned, Freyja, Cherie, and I will go do our prom dress shopping, we will go to the dance, have an amazing night, finish out our final week of high school and then we will be going on our road trip, as planned.”

Freyja, Cherie and I had finally finished our shopping after going through so many different stores trying to find the ‘perfect’ dresses for tonight, and I was exhausted. “Do you think we could just grab some food from the food court and relax for a little bit? There’s still.” I trail off to look at my phone, “at least four hours before we meet our dates at the house.”

“I think we have enough time to hang out for a little while longer before we need to be home to start getting ready for the guys.” Cherie states.

“About that!” I state.

“What?” she asks timidly.

“Why were you pushing Nik onto me when you had a huge crush on him?” I ask with a smirk.

“I didn’t originally want to admit that I had a thing for him, even to myself.” She replies.

I smile but start to feel as if we’re being watched, so I discreetly start to observe our surroundings and spot the guy who followed me around the mall last week sitting at a nearby table acting as if he wasn’t watching us. I grab my phone and send a message to Addam and Nik.

F- Guy from last week is back, and he’s being a creeper

A- Has he done anything to warrant suspicion?

N- You mean the guy who was following you around?

F- He’s just sitting at a table nearby watching us, he’s not really doing anything, acting as if he’s not interested in us, but I’ve seen him look up at us a few times.

A – Are you sure you want to go to prom tonight? We can skip town, you said that the guy who came to the apartment today didn’t even know you were there, he didn’t see you, so he probably doesn’t know about you

N- He looked around, he saw pictures of the girls growing up and everything. He asked where she was, Berik told him that her other daughter was still getting ready for the day.

A – So bolting would look suspicious

F – Unfortunately.

“Who are you texting like crazy over there?” Cherie asks interestedly.

“Nik and Addam, the creepy guy who was following me last week is sitting at the table on our left, look but don’t make it obvious that he’s been caught.” I say in a hushed tone.

“Do you think the guy that came to the apartment earlier recognized you from our childhood photos?”

I shrug “I honestly don’t know, I’m hoping not, but I don’t remember there being anyone else other than the man who killed my parents in the house that day.”

Freyja looks at me worriedly “Are you sure that we should act normally and continue with going to prom, graduation, and everything?”

I nod “Yes, I honestly do. If we do anything out of the norm, we may end up alerting the people that are searching for me that I was under their nose this whole time and they could retaliate by hurting you, both of you, along with anyone else that we may or may not be close to.”

“This is so messed up; I wish that we could figure out who that guy is and why he seems so interested in you.” Cherie says.

“Truth is, he didn’t do anything to warrant me being scared or weary of him, he just gives me creepy vibes.” I retorted.

We get up from our seats, throw away our food containers and start to head out of the mall when creepy guy saunters up to me.

“I’m sorry to bother y’all but are you by chance Falencia Black?”