Page 70 of No Longer Mine

I searched each room high and low. Not a single one had any more pictures or even an album. I felt like I was wasting my time until I saw a little polaroid snapshot sitting abandoned at a worn-down piano bench. There she was. Smiling up at me. A younger version of Scarlett with the woman pictured that we couldn’t find a record on, a blonde girl with a gappy smile, and Oliver. I rubbed the collecting dust off of the picture and looked down at the radiant girl.

“Found you.”

My lips turned down into a frown. I didn’t like this one bit. Anyone else could have found her. For whatever reason, that didn’t sit well with me. I looked at Don over the crushed and destroyed instruments around me. “Start dragging those mattresses that were piled up in the bedroom down to the main floor.”

His eyebrows jumped. “You want me to unearth an entire colony of rats?”

I stared at him. He rolled his eyes before he slunk off, not so happy with his assignment. I would go help him, but I needed a minute alone to soak it all in.

Scarlett’s childhood was trapped within these walls, and for the first time in, well, my entire life, I felt sadness. It pulled and yanked at my chest in a way I wasn’t familiar with.

“Who are you, Scarlett, and why were you erased?” I whispered to the empty room before I stood to go help Don with the rat problem. I smirked as I went. For a big burly man, he sure was afraid of rats and hauntings. I would never let him live this down.

My security detail had most of the mattresses piled up by the stairs by the time I made it over to him. I lifted a brow as he dusted his hands off on his pants. “Well, there weren’t rats, so it was a lot easier to get it done.”

“Uh huh.”

He rolled his eyes. “What are we doing?”

“Do you still smoke?” I asked.

“Are you obsessed with the redhead?”

I blinked at him.

He sighed. “Yes, I still smoke.”

I held out my hand. “I need your lighter.”

He handed it over without further questions.

“If we could find her, I’m sure anyone else could too. There’s probably plenty of proof she existed somewhere within these walls.” I’d pocketed the picture of Scarlett. I wanted to see her face when I told her I knew who she was. I grabbed one of the crumbling chairs and tossed it onto the pile. Don looked at the pile with contempt.

“This is never going to burn. Be back in a minute.” He shook his head as he walked out of the house, only to return a few short minutes later with a full can of gas.

“I hope we won’t need that on the way home,” I said as I crossed my arms over my chest.

He rolled his eyes at me as he dumped the contents onto the pile of mattresses and the broken chair. “For your information, I always keep two.”

“You do that much arson?”

Don’s brows immediately wrinkled. “Can you hurry up with this illegal activity so we can get out of here before we’re seen?”

I flicked the lighter on and threw it at the pile. With a huge whoosh, it was lit.

I walked out of the house and away from the burning pile with Don on my heels. We could wait in the car while the house burned down. I doubted anyone would come to put it out. We were far enough from civilization.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Scarlett

Bubbles floatedaround me as I tried to relax. My body had been strung tight since everything happened with Dimitri. Oliver was still working on the flash drive, and I felt like I would snap at any moment.

Trafficking.

It felt so much bigger than me... then the starving and defenseless I was helping. I sank under the surface of the water and blew bubbles out of my mouth as I held my breath. When I broke through the surface of the water, I could still see the names. No matter what I did, I was picturing every single person, even if I hadn’t ever seen them before. I ran my hands down my face and groaned. This was bad.

A text message pinged through my phone, with a great splash of water onto the tiled floor, I managed to get it open.