A Silver Lining

Chapter Fourty Three: Plans & Vacations

Chapter 43: Plans & Vacations

"Say again," I said. "I think I've misheard. You want me to go on a vacation when all of these need to be sorted out?" I paused. "Maybe I did hear wrong. I seriously need hearing aids."

Both Dad and Ryan rolled their eyes.

"Stop being dramatic, of course, you're not going for pleasantries. You can visit your fosters whenever you want, but this time you'll be going for a reason," dad said.

I looked at Ryan for confirmation. He nodded.

I turned back to dad. "And what's this goodwill of yours?"

My answer was given by Mrs. Harnett, Noah's mother. "We've heard everything Jeffery needed to say. If you're confirming that he's not lying that means the file is still out in that state. But what I don't get is how Jeffery knows all this."

Everyone turned to Jeff. "It's been a while. Since the day Jordan murdered mom, I've known about this business. Daniel's wife of that time, Bailey I think, though it was wise enough to tell a twelve years old all about it. I hated them since then. But dad would get abusive if I go against him. I was always so scared of them, fear turned into hatred, soon before I knew it, I wanted all of them down. I gathered all the information from my house because they never guessed me as a threat. And about Stella, I heard about it from Jordan," he looked at me.

"I'm sorry Stella, I was so mad at you for not agreeing to go to the ball with me and then things about you and Ryan. I ended up telling Jordan about it. He was very drunk thankfully and he told me once there were two girls he kidnapped. One of their names was Stella Morris and then I remember your old Instagram profile name." He sent me a follow request two or three weeks after I got here, and I had changed my name only to Stella after Christmas.

He continued, "I got curious and asked him farther. He gave me all the information he had, how you two took the file, when it was. He also talked about Luna. How she was so stubborn and forcing you not to give information too. How they killed her after they ra-" his voice died.

My visions were already blurry. Ryan's arms were around me and I cried in his shoulder. He knew the whole story except for the rape part. But he didn't question me. Instead he muttered soft words.

"Sorry, too much information," Jeff apologized.

"It's okay, you needed to prove your innocence too," I said.

The whole room was silent. I didn't want the world to know Luna's secret, but it was too late. And this isn't a thing only between a kid stealing file and kidnapping anymore.

She brought this to herself the day she stole the file and got you in it too.

No it was a lie. Luna would never do anything like that. She always wanted my best.

I saw dad sniffing too. He walked to me and pulled me in his arms and patted my head.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "It's only because of us you had to go all through that."

"No dad it's not. It's nobody's fault."

"But-"

"I'm telling you. Trust me, it's just the circumstances," I assured him.

"Does Jordan know she's the same Stella?" Ryan asked Jeff.

He shook his head. "No there's lots of Stella Morris around the world. He hardly remember how any of them look like, or have any information about them."

"That's good," dad said. "Stella you and Ryan will make a team and go back to that country. After visiting your fosters you'll go to that old town."

"But I don't even remember where it is." I regret every moment of that. I should've stopped her before stealing the file. Before bringing it home and hiding it in the forest, the opposite hill of-

Waterfall.

The opposite hill of the waterfall!

That's where the file is hidden!

"I remember," I screamed immediately. "I remember where the file is, if someone else hadn't found it yet."

There was a noise around the room and everyone swept their heads in my direction.

"Are you sure?" Dad asked.

"Hundred percent, I thought I didn't know where it was. But it was always there. It was- I can lead you there."

Everyone looked excited. Dad and Uncle Jack aka Mr. Anderson was high over the moon.

It was settled that we were going there on spring holidays, which was a month away but we needed to be fully prepared.

They also said to keep an eye on Jeff, but he promised he wasn't a threat. And his dad won't come home before summer and he would kill him if he knew he gave us all this information.

We believed his word but from the look, I was sure dad would do something about it.

Jordan wasn't a threat. At least Ryan and I believed that.

The meeting was broken after that and everyone went home. Further decisions will be taken later.

"So how much do you think Jeff would be trustable?" I asked Ryan when we got out of dad's office.

"I don't think we have to worry about him. I remember when he came for soccer tryouts in middle school with his father. That man scares the shit out of him," he said. "Also I checked, well Caleb did anyway. His mother's mysterious murder went out without any investigation, they didn't even let the police to send her body to the forensic test. That makes a lot of sense. His relation with his family was never good. And he won't have helped us to sort out if he was an enemy. If anything we need to worry about is the person who let Cloe's kidnappers in."

I nodded. We were about to turn in the corner when a figure came out and bumped into us.

"Ouch!" Ryan grunted.

"I'm so sor...," it said. "Oh it's you."

I looked up and saw Len. But he wasn't looking at me. He was staring at Ryan. Though we had many dinners together, Ryan and Len would sit as far as they could from each other. Man they avoid each other like plagues.

Like now, they're staring at each other, unmoving.

"Hey dude," Len was the first one to speak.

"Hey," Ryan replied. "Congrats, I heard you've got into Columbia."

Len grinned. "Yeah, but I'm sure you'll get into a better one. You've always been the brightest among the three of us."

And there was the irritable silence. I sighed, these two aren't going anywhere. Which meant someone needed to step into the matter.

"Don't you get sick of it?" I asked them, they both looked equally confused.

"Both of you are eighteen years old, an adult now," I continued. "So why not deal with the matter like one?"

Len was the one to speak. "Stella you don't know-"

"I know enough to say that you should deal with it now. You don't have to be bros or whatever you guys do again, but sort this mess out." Then I added, "I don't want my brother and boyfriend to murder each other."

"Boyfriend?" Len looked confused. "You mean-"

"That's a matter of another time, now if you don't speak now, I'll lock you two in the closet."

They both nodded. "Good, now gentlemen I'll give you the space you need. I'll be with Phoebe," I said and walked away, leaving the boys to sort things out between them.

A/N:
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Love, Sheona.