Read Online Souls Apart (Book 1 in the Lost Souls Trilogy) by Anna Pescardot - Free Book Online Page A

there together. What do you say, Charls?”
    “But we can’t
afford that.   Mom had to work two jobs to
pay the bills and she was still short a lot of the time.   I’ll be at college anyway so it wouldn’t be
worth it.”
    He started to
raise his voice. “This is what you’ve wanted all along isn’t it? I bet it was
you who put your Mom up to it in the first place.” He walked over to me so that
his face was almost pressed against mine. I could feel his anger and I was
pretty scared. “You won’t leave me, Charlie.   I’ll make sure of that.   I’ll work
something out.   You can go to college but
you will be back here at weekends and during the holidays, I’ll see to it.”
    A thought
suddenly occurred to me. “Eddie, I have an idea! What if you came to live with
us in Maine?   What if you moved into a student apartment
with me? You could still write.   We could
even get married and live as man and wife.”
    He paused.
“That could work, I guess.   Then we could
be together all the time.”
    I waited while
he paced back and to.   If he agreed to
that then it would be ok. He suddenly stopped and seemed to look right through me.”
I can’t leave this village, though.   I’d
love to but I can’t.”
    “But why can’t
you leave? You said yourself there’s nothing for you here and you’re all
alone.”
    He shouted. “I
can’t leave here, didn’t you hear me! And I’m not going to let you leave
either!”
    “I want to go
home now, Eddie.” I said,
    “Fine.   But we’ll talk about this again tomorrow. It
needs to be sorted out.”

    ***
    Mom was still
at work when I got home so I went to my bedroom and cried so hard. Why did
loving someone have to be so hard? I started to feel better about Mom now.   I hated it sometimes when I got home and she
was at the diner.   She didn’t come in
sometimes until the early hours and there were times, like tonight, when I
could have really used a hug and someone to talk to. Despite this I found it
quite easy to drop off to sleep.
    I was woken
from my deep sleep, though, by loud banging on the front door.   I pulled back the drapes and I noticed a
flashing light.   What was it? I looked
again and saw it was a police car. I threw on my dressing gown and slowly opened
the door. A female officer was standing there. “Charlotte Perry?” she asked.
    A wave of icy
cold shivers ran down my spine. “Can we come inside?” she asked.   I held open the door while she and her male
colleague stepped in the hallway. I invited them into the living room and they
sat opposite me.   The female officer’s
face was ashen. “Is your Mom called Simone Perry?” she asked.
    I nodded. I
knew something terrible had happened to Mom.   I could feel it.   I had a horrible
feeling that once she told her boss she was leaving there’d be trouble.   He was a sleazy little man; a real pervert, I
thought.   He’d been trying it on with Mom
for weeks and I think that was another reason she’d wanted to leave her job so
bad. “She’s hurt isn’t she?” I said.
    The female officer
nodded. “I’m afraid it’s not good news, Charlotte.   We found the body of a woman in a dumpster
behind Ray’s Rockin’ Diner. We think it’s your Mom. Is there anyone who can
identify the body?”
    “There’s just
me.”
    “Are you sure
there’s nobody else. You’re very young.”
    “I’ll do it.” I
was too numb to cry. Why was this happening? I glanced at my ring. It was
cursed. I was starting to wish I’d never met Eddie.   Things were just fine before.
    I asked the
officers to wait while I changed and then I let out all my emotions in the back
seat of the police car while we all drove in silence to the mortuary.
    -17-

    I felt bad asking the police to knock at Amber’s
house, but when they asked me if there was anyone who could look out for me,
she was the one person I could think of. She was distraught when she heard. My
mom was like a second mom to Amber; she