"Sothing on your mind?" lanie asked, watching Adam as he sat across from her with an odd look on his face. They’d already tucked Adir in for the night, and usually by this ti, Adam would be rearing to carry her into the bedroom and have his wicked way with her. But tonight, he seed lost, drifting sowhere far off in his own private world and she could not help but frown. It was so unlike him.
Adam nodded slowly, then reached out and pulled her onto his lap when she would have stood up. She let out an oomph as she fell against him but then, imdiately curled her legs up on the couch, resting her head against his shoulder. She loved this part too-just being held like this, the quiet intimacy of it.
She felt him inhale deeply beneath her cheek. A mont later, he sighed and said softly, "lon, I want to know about your childhood."
The question caught her off guard. Her head lifted slightly, eyes narrowing in surprise. What brought that on? But even as her mind raced to understand the reason behind it, she shrugged it off. Her childhood wasn’t a secret.
"I guess I had a pretty normal childhood," she said, still confused. "I an, sure, I didn’t have my parents around like the others, but it didn’t really bother all that much. Grandma was always there- she made up for their absence in every way she could. And honestly, I never felt unloved."
She paused, as if searching for the right words. "Of course, she was strict. She was older and set in her ways, and she expected a lot from . But I didn’t mind it too much. I knew it ca from a place of care. She did her best to raise right."
lanie looked up at him again, eyes scanning his face. "Why do you ask?"
"Did you ever ask her about your parents?"
lanie narrowed her eyes at that. This was the second ti in as many weeks when he had asked her about her parents. She rembered he’s asked her about it when she was in the hospital as well...
"Why do you ask?"
Adam flicked her nose and shook his head," Nah. First, you tell . Then I will tell you."
lanie rolled her eyes at his childish response and gave a soft chuckle before answering, "Okay, okay. Actually... I think I used to ask when I was very young. You know, those early years when you’re full of questions about everything. But over ti, I stopped." She paused, as if trying to trace back through hazy mories. "Later, when I entered my teens, I rember asking Grandma again—just once, I think. She got this faraway look in her eyes, like she was watching sothing only she could see. And then she told ... she said I resembled my mother the most."
Her voice grew quieter. "In looks. In temperant. The way I carried myself, even the way I spoke, apparently. She’d say it like she was rembering sothing beautiful, but then she’d always follow it up with this long, tired sigh." lanie shook her head slightly, lips pulling into a faint smile. "I got the feeling that thinking about my parents made her sad. Maybe even broke her a little."
She shifted on Adam’s lap, resting her head against the crook of his neck. "So I stopped asking. I figured if it hurt her that much, it wasn’t worth it. Besides... they were strangers to . I never knew them. They were more like nas in a story than people I could miss."
A long pause followed before she added softly, "Only once... I heard her crying. I think it was near the end, when her health had really started to fail. I was standing outside her room and heard her whisper sothing—she said she wished my mother could see now. That I’d grown into soone wonderful." lanie’s voice wavered for a second, but she quickly shrugged it off.
"I wanted to ask more after that," she admitted with a sigh, "but it was clearly a painful mory for her. So I let it be."
She looked up at Adam, eyes narrowing slightly. "Now will you tell —why this sudden curiosity? What’s going on?"
Adam frowned, jaw tightening as he looked away. How was he supposed to tell her the truth? That based on what he’d found out... her grandmother had not spoken of her parents not because it was painful but becasue she was guilty? That she had, in all likelihood, been kidnapped as a child?
He had already cross-checked the story lody had told him-and sure enough, the records matched. There had been reports filed by the Thomases. Multiple police searches. Witness accounts. Everything pointed to the sa impossible conclusion: lanie had been taken from her family when she was small. Added to that, he rembered her whispers when she’d been unconscious...
While he was still lost in thought, lanie seed to rember sothing. Her eyes lit up slightly.
"Oh!" she said, lifting her head. "I think... I actually have a diary. One that my grandmother left . She once told that if I ever wanted to know more about my parents, I should read it.""
That snapped Adam out of his daze. He turned his full attention back to her, voice sharper now. "And did you ever read the diary?" He wondered what the diary could have. Could her grandmother really have given an accound of her own cris?
lanie shook her head, a little sheepishly. "Not really. After Grandma died things just happened so fast. First Lady Collins took in right after she grandma passed, and then she too got sick. And after that... well, there was Spencer, and everything else. I never had the ti. Or honestly, even the thought to read it."
"Where is it now?" Adam asked quickly.
lanie frowned in thought. "I guess it’s in storage. With the other heirlooms Grandma left . I packed everything away when I moved into the Collins’ Mansion. It should still be there."
She tilted her head, giving him a pointed look. "Now. Are you going to tell what this is all about?"
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