Free Scarlet Awakening (Sweet Secrets #2) by Taylor Henderson Page A

throat. “Yeah, Violet said that natural names for the girls run in her family. Her mom’s parents were over the moon when she married a guy with the last name Forrester. Her grandma’s name on her mom’s side is Ivy, and her grandma’s twin sister’s name was Clover.”
    “Clover, huh? That’s clever ,” Dad joked.
    He was the only one to laugh.
    Just then a knock sounded on the door to my room.
    “Come in,” I called out.
    The knob twisted and the door pushed open to reveal my mom. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and she had a pair of reading glasses tucked in her hair just above her forehead.
    “I just came to see what you girls were up to.” Her gaze flicked to my computer screen, seeing my dad easily from the way that Ella and I were sitting sideways on the bed with our backs to the door. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she added hurriedly before turning to leave.
    “Wait, Christine,” Dad called. She heard him loud and clear thanks to his leaning toward the microphone.
    Mom turned around and hesitantly approached the side of the bed. She leaned down and forced a smile for my dad.
    “Hey Jamie,” she said softly. “How are you?”
    “I’m lonely without my girls,” he answered honestly, smiling nonetheless.
    Her smile was no longer forced. “Now you know how I felt. It’s hard without them, isn’t it?” She glanced sideways at Ella and me, patting my leg affectionately.
    “I feel your pain,” he said with a chuckle. There was a moment of silence where they stared at one another in the camera, and Ella and I were looking back and forth from Mom to the pixelated version of Dad, waiting to see who would break the silence first.
    “You look great, Chris,” Dad said with a smile.
    Mom tilted her head down and said thank you. I think she might have even blushed. “I’ll talk to you later. See you, Jamie,” she said, and excused herself from the room.
    After she left, Dad asked us how she was doing. We filled him in about how she was definitely a lot happier these days, and that she doesn’t sleep the day away anymore.
    Dad grinned and his only response was, “That’s good. That makes me really happy.”
    After we talked for a few more minutes, Dad looked at the clock and said that he needed to get ready for bed.
    “It’s nearly eleven o’clock here, and I have work at seven in the morning.”
    We all said goodnight, and when Dad hung up, Ella left the room, leaving me lying on my bed and staring at my ceiling in thought.
    Dad was right that it was good Mom was feeling better and getting back into a routine. It was obvious she was much happier to be back in California, and also at the prospect of no longer being married. It was obvious they were both finding happiness without each other. Maybe eventually they’d find happiness in other people like they used to have with each other.
    I went to retrieve the only sketchbook I had brought with me from home, and began drawing the picture I had found of my mom and the twins from memory, mentally removing John from the picture, and adding in my dad, Ella, and me.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 11
     
     
    I tried to avoid John at work, but every day the simple task of walking past his desk without speaking had gotten harder and harder. Even when I walked by and didn’t say good morning, I couldn’t miss the smile he gave me. He was such a friendly guy. Jamie really didn’t deserve my strayed attention.
     
    I sighed after I finished reading the entry in my mom’s journal. My mom had gone out for the day with a friend, and while she was gone, Ella and I had seized our opportunity and snatched her journal from her room. It had been about two weeks since we had last read her journal, since she rarely ever left the house for more than an hour at a time. Now that we knew she was going to be out for over an hour, we were trying to get as much information from the little book as possible. We knew it was wrong, but we needed answers.
    We