Freezing Bonds that Tie our Hearts (Blood and Water #2)

23. Nova

Unlike the first four disappearances, this time around, the police didn’t even wait an hour to get involved. I was both relieved and resentful for that. Relieved because it means more chances for us to find Rory, but resentful because all kids deserved their help and devotion no matter which side of town they came from. If they had taken it seriously the first time it happened, then maybe it wouldn’t have happened again and again.

Rory’s face was splattered all over the local news, people had called telling the police they had seen her at the fair, crying in a corner, but nobody knew much else.

The hardest part had been to look my father in the eyes and tell him his daughter had disappeared while under my watch.

The disappointment on his face, the anger and the fear… just thinking about it made my stomach spasm. He thought I was like my mom, irresponsible, neglectful, unreliable, and I’d just proved him right. The guilt was like nothing I had ever experienced. I had failed him, but most importantly, I had failed my little sister, who had always been the one person to believe in me.

Dad didn’t speak a word to me afterwards. Not when we were still at the Fair searching for Rory, and not since we came back home.

Cop cars were all over our neighborhood and my eyes took in their red and blue lights almost nonchalantly. I felt disconnected from everything.

The night was cold but I didn’t care about that as I sat silently on the steps leading to our porch. I clutched the little frog teddy to my chest, not caring how dirty it was. The tears on my face had long dried out, and even though I didn’t feel better in the slightest, I couldn’t shed any more.

Aiden had to go bring Bibi home, but he promised to be back as soon as he could. He called his hacker friend to ask for help and he’d been able to get into one of the parking lot’s cameras.

Just like Oscar, an old black car was seen speeding out of the parking lot around the time when she disappeared, but the angle made it impossible to see the driver’s face or even a license plate. All we knew was that it looked like an old Camarro, but nothing as well maintained as Aiden’s.

The information was sent anonymously to the police but they were basically useless, even with the help of Lakestone police forces. Given who my father was, and how he threatened to sue the whole town for not taking the other missing cases seriously, they called them in as reinforcement.

“Nova!” Looking up, I saw my friends standing on the sidewalk in front of my house, sprinting towards me. Zainab was the first to reach me, engulfing me in a bear hug, not caring that I couldn’t find it in me to hug her back. She kissed my forehead before Mei and Jelena could hug me too, but it felt numb. I loved my friends, but they weren’t who I wanted to see right then.

They weren’t my sister. They weren’t Rory.

The knowledge brought tears back to my eyes and I bit my lip because I didn’t want to let them fall. I had no business crying like I was the victim of this situation. I was safe, at home, surrounded by people who loved me.

Rory wasn’t.

“It’s gonna be okay, Nova,” Jelena rubbed my shoulder, quietly sitting next to me while Zee had gone inside my house to check on Cece. “we’ll find her.”

“Aiden was already rounding up a group of guys from the North to search the town for Nova. They’re flagging all the houses with black cars parked out front,” Mei looked around us then leaned in, whispering, “I think they’re planning on breaking in those houses once the whole town is asleep.”

“Good. At least they’re being proactive, not like these goons,” came Zee’s growled answer as she walked back down the steps we were sitting on, to face us. Immediately, her eyes softened, becoming almost sad, “You holding up?”

I shrugged, not ready to admit the truth.

That I was starting to spiral back into bad thoughts.

My father, who hadn’t even spared me a glance, was inside arguing with police officers who, in turn, were trying to pacify him. A crowd was starting to gather outside my home, on the road and the sidewalk. Mainly cops and journalists who were taking pictures of our house like they had a right to. The people who were neither justified their presence as it being the neighborly thing to do, when in reality, they were just morbidly curious.

In small towns such as ours, even bad news was exciting.

“It’s unacceptable!” I recognized the voice as belonging to Portia Withers, one of our neighbors.

When we first moved in, the first month, she came over almost daily to bring us casseroles and homemade meals. When dad tried to tell her it was nice but unnecessary, she explained that since we didn’t have a mom, she felt responsible to see that we would eat proper meals. It had taken all of me not to scream at her that we did have a mom.

She just wasn’t there anymore.

“These hooligans are now bringing their deviant behaviors onto our side of town! I called it! When they decided to mix our kids with these delinquents in the same school, I said it was only a matter of time before their corruption seeped into our well-respected side!” The scariest thing wasn’t what she was saying, but that people were agreeing with her, nodding their heads, adding to her words.

