My Soul to Keep (The Soul Keeper Series - Young Adult Paranormal Romance) by Melissa Solis Read Free Book Online Page B

and
when he went outside there was this wicker basket on the porch. He looked
inside and he about soiled his pants when he saw your little green eyes staring
right back at him, quiet as a church mouse. You were all wrapped up in the
softest pink blanket I’d ever felt. He called to me Mama, Mama, get out here. I
was elbow deep in biscuit dough, so it took me a minute. When I came out he was
holding you like you were made outta glass.
    He was mesmerized by your beauty; oh you were such a
pretty baby. He nodded to the basket and I looked inside for a note, anything
that could be a clue, and there was just that necklace. Two silver angel wings.
Maybe it was all your mother could give you, I don’t know. But your daddy loved
you the minute he met eyes with you.” My heart beat bangs the blood in my ears
like the beating of a tympani drum as the adrenaline pumps in. My mother wasn’t
my mother and my father, was he my real father? Did he get somebody pregnant?
Or was I just abandoned by both of my parents? My hands were shaking and the
tears were streaming down my face as I turn and walk over to the window so she
can’t see me.
    “Grandma, did Daddy ever find out if I was his child
or not?”   
    “I think you’d better ask him that.” Oh no! That
sends me over the edge. I can’t hold back anymore, I run out of the room as
fast as I can before I completely break down in the hallway. I sink down next
to a pillar in the hall and pull my knees into my chest. The giant lump in my
throat succumbs to the dam of tears and a storm of violent weeping overtakes
me. My whole life could be one big lie. A thousand thoughts run through my
mind.   Elijah finds me there still
sobbing a few minutes later.
    “Brennen, what’s wrong?” He sits next to me on the
floor and puts his arm around my shoulder. I am sobbing and can’t speak through
my ragged breaths.   He helps me to my
feet and we go out the front door. In the car he hands me a box of tissues he
swiped from a side table inside. I take one and try to calm down. This is not
happening, she was delusional. Why would a single man raise a newborn baby
unless it was his? How could my dad have kept this from me? My whole childhood
was a lie. He was in the Navy back then too. Maybe that’s the key. I need to
find out where he was nine or ten months before I was born. Of course I don’t
know if I was brand new when he found me so I better figure in a few extra
months too.  
    “Is it your Grandma that has you so upset? Please
talk to me.” He grips both of my arms searching my face for some clue that
would piece together a reason for my hysterics. My short breaths come in faster
than they leave and I can’t stop them. Elijah holds my hand and tries to soothe
me.
    “She, she just told me that my dad found me on the
back porch like some stray dog.”   I start
to sob again. Elijah brings me into his arms and holds me. He is always able to
calm me like this. “I don’t even know if it’s true or if she is just having
some sort of delusion.”
    “Your dad never said anything to you about it?”
    “No I’m sure I would have remembered that
conversation. “Hey Brennen by the way you were discarded like an old newspaper
left out in the weather.””
    I tell Elijah word for word what my grandmother just
shared with me. He strokes my back as he listens.
    “First, if this story is true, I don't want you to
dare think for one second that someone abandoned you like a stray dog or an old
newspaper. Whatever the story is, I know that you were loved, there is no way
that your mother didn't love you Brennen. Your father loved you too. Whether
you were his or not I know he loved you more than life itself. Do you hear me?”
Elijah's voice is concerned and serious. I nod. “And this necklace, have you
ever seen it?”
    “No.” I have never even entertained the idea that I
was adopted. Elijah starts the car and turns towards home.
    “Where are you going?” I ask through still