Guardians of the Diamond Book One: The Rose

Chapter Eleven

Jonathan handed me the red journal. "Go ahead," he said when I took the journal from his hands. "Read it."

I looked up at Jonathan for a moment before focusing my attention on the cover of the journal. The letter A was printed in gold on the red leather. I traced my finger along the curl of the letter. I slowly opened the book, afraid of what I might find written in there. I started to read the first page:

May 12th

Today has been a strange day. I think we have finally been found out. Someone came to our house today. An unsettling man. He was tall, had black hair and his eyes, oh I will never forget those eyes. They were blood red and looked like they held evil. They most likely did hold evil.

The man asked us where it was. How could he possibly know about it? I don't think he was from the government. Didn't have the right look, if you know what I mean. The government people who have visited us before either had extreme fake emotion or no emotion at all. With this man, the emotion was there, it was just very frightening. He was probably from some sort of cult or something else of that nature. I wish I could just get rid of that ridiculous diamond, but I promised Jay we would keep it safe. I promised I wouldn't let it into anyone else's hands but ours.

"What are you talking about?" I asked the man as innocently as I possibly could after he asked me where it was.

"The Collinion Diamond," he growled. "Where is it?"

The Collinion Diamond. The awful special diamond. I don't even know why it's so special. I shouldn't have to be in charge of it. Jay refused to tell me what is so important about it, he just told me that Adam and I had to keep it safe. He said that it belonged to my family, but refused to say more than that. Too dangerous if I knew too much apparently.

"Diamond? I'm sorry you must have the wrong person, unless you're talking about this diamond." I pulled off the diamond necklace around my neck. But, it was not the diamond Jay had given me. It was the diamond my husband gave me this year for our anniversary.

"This thing!" he said when I handed it to him. "Please. This is worthless to me." He threw it on the ground. "I guess I must have the wrong Collins. Sorry to bother you." He smiled a creepy smile and turned around to start to walk away, but he turned back to face me and said. "I may have the wrong person for the diamond, but you will have something of mine eventually." He breathed in through his nose. "I can almost smell it on you. And when you are in possession of what I need, I'll be back to take it from you." He winked and walked back down the pathway from our front door.

After he left I just stood there. What else could we have that he wanted?

May 13th

I approached my husband this morning. "We have to leave this state, Adam! Maybe even the country. That diamond Jay gave us, people know we have it. I think I fooled that one man, but others will find us. I... I can feel it. The diamond must be special. Really special. That man yesterday seemed really determined to have it," I explained.

"Amy, I understand what you mean." He hesitated. "Jay mentioned that this may happen. He said we might have to do anything possible to take care of the diamond. He told me to have an escape plan ready. We should pack everything we can and get out of here as fast as we can. How about going to Ohio? My office has a branch up there I'm sure I can get transferred into. I have a plan to keep us moving. Next we go to Michigan, then Tennessee, then Florida. We can always come up with more along the way." My mouth dropped to the floor when he said this. I didn't expect him to be so compliant. And he seemed like he'd put time into planning this, but that's Adam. He's always thinks ahead. Always has a plan. Especially when it comes to our safety.