Shattered by Teri Terry Read Free Book Online Page B

over things like that,’ Ellie says to Madison, shaking her head, then turns to me. ‘Her daughter went missing. No one knows what happened to her. I think Stella is afraid of something happening to one of us; she is just looking out for us all.’
    Late that night there is a faint knock on my door, and it opens. I sit up, heart pounding.
    Hall light frames round her: Stella.
    She looks different, hair down, a long flannel robe wrapped tight around her; more soft and uncertain. Pounce pushes past her, runs across the room and jumps up on my bed.
    Stella pulls the chair next to the bed and sits in it. She grips my hand so tight it starts to hurt.
    ‘Lucy? Is it really you?’ she whispers. She reaches out her other hand, shaking, to my hair. ‘What has happened to your beautiful hair?’
    ‘It’s changed, permanently: IMET.’
    ‘We could dye it, I suppose.’
    ‘No. I’m trying to not be recognised.’
    ‘Oh. Of course.’ She sighs. ‘I can always stop dyeing mine.’
    ‘Why? Do we need to match?’
    She starts, pulls her hand away. ‘Not exactly. It’s just that I didn’t know you when you came in. I didn’t know my own daughter. You didn’t know me either, did you?’
    I hesitate, shake my head. She looks hurt. ‘I’m sorry. You know I was Slated, don’t you?’
    She nods. ‘She told me.’
    ‘Who?’
    She looks away. ‘I don’t know. Whoever it was who told me you were finally coming home.’
    Someone in MIA?
    ‘Tell me your story, Lucy. Tell me everything you can about where you’ve been these seven years.’
    I hold still a moment. I came here because I wanted to find out about my missing past, my years here: of course she wants the same in return, to know about the parts of my life she has missed since then. A fair exchange? But much of what has been my life these last years I don’t want to say out loud. Some demons are best kept locked up, hidden away.
    ‘Lucy?’
    ‘Could you not call me Lucy? It’s just that it is dangerous. No one can know who I really am.’
    ‘No one can hear us now.’
    ‘But you might slip up when other people are around.’
    She half smiles. ‘I’ll try, Lu—’ She jumps, guiltily. ‘—Riley,’ she says. ‘What should you call me?’ Her eyes hunger, and I know what she wants to hear, but I can’t bring myself to do it.
    ‘I should call you what all the girls do, for the same reason: Stella.’
    She frowns, and sighs. ‘Oh, all right. Tell me about your life, Riley .’
    And I stare back at her. Should I tell her everything, no matter whether I want to or not? Is it dangerous to know? ‘I don’t know everything. A lot of my memories are gone.’
    ‘What you do know, then.’
    ‘I think I was kidnapped when I was ten. I didn’t understand why for a long time.’
    Her lip curls. ‘The AGT.’
    My eyes widen. She knows, or guesses? ‘Yes, it was them. They had some sort of plan, to fracture my personality. So that when I was Slated some memories would survive.’
    Stella’s face wars between sadness and horror. ‘You must have been so scared.’
    So little memory of that time remains, but what does isn’t good: late at night hearing a doctor’s voice saying over and over again, you have no family; they didn’t want you; they gave you to us . My eyes start to sting, and I blink. ‘Are you sure you want to know?’ I ask. ‘Everything? It isn’t easy to talk about. It might be harder to hear.’
    Stella hesitates. ‘Yes. Tell me,’ she says, and slips an arm across my shoulders, hesitant, and some of the resistance inside melts enough for me to lean into her a moment, and tell her the blackest early memory from then .
    I hold my left hand up. ‘They made me – as Lucy – be right-handed. Broke my left fingers so I had no choice.’ She cradles my hand in hers, staying silent. Nods once to say go on , but doesn’t press. But I can’t bring myself to tell her the thing that happened that finally cemented the personality split: that Dad