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After six years of living someone else's life, I'll get to see my mother. Cuddle my brother. Hold my sister's hand.

I pop more cake into my mouth to try and hide my rapidly giddy smile.

I'm really going home.

“Soon” is happening.

- Chapter 8 -

Laiken

My long hair is nolonger tangled in knots. If you search it, you won't find any brambles. But even though it spends its days restrained in a braid that tickles the backs of my thighs, it's an illusion. My hair is still wild, like my heart.

All the fancy loops and hairspray in the world will never change that.

“Get back here!” Emma groans, flapping her hairbrush.

“You've done plenty,” I say, dodging around my bed to avoid her. “I'm wasting my day in that chair.”

“Just let me add something pretty for once, and—Laiken!”

I laugh from my belly as I rush out of the bedroom. I managed to sit patiently as she wove my hair. But when she tried to add sparkly pins into the mix, I bolted. I've been fidgeting anxiously all day - all night, really. But how can I keep still?

My dad is coming to take me home.

Annie told me last week that he was going to visit tonight. I had to keep my entire face stern so I wouldn't grin. She didn't know this wasn't a normal visit. In the next few hours—I didn't know how yet—Dad was going to get me out of here.

The day is crawling by too sluggishly. It always does when you're waiting for something. I'd lost Emma, so I slip through the kitchen doors, grabbing two biscuits and skipping towards the animal preserve.

Behind the estate, in view of the east side of the house, is a perfectly manicured miniature forest. It's a little over a mile in diameter, and it takes around two thousand steps to cross it. I counted that myself one day.

The fence that rings it is mesh. Deer can't get over it, but I can, and did, until I met the caretaker. Wyatt gave me a stern talking to when he saw me dangling from the lip of the fence. On the surface he seems like a hard man with no patience for anyone but the animals.

I took a quick liking to him.

I see him now as I approach the gate. He waves at me, dropping his shovel so he can pop the lock and let me in. “You look happy today,” he says, squinting suspiciously.