Unraveling Sarah Cresley by Marisa Maichel (best summer books .txt) 📕

"You did the test without my knowledge?!"

"I am so sorry, baby boy," Father said. I crawled into bed and did not speak to either of them. I felt Father try to crawl in beside me, and I let out a growl. He paused for a moment, then crawled in beside me. He wrapped one arm around my waist.

"Where's Evan?" I asked.

"I lost him about ten miles into the woods. I can't figure out where he went by his scent, either, since it seems to be everywhere." I sighed.

"It's my fault. I keep screwing up."

"Reese, it's not your fault." He peppered me with kisses. "Look at me." He held my chin up. "It's. Not. Your. Fault." I rolled over onto my belly. Father rubbed my back. Alexander sat beside me, causing Father to growl at him.

"How's Sarah?" I asked.

"She's doing well," Alexander answered. "So is the baby. He seems to enjoy it when I rub her belly." I sat up and growled at him.

"She's mine," I reminded him. He grinned at me.

"I'm not going to lie. I often imagine what it would be like if I was the one who loved her." I snarled at his words. I remembered what the psychic had said. Sarah had four possible soulmates, one of them being named Glen Crow, and the others...well, one of them was me. I hadn't stayed long enough to learn who the other two were. I regretted that now.

"Hold on, you told us you didn't care about her," Father broke in.

"I lied. She is the mother of my future child, even if it isn't biologically mine. You are quite lucky, Reese. She talks about you often." My heart soared. If she talked about me, that was good. It meant our relationship meant something to her.

"What does she say about me?"

"Mostly that she misses you. She wants to talk to you, but does not know what to say. Her mother thinks it's your fault that she's pregnant."

"It is. It is my fault. I should have made my feelings clear sooner. If I hadn't been so scared and so stupid, and I could have protected her. She probably thought of me as a loser before all this. She probably still does. What do I have to offer her, besides money?"

"It's been proven that women often choose money over love."

"Alexander, you're not helping!" Father snapped at him. He stroked my hair. "Reese, you have to understand that none of this is your fault. You need not be involved anymore than you already are."

"Father, I love her!"

"I know, and that concerns me. I know you've lied to me since talking to her. I know you snuck out. This is not healthy. And your...well, vampire emotions are much more powerful than human emotions, including depression and obsession."

"You're right, Father. I'm sorry. I am growing obsessed with her. I can't stop thinking about her. It's like she's taken over me. I have to see her again."

"No, not right now. You must rest. You have had a hard day."

"But Father-"

"No buts. Stay in the house and yard area. Do not go beyond the edge of the woods or beyond that big department store at the edge of town. And do not communicate with Sarah." It was like he ripped my heart out of my chest.

"Father, how can you do this to me?!"

"Hush. It will not kill you."

"Mordecai, do you want the boy to hate you?"

"Shut up, Alexander. Reese, go to sleep."

~~~~~~~~~

I hated my father. He kept me from seeing her, and now I had not seen her in thirty years. I stopped aging after I turned thirty. Now that I was in my fifties, the world had not changed much, other than a few new iPads and iPhones and so on. My stomach twisted as I gazed at her. She had been married to this particular man for almost twenty years. He was tall, blond, and good-looking. He beat me in the looks department.

They lived in a small house with two children. A boy and a younger girl. The boy was seventeen, my age when I first started dating Sarah. The girl was about five years old and apparently unplanned. Her son with Mike still lived with Alexander. None of them knew that he existed.

The last I heard, Mike had committed suicide by stabbing himself. My old rival was finally dead. Now I had a new rival. Before I blinked, Sarah began aging rapidly. She grew into an old woman in seconds, and then she fell off of the chair, and then....

I flitted into the house. I lifted her head up onto my lap.

"Forgive me," I said. "I never stopped loving you." She suddenly became young again. Then she aged again. Then she became sixteen again. One hundred. Sixteen. One hundred. Sixteen. At this she looked up at me and opened her mouth. No sound came out.

And then we were in a graveyard. She was dressed in the purest white I'd ever seen. A bouquet of different colored roses lay on her chest, and her arms were folded over the flowers. Then she was in a coffin, lowering itself into the ground.

"No," I said softly. "Sarah, don't leave me." As she died, my heart shattered. And then I was standing at the edge of a cliff. I had decided to die. I leaped. Before I hit the ground, though, Father caught me. I fell on top of him and we both rolled over.

"I refuse to let you do this to yourself," he said.

I woke up feeling cold all over.

"Sarah..." I said softly. I had to see her. I didn't care if my father would not allow it. It was early in the morning, and she would be up on a normal day getting ready for school. I quickly showered and dressed.

"Father, I'm going back to school," I said.

"Be back before seven o'clock this evening."

When I got to the school, her car was in the parking lot. I went to the library, and she was there, poring over a book. I sat across from her. She looked up.

"Hello, Reese," she said.

"Hello. Sarah, I am so sorry that I crashed the van with you in it."

"Stuff happens. The important thing is that we're all alive." I noticed that she wore a cast on her arm and leg.

"Yes, but I broke your arm."

"You didn't break my arm. The car did." At this, she smiled. I smiled back at her.

"I hope we can still be together," I said.

"Of course. I'm not going to be turned away because of a car crash. It's not your fault, either."

"Sarah, the crash was my fault. It said so in the paperwork I had to fill out. Everything's my fault."

"What do you mean, 'everything'?"

"Sarah, I...I can't talk about it." My stomach knotted. She looked worried and confused now. "At least, I can't talk about it yet. But I will tell you someday, I promise." A promise I quite possibly could not keep. If I told her my true nature now, she would leave me. And who I was in the vampire world. Prince Reese. I hated that title.

If Sarah married me, she would be a princess.

"Reese?" I realized I'd been daydreaming and focused on her again.

"Sarah, I...I love you."

"I love you, too. What's going on?"

"What did you think about Alexander?"

"He's okay. He seems to really want this baby."

"Yeah. He has a biological son who hates him."

"That's sad." She looked at her phone. "Well, I have to get to class. See you in free period."

"See you then," I said, my heart lifting.