She was preaching incongruous, hateful things and using my little sister to do that.

The crowd was getting louder, police officers trying to keep them calm, but you could feel the tension and aggression was only rising.

When two cars parked right in front of my house, and Aiden along with some of his friends came out of them, my breath caught in my throat. Jelena’s hand on my shoulder stopped, and I felt Meileen tense up even more. The crowd quietened a little, but anyone could tell something was wrong, and the boys seemed to realize that pretty quickly too.

We all waited for the other shoe to drop.

“What are they doing here?” Someone spat, making one of Aiden’s friends scowl.

“This is all your fault!” A middle aged guy pushed Julian, so hard he probably would have hit the ground if Matt hadn’t been there.

Another of their friends, tall with brown hair, fair skin and tattoos all over him took a threatening step towards the man who had pushed Julian, but Aiden grabbed him by the arm.

I stood up, alert, and so did the girls.

“Go back to where you came from!”

The girls and I shared a look and I could feel Meileen slowly shrink into herself. I didn’t even know these people and God knows they most likely didn’t care about Rory’s disappearance. They just saw it as an opportunity to justify their hateful behavior. It didn’t matter to them that people from the North have been suffering from these disappearances just as much as we had. They didn’t even consider them as people, it seemed.

“What are the police still doing here when they should be over there, checking every one of these savages’ houses for the girl!” A man in the crowd yelled, and quickly, words of agreement were heard among our peers.

“Who you calling a savage?” Matt growled, his usually happy-go-easy demeanor shattering.

In a time where we should all have been helping each other, no matter which side of the river we came from, the people of Ravenbridge decided to divide.

Through the crowd, Aiden’s eyes caught mine. He took a step towards me and I took one towards him, when, out of nowhere, someone punched him in the face.

Then all hell broke loose.

I gasped, ready to run up to him, but my friends kept me from doing so, scared that I would get punched myself.

Loyal to Aiden, the guys he was with immediately retaliated, and a fight quickly broke out. The cops who had been standing outside, immediately dived in to try and break everyone apart.

Insults shoot out from all sides as Southies accused them of being responsible for the missing kids. I recognized some faces from school, including Lewis Knightsley, which didn’t surprise me in the least.

“Your meddling with criminals brought this to our town!” That came from the lady who first spoke up.

“Fuck you!” The brown-haired guy, Aiden’s friend, defended, “We’ve been trying for months to get the police to do something while y’all were sitting on your asses!”

“Don’t you speak to her like that, boy!”

“Oh, fuck you too, you think you’re tough but you’re hiding behind the police like a fucking coward! We’ve been searching for these kids for months! Where have you been during this time?”

“This is probably retaliation from one of your drug dealers, anyways! You should have thought about it before getting involved in illegal activities.”

I tuned them out, my attention solely on Aiden, whose eye looked like it was going to bruise. He stood a little away from where his friends were arguing with the crowd, and when his eyes found mine, I said fuck it all and went to him.

Both sides being too busy hurling insults at each other, nobody noticed us when I all but ran into his arms. Aiden held me tight, kissing the crown of my head as I did my best to keep the tears from falling.

“Are you okay?” I whispered, pulling away just enough to be able to take his face between my hands and look at his bruise.

“I’m good, little star.”

I was about to tell him how sorry I was for all the things those Southies had been saying, when he was suddenly wrenched away from me in the most brutal manner, and pushed down to the ground.

I screamed in a mix of surprise and horror when I saw my dad straddling his waist punching him square in the face.

Cops were immediately onto them, pulling my father away and helping Aiden up. I was frozen in place, not knowing which way to go, which side to take. This was the second time that dad had been violent towards him and I knew the only reason why he wasn’t sporting a bruise right now was because Aiden respected me too much.

“How dare you fucking show your face here!” Dad’s voice boomed, making everyone else quiet down, “I told you to stay away from my daughter and look where you got us!”

“Dad! It’s not his fault!” My heart was beating so fast, but when he turned towards me and the only emotion on his face was anger, his eyes glaring daggers at me like I was no one but a stranger, it stopped altogether.

But that’s not what hurt the most. No, what made my heart shatter were his next words, spat with venom and drenched in hatred.

“No, it’s not. It’s yours.”