Page 24 of Hidden

The echo of her words permeated through the air, poisoning the space. I hadn’t heard that name in so long, and I’d worked hard to forget.

My skin turned to ice, and I was a child again. Everything, even Julian, faded from the room. “Y-y-yes.”

“Bianca.” Her voice was strife with disbelief, and it startled me out of my panic. My heart pounded as our eyes met.

She looked angry. What did I do?

But she didn’t even get me a chance to ask. “Are you saying that all this time you believed you were going to be sent back to him? Did your parents say anything to indicate that they would, or—”

“No.” I didn’t know how to explain without sounding stupid. I pulled my knees closer to my chest, trying to get warm. “I didn’t want them to be unhappy with me. They wanted me to be normal. I couldn’t go back. It was an accident that they adopted me to begin with. I wasn’t supposed to be seen. If I went back after that…”

“You weren’t supposed to be seen?” Dr. Reed’s voice had softened. “You’ve never spoken about this before. What happened the day you were adopted?”

“I ran away a few days before.” My body buzzed and I scratched the edge of my gown, trying not to pick at my arm. “He didn’t like it when I ran away. Not when he didn’t want me to.”

“You ran away?” her voice was gentle. “Did you do that often? Where did you go, and for how long? What made you go back?”

“I had to go b-b-back.” The feeling was growing stronger—I wanted to crawl out of my skin. “I had a hideout, in the woods. No one could ever find me there. I couldn’t stay too long, there wasn’t much to eat. I was gone for a week that time. I missed the announcement. When people came to look at the foster kids, the rest of us had to hide. I was supposed to, but… I didn’t know. That’s how my p-p-parents saw me.”

There was a short pause, and the air in the room grew heavy. It was hard to breathe.

Then Dr. Reed spoke again, and despite her sympathetic tone, it didn’t stop the terror from racing through me. “You weren’t a foster child?”

My eyes shot up, and Julian’s tight, pale expression barely registered through my panic. Only Dr. Reed was important right now. “Don’t tell them! They can’t know.”

“First of all.” Dr. Reed’s face was calm, and she projected such sincerity that my racing heart began to slow. “At your age, evenifyour parents gave up guardianship, you wouldn’t go back to him. You’d simply be left to your own devices.”

She tilted her head, still studying me. “Secondly, theyknewwho Eric Richards was. They were helping an investigation when they found you. They knew what was going on. Even if you had said something, they wouldn’t have taken you back. And while we might not have agreed on methodology, they do care. They only wanted you to focus on recovery. That’s why they wanted you to not think about the paranormal.”

“Recovery…” What was I recovering from, exactly? “I don’t understand.”

She continued speaking in that same tone. “Would you like to talk about what happened in your foster homes?”

“No.” The fake calm receded, and my heartbeat echoed in my ears. There was no way this was happening.

If they knew…

Was this why my parents wanted me to stay locked away? Why I wasn’t allowed to decide on my own treatment? Because they thought something was wrong with me?

Were they ashamed?

“I’m fine.” My voice shook despite my effort to prevent it. “I don’t need to talk about it.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. “It’s okay to be angry—”

“I said no.”

I opened my eyes, my back pressed against the wall. I was farther from them before. And this time, Julian ignored his mother and came to me before I even had time to suck in a breath.

“Darling, it’s all right.” He pulled me into his warm arms. I couldn’t stop my shaking. “There’s no need to talk about it right now. Only when you are ready.”

I clung to him, his fresh scent washing away the raw edges of my nerves. “No.”

What was everyone going on about? There was absolutely nothing to discuss. Whatever had happened was in the past, and I’d lived through it. Nothing good ever came from revisiting that sort of thing.

They had no idea what they were doing.

“Bianca…” Julian sounded torn, but I knew that he would never press me. He obviously didn’t like to see me uncomfortable. I hated using that against him, but I really,reallydidn’t want to stay on this topic.