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

"Hey, Reese."

"Hello, Sarah. I'm so sorry that I wasn't there."

"It's fine. The baby's okay, and that's all that matters." Her maternal instincts were kicking in. She smiled at me weakly. "Your hair's getting long."

"I know. My father wants me to cut it."

"He has longer hair than you do," Alexander growled.

"I made that point to him. His excuse is that his hair is long enough to put up into a bun or ponytail." Alexander shook his head in disgust.

"Your father, I swear. You should have seen the way he looked at your mother. Earth could have collided with Venus, and he wouldn't have noticed. Kind of like the way you act around Sarah."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Sarah argued. I gave her a grateful look. I bent down and gently kissed her soft pink lips. I ran a hand over her stomach. She was definitely pregnant. For a moment, I pretended it was mine. One day, she really would give birth to my babies. Knowing that, I purred contentedly.

"In a few days it will be the first of December," Alexander said. "What will you both be doing for the holidays?"

"My father asked me to invite Sarah to the Holiday Ball," I said.

"A ball?" Sarah inquired. I nodded.

"Yes. My family's hosted it ever since...for a while now."

"For over four hundred years," Alexander replied. "It was how your father met Marina. It will be held in Denmark, where Eilief is originally from."

"I can't go to Denmark. I can't afford a plane ticket," Sarah said.

"I will pay for it," Alexander and I said at the exact same time.

"I'll have to talk to my mother. She'll want to talk to your dad, Reese."

"I'll text him right now," I said, pulling my phone out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Father agreed to pay for Sarah's ticket to Denmark. We would drive her everywhere from there. Sarah's mother was hesitant to let her go. Father had to give a solemn oath that he would be responsible for her well-being. When I promised I would not try any funny stuff, Alicia agreed to let her go. I gave her some more money in secret. She was also getting money from my father in secret.

Father gave Alicia a large sum of money, plus health insurance. Sarah's bills would be taken care of. She began looking for another job. Father took her aside.

"Sarah, I'm opening up a music and video store. Would you like to work there?"

"Yes, I would," she said happily. She was out of the hospital, although she was still bandaged and cast. Bruises formed all over her. Ariella felt terrible for the crash, although she quickly abandoned that emotion when Jessa discovered that her car had been tampered with and her brake line cut.

When I went to sleep that night, I was plagued by nightmares.

I was now fifty years old. I had not aged though since I was thirty. My heart still belonged to Sarah, even though she was long gone. After Father and I had that fight and he kicked me out, I learned that Scarlett had finally gotten to her, and she committed suicide, leaving Cirino motherless. I went off and became a nomad for a while. My father, believing that I too had committed suicide, killed himself out of grief and regret. Now I was back, but none of my family was speaking to me.

I started to believe that they blamed me and hated me, so I prepared to leave again, this time for good. My uncle stopped me and asked where I was going. I merely told him that I was leaving for good.

"Please stay," he said, surprising me. "We don't want to lose another family member. We don't blame you. The reason why no one is speaking to you is that none of us know what to say." I glared at him and left anyway. I planned to die alone. This whole thing was my fault anyway.

I laid on the grass, staring at the night sky. I had decided to wait here for death.

I awoke with tears in my eyes and began sobbing. My father, hearing my cries, opened the door and held me in his arms.

"Little one, shh. It was only a dream. It's okay now. Shh, shh."

I began blubbering and telling him about my dream.

"Reese, you know I'd never do that to you," he said. "I would never risk losing you."

"Daddy, please don't leave me. I'll never be a perfect son, but please don't ever hurt me."

"Reese, hush. I would never leave you, and I would never expect you to be a perfect son. I would never intentionally harm you or hurt you in any way. If I ever do, you can...you can hurt me just as much." He began purring, trying to soothe me. Unfortunately, it didn't work right away.

"I know it's my fault. Father, I don't want to lose her."

"None of this is your fault. I promise we won't let anything happen to her."

"No, it is my fault, and you know it. I'm in so much pain; everything hurts, especially my heart." He tensed at this.

"Shhh, Reese, hush. You did not tell me your heart hurts. What else hurts?"

"My head, my stomach, my neck."

"You feel sick to your stomach because you're in so much pain. Your head hurts because of your dream, and you were lying stiffly, which is why your neck hurts. Come, lay with me tonight." He brought me into his bedroom, where he covered me up with blankets and himself. He began purring again, which calmed me somewhat.

I still felt like everything was my fault.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Grandfather said that I had a deep hatred of myself, which worried Father. He insisted on me sleeping with him in his bed from now on.

"Really, Mordecai," Grandfather said. "He's seventeen, not seven."

"And therefore precarious. I'm not taking any chances, especially where it concerns his life."

"I'm not suicidal," I told him.

"But you were in your dream. So was I. So was Sarah."

"Father, you said yourself that it was only a dream."

"That's correct, Mordecai. You did say that."

Father ignored that and pulled me close to him.

"Never again," he muttered. Grandfather glared at him.

