Choosing Us (Pierced Hearts Duet #1)(7)

“Please! Don’t take me!” I reached for the handle, yanking it as hard as I could, but it was locked. “I don’t want to go! Please!”

I kicked at the door, the window, the backs of their seats, but nothing helped.

Nothing worked.

“Mom! Momma! Take me with you! Just take me with you! You promised! You promised me that you would never leave me! It was you and me against the world!”

It wasn’t until the car started driving away from the hospital that I knew my life would never be the same again.

I had no one to take care of me.

To love me.

To make me feel like I was home.

My saddest days were still coming.

Because now…

I was really alone.

“Aiden—”

I turned my face toward the window and shut my eyes, ignoring Misty who was in the front seat with the mean man driving.

I hated him.

I hated her.

But mostly, I hated my mom.

It didn’t feel like a long time had gone by, when I felt the car stop and the engine turn off. The last thing I remembered was kicking and screaming, then nothing. I must have fallen asleep, too tired to keep fighting. It didn’t matter anyway. I left my heart, my tears, everything back at the hospital with my momma.

The car was quiet and dark, the moon and headlights were the only lights in the night as far as I could see.

What will happen to me now?

The door opened out of nowhere, making me jump, and the big man nodded for me to get out. “Come on, son, we’re here,” he said, reaching out his hand for me.

“Where am I?” I asked, only looking at the tan house with a gate around it. Pushing his hand away, I stepped out onto the grass by myself. “This isn’t where I live.”

Misty looked at the man the same way she did back at the hospital before getting down to my level.

“Aiden, since your mom is gone, I can’t take you home. This is where you’ll be temporarily, until I can find you a permanent placement.”

“What about all my stuff? My clothes, my toys, my games! Momma’s books, our pictures on the walls, my favorite pillow and blanket with Ninja Turtles on them… Momma bought them for me before she got sick! I want all my stuff! Please get my stuff. I promise I’ll be good! I won’t fight. I promise. I just want my stuff.”

“I’m sorry, Aiden. I can’t do that. We’ll find you some clothes and toys here, alright?”

“No!” I stomped my foot and tightened my hands. “It’s not the same! You can’t do this to me! You can’t take all my things away from me, like you took me away from my momma! I want my stuff, and I want it now!”

“Aiden,” she whispered in a low voice, “I’ll try to grab some of your things for you, but I can’t make any promises, okay?”

“But I want to go with you! Take me with you! I want to see my house! You won’t pick out the right things!”

“Yes, I will. Tell me three things you want the most?”

Was she lying?

Could I trust her?

Could I trust anyone?

“Only three?” I replied, surprised.

“I’ll try to grab as much as I can, but give me three items so I can at least grab those things for you.”

I bowed my head, giving up. She wasn’t going to take me with her. She wasn’t even listening to me.

Would my voice ever be heard again?

“I want the picture that’s on my nightstand by my bed. It’s a picture of me and Momma from when I was little,” I told her, wiping a tear from my cheek. “She looks really happy. She was always really happy, Misty. Even after she got sick, she always tried to smile for me. Sometimes it looked like it hurt her, but she did it anyway. Do you think she is still in pain?” I asked the question I’d been holding in, remembering her cold skin on mine.

A feeling that would never leave me.

Misty grabbed my chin, making me look up at her with new tears in my eyes, as I sucked them back down.

“What else?”

“My Ninja Turtle blanket and pillow. I know that’s two things, but can they count as one?”

“Yes, they can count as one.” She nodded. “Now name one last thing.”

“Momma’s favorite book to read to me, On the Night You Were Born. She always read it to me at night time, to keep the monsters away.” I looked into her eyes. “Who’s going to keep them away now, Misty?”

She frowned as if she could feel what I was feeling, never taking her sad eyes from mine. “Your momma is in Heaven.”

“But Heaven is so far away.”

“I’ll be here too.”

“You will?”

“Yes, Aiden. I’m going to request to take over your case and be your caseworker from here on out. I have some pull with my supervisor, and I know I can make it happen.”

“Does that mean you’ll take care of me? I can stay with you?” I asked, needing someone to love me.

Her bottom lip moved fast and her eyes watered, shaking her head at me. “No. You can’t stay with me, sweetie.”

“But you just said—”

“I know, but you don’t have to stay with me for me to take care of you. I’m going to place you in a good foster home, Aiden. I promise.”