Finding Fiona by Emily Ann Ward

Alarias see it and they start looking for
me…”
    “ What do you think they’d do?”
Hannah asked in a small voice.
    “ I don’t know. You’ll be here. It’s
okay.” Fiona had to find out what they were capable of. She
couldn’t leave Hannah to them.
     
    * * *
     
    When Fiona woke up, Hannah and James were in
the kitchen, making pancakes.
    “ Wow, first-class service,” she
said, sitting down at the table. “Where’s Keith?”
    “ Sleeping,” James said. “He got
home around two.”
    “ Oh, right, he worked last
night.”
    Soon, James gave her a plate of pancakes.
“They’re your favorite,” he said with a wink. She saw the small
blue spots of blueberries.
    “ Banana?”
    James’s smile faded, just the
slightest.
    “ I’m kidding,” Fiona said.
“Blueberry is still my favorite.”
    He pointed his spatula at her. “Not
funny.”
    Fiona grinned. “I couldn’t help myself.” She
did feel bad after seeing his reaction, so she made sure to
compliment him plenty of times about the pancakes. The compliments
weren’t a lie; they were definitely delicious. “Who taught you your
pancake making skills?”
    “ Your mom,” James said.
    Fiona fell silent, taking another bite. She
hadn’t allowed herself to think of Richard and Fiona Normans as her
parents yet. She felt like it was too good to be true.
    “ Well, they’re great,” Hannah said.
“She must have been a really good cook.”
    “ Yeah,” James said, “except for
lasagna. No matter what, something always went wrong. Except for
the frozen stuff, anyone can make that.”
    Fiona smiled. Burnt lasagna.
    As they were talking, Fiona heard the front
door open. “Who’s that?” she asked, interrupting James’s
story.
    “ James?” a voice called
out.
    Fiona tensed at his voice. She stood up and
went to the balcony. Sure enough, Troy stood by the lab, a backpack
on one of his shoulders. She hated the mere sight of him: his
thinning hair, that stupid walk.
    James and Hannah joined her. Hannah’s hands
shook as she grabbed the banister. “Troy,” she said
curtly.
    He looked up, his face serious. “I thought you
two would be here.”
    “ Or maybe I should call you
Walter?” Hannah asked, raising her voice.
    Troy ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I did
what I had to to keep Fiona safe.”
    “ What else did you lie about?” she
snapped. “Was it just your name?”
    “ I didn’t lie about anything else…
well, some things…”
    “ Like what? Ugh, why am I even
asking you? There’s no way I can believe you!” She spun around and
walked to the table.
    Troy moved toward the staircase, calling her
name.
    Fiona walked to the top of the stairs and put
her hands on her hips. “Why are you here?”
    “ I wanted to see you guys,” Troy
said.
    “ Did you tell him we were here?”
Fiona asked James.
    “ No!” James said. “I didn’t talk to
him at all yesterday.”
    “ Even though I called a dozen
times?” Troy said, pushing past Fiona. “Yeah, that was the main
thing that told me you were here.”
    She followed him into the dining room. “Well,
I think you should leave.”
    “ Really? This is my
house.”
    “ Is it? Shouldn’t it be mine? If
there’s some kind of a will, they probably left everything to
me–”
    “ But you’re dead,” Troy said.
“Technically.” He glanced toward Hannah, who was attacking her
pancakes with force. “Hannah, everything I did was to protect you
two.”
    Fiona felt a surge of anger that he was
talking to Hannah and not her. She was the one he’d kept the truth
from about her identity. Troy was there nearly all summer; he could
have changed her life. “Leave her alone!” she said, clenching her
fists.
    Hannah made a disgusted noise. “How
could you have lied to me? I let you in my house, in my life, in
my bed. ” She
shuddered.
    “ I didn’t mean to… it was a snap
decision, okay? I do like you, Hannah, I just–”
    “ Save it,” Hannah snapped. She
stood up and took her plate