"Mordecai, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Last night, I also had a frightening dream. I dreamed that I had another son before Reese. We fought, and I eventually treated him like dirt, even though he tried to mend things with me. I dreamed that my other son was killed by a group of rogues. If I hadn't been so spiteful, I could have saved him."

"Don't be silly. You have no other children. It was only a dream. Reese is your only child."

Father groaned and buried his nose in my neck. "I'll never forgive myself if anything were to happen to my Reese. I still haven't completely forgiven myself for my other son's death."

"Now you're just being silly."

Father glared at Grandfather. He pulled me up onto his lap. "I know I am, Father." He wrapped his arms around my waist and purred.

"Father, you're scaring me," I told him. He whined and smoothed my hair back.

"I didn't mean to scare you, little one." I managed to get out of his grip. "Reese, stay."

"I need to get out." My father held onto me as if I was a lifeline. "Father, release me at once!" He tweaked my nose.

"Not a chance, Sassafras," he said.

"Sassafras? Never heard that one," Grandfather said. "Mordecai, you you remember the eruption of Krakatoa?"

"Of course. It was heard for miles around and created tsunamis which killed thousands of people. Why do you ask?"

"A new island emerged from the caldera that same year. It became eruptuous, and still creates chaos to this day."

"Father, I don't understand your point."

"It was also the loudest sound ever recorded."

"So? People hear strange sounds all the time. It does not mean that they are significant."

"I'm talking about you and Alexander." Father gave him a disgusted look.

"Me and that...that...swine? Father, have you gone mad?"

"I didn't mean it like that, and you know that!"

"I wasn't even thinking about it like that! God, you're going to make me throw up." He dramatically covered his mouth and held his stomach.

"Such melodramatics! Anyway, I meant the chaos that you and Alexander created which affects us today. Reese was supposed to be Alexander's son. Alexander wants him back."

He was making Father angry.

"What does that have to do with a volcano?" I asked. Grandfather pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Neither of you are getting the point."

"Reese is mine!"

"Mordecai, shut up for two seconds," Uncle Soren said, coming into the room. "What Father is saying is that your and Alexander's rivalry is like a volcano."

"Thank, you, Soren. That was exactly my point."

My father kept his arms firmly wrapped around my midsection. "My baby."

"That's hardly fair, Mordecai," Soren said. "He's my baby too!" Father growled at him.

"Boys, control your tempers," Grandfather chided. "Honestly, it's like having children all over again." My father held up his middle finger. While they argued, I managed to smuggle out of my father's grip. Father caught me just as I was leaving the living room, though.

"I win," he said smugly. "Say 'sorry, Daddy'."

"Release me," I said. He ignored me and kissed my hair. He picked me up and carried me back into the living room.

"Honestly, Mordecai, you cannot expect him to be your little boy forever," Uncle Soren said. Father bared his teeth at his older brother. I finally, finally, managed to break free and zipped upstairs before Father knew what happened. I heard raucous laughter coming from Uncle Soren and chuckling from Grandfather.

"He got away from you," Uncle Soren teased Father.

"Shut up, Soren. I'll catch him again later."

I smiled and laid on my bed, sending Ariella a text.

Reese: How are you?

Ariella: Fine. My car's trashed tho. How is S and S?

Reese: S and S?

Ariella: Sarah and Soren

Reese: They're okay. Are you still with Uncle Soren?

Ariella: Yeah.

I felt sick to my stomach. I didn't text her again for a while. She sent me a couple texts filled with question marks. I texted Sarah next.

Reese: Sarah, how are you?

She didn't respond. I sent her another text. And another. And another. I became desperate and called her. A robotic voice said that the number had been deactivated and no longer existed. My heart pounding, I messaged her on Facebook. It said that I could no longer message her. My heart felt cold. I grabbed my keys and my wallet and went into the foyer.

"Where are you going?" Uncle Soren asked.

"Out. Sarah's phone number has been deactivated, and I can't get ahold of her on Facebook either."

"I'm sure she's fine, son," Father said.

"We'll see you later, Reese," Grandfather said. "I'll be praying for her."

"To Odin or to God?" Uncle Soren said.

"Don't sass me, Soren, I'm not in a good mood."

I went outside to the cool air. It was unusually warm for the first day of December. If my heart could beat, it would have been pounding. I started up the Astro and drove, nearly hitting a cat.

"Damn creature," I muttered under my breath. When it finally scurried out of the way, I drove away. I sped a little bit, almost running a red light. When I arrived at her house, my heart sank into my stomach. Eric was there. He was holding her, and she was mewling into his shoulder. I opened the door and then slammed it. She jumped, and I hated myself for scaring her.

Her tearful eyes looked at me. She broke away from Eric and walked over to me. She buried her face in my stomach and wrapped her arms around me.

"Sarah, I tried calling and texting you," I said. "What happened?"

"Scarlett happened," Eric snapped. "She's trying to get people to go against Sarah. Check out Twitter and Facebook."

"I was on Facebook earlier," I said.

"Look again. That bitch has gone too far."

Sarah started crying softly. I lifted her up bridal-style and walked through the house into her room. I set her on her bed. She looked