~~~~~~~~~

I went to Advanced English with a light heart. We were reading a Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations. I had already read the whole book through multiple times and knew it by heart.

"Who's ready for a pop quiz?" Mr. Roth asked. Everyone groaned. I clicked my mechanical pencil and prepared for a difficult day. Mr. Roth handed out the papers, starting with me. "Mr. Emerson, please pass these back." I did as he asked. "Thank you, Reese."

Question 1. What is the main character's name and how did he acquire it?

2. What's is Pip's main goal?

3. What's the setting of the novel?

4. This is Charles Dickens' ______ novel.

5. Who is Pip's love interest? Why does she reject him?

I knew the answers to all these questions and more. I answered each of them to the best of my ability.

Next was my math class. I turned in my homework and took a seat. We were studying algebraic fractions. Oh joy of joys.

As the day wore on, my mind was taken off of Sarah until lunch, when I saw her. She was eating a turkey sandwich. I sat across from her. She smiled at me. She chewed and swallowed.

"How has your day been so far?" she asked.

"Hard. First we had a pop quiz in Advanced English, and in Math we're studying algebraic fractions."

"You're in Advanced English?"

"Most of my classes are Advanced. Yes, I'm in Advanced Junior English."

"Reese, that's the highest English class a junior can have!"

"Yeah, it's not that big a deal. I've always been good at that stuff. What about you? How was your day?"

"Ugh, we had a test in Science. I think I have one in Mythology And Folklore too."

"Crap, I have that class too. What on?"

"I think the Egyptians and what God did to them when they refused to release their Jewish slaves."

"The Seven Plagues? I can handle that."

"Are you a believer in God?"

"I believe in many gods, including Him. Maybe I'm not as religious or as spiritual as I should be, but whatever. What about you?"

"I celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah."

"I remember you saying that. So you're half-Jewish?"

"On my mother's side. What about you?"

"My father is Scandinavian, and my mother is Greek. They both believe in their own gods and goddesses."

"God is not going to be happy about that."

"He's not, you're right."

For a moment, we became silent. Then Sarah asked a question that caught me off-guard.

"Where is your mother, Reese?"

"In Athens. She left when I was a baby. Do you remember what my father said at the trial?"

"Yeah, I remember. I still can't believe he'd do something like that. He seems so nice."

I said nothing to that. Did she think low of my father? I didn't know if I could handle that.

"Do you go to the temple?" I asked her.

"Yep. We used to go to church on Sundays, but after my dad died, we stopped doing that."

"What was your father like?"

"The best father ever. Sabine and I were his princesses. His name was Becket. Becket Cresley. I was super close to him; he was my best friend."

"I'm so sorry for your loss," I said.

"Thanks. Say, do you know what happened to Evan Byrd?" As she spoke, my stomach became a hunk of ice.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," I said quickly.

"It was all over the news. He's missing. I only ask because I know that you two used to date."

"My relationship with Evan is long over," I replied. "I don't know anything." I hated lying to her. She studied me.

"You know something," she said.

"Even if I do, there's nothing I can do," I said. "He's long gone."

"So you do know something! Reese, tell me what it is."

"I-I can't. I'd be giving too much away, and it seems like there's nothing I can keep from you. I don't want you involved." She looked hurt and confused. "I'm sorry, Sarah, but it's too dangerous."

"Don't you trust me?"

"Absolutely. I love you more than anything in the world, which is why I want you to stay away from this."

"Reese," she said, "Staying away from this is like staying away from you. And I can't stay away from you. Not for long, anyway."

"Sarah, you don't know how that makes me feel. I...just trust me. Would you like to go out with me later?"

"I would, but I have an appointment. Would you like to come with