***Alissa Blake***
I didn’t give any explanations when I picked Morgan up from school.
I left her with my parents, who had been putting on that forced tone ever since I arrived here, treating me like the daughter they were so eager to have close. They wanted something—I just didn’t know what.
But after I found that photo in my father’s office, I knew they had way more dirt than I could’ve imagined. So, as soon as I left the office, I called Morgan’s teacher, Eva.
It was her in that photo, but I didn’t know yet if it was the right moment to talk about it. So I waited for her to send the location where she wanted us to meet, and just left the photo in the same place.
When I got to the location, I found it strange how isolated the house was. The town was small, didn’t have many places to visit, but the house where I went to meet Eva was nearly at the edge of the city.
Around it, there was only wild land. Trees and vegetation. It was raining that day, so it wasn’t a great place to be, since with every step, my feet sank into the mud.
When I knocked on the door, she took a while to answer.
But when she did, she looked at me in that weird way again. As if she were trying to find something on my face, like there was some strange spot she couldn’t look away from.
“Can I come in? It’s raining like hell.” She reacted a bit weird to my unpolished language and nodded, shyly.
I left my boots at the entrance and walked to the living room. The place was warm and smelled like coffee, much more pleasant than outside, for sure.
“This place is isolated, huh? Do you like being close to nature?” I asked, trying to break the ice.
She laughed and brought over from the counter to the right near the window a cup with a hot drink. The smell of coffee intensified as she got closer.
“Thanks,” I said.
I sat on the couch, and she sat in the armchair across from me, still staring at me in that weird way.
“I don’t like living out here, it’s far and it takes me twice as long to get to school. But it’s the place where my parents left a house for me, so I keep thinking if I’d be betraying them by living somewhere better in the city.”
I nodded before taking a sip of the coffee—way too bitter for me. She noticed my grimace and pushed over a jar of molasses.
“Were you close to your parents?” When I asked that, something in her seemed to shut down.
“Why do you ask that?”
She got defensive, and I didn’t understand why at the time.
“Nothing, I was just trying to be polite. Sorry if it offended you,” I replied, and her expression softened.
Eva kept pulling her coat tighter around herself, closing it, like she wanted to hide from something.
“I’m sorry, Alissa. I… just got nervous when you wanted to talk. I don’t want to get into trouble with you or your parents.”
“I don’t want trouble either, Eva. But I need to know the truth about some things, and you’re the person who could answer me without their manipulation distorting the facts.”
And there it was—that fearful look I couldn’t decipher. She took a sip of coffee, even more nervous. I noticed her trembling hand holding the cup. She adjusted her glasses, pulling them closer to her face, before speaking.
“I can’t talk about that, Alissa. It’s been so long… please, don’t make me think about it again.”
She seemed like she was about to cry, and it started to make me realize she wasn’t talking about Morgan. I remembered the photo, and how strange this whole story was.
“I thought you could just confirm if Morgan is in danger or not, to be direct. Aren’t we talking about the same thing?”
Eva’s eyes widened, startled. She fumbled and almost knocked over the cup and the pot too. There was more to it—I was right.
“Eva, if there’s something, you can tell me… I promise I’m not on their side. I hate them, they abused me my whole childhood. I just want to keep Morgan safe, if she needs that.”
At that moment, as I started to speak, she burst into tears. It all came at once, like an avalanche pouring from those eyes. I couldn’t have been more confused, but she seemed so heartbroken that it got to me.
“Forgive me, Alissa… forgive me.” She kept repeating it nonstop, over and over. “I… I was forced, you have to understand that. You can’t hate me, please don’t hate me.”
She knelt on the floor in front of me, clinging to my pants as she cried and begged. Her shrill voice clung to my ears like an unbearable sound.
“Hey, hey, what are you talking about? I’m confused, Eva. Please, I’m here for Morgan, I want to help her, but I need proof or witnesses,” I replied, holding her hands to see if she would calm down.
It seemed to work after a few minutes, as her crying slowly subsided while the rain outside grew heavier.
She sat beside me, still holding my hand, which I found strange, but I let it go just so she wouldn’t start crying those endless tears all over me again.
“You’ve become such a beautiful woman, Alissa…” She tried to touch my face, but I pulled away. “Sorry, I… sometimes it feels like time hasn’t passed at all for me, while at the same time it feels like an eternity since the last day I saw you.”
She saw me for the last time? What do you mean?
“What are you talking about? I’m starting to get pissed off with all this confusion, I just wanted information about Morgan.”
She laughed, awkwardly. “I know, sorry again. But now, I need to talk to you. I’m going to tell you the whole truth, Alissa.”