Then I Found You

Chapter 15

So 5 – 10 chapters left. I’m not sure if I want 20 or 25 chapters.

Cover at the side >>>>>>

"Daddy! Look what I made!" five year old Riley exclaimed. Her dad smiled at her and picked her up onto his lap as he examined her drawing of the family. Her dad, mom, siblings and her.

"It's beautiful sweetie!" he said, tickling her, sending her into a fit of giggles

"Stop daddy! Stop!" she said through her laughter.

"Okay Ryan, time for dinner" her mom called her dad from the kitchen. He carried her to the kitchen.

"Hi mommy" she said, her mother looked up at her through her reddish brown curls and smiled at the little girl. There was a sudden pounding on the door, her dad went to answer the door still carrying Riley. She gasped when she saw three huge men standing at the door.

"Mr Moore, we're sorry but we have to take your daughter with us" the one in the middle said.

“But I don’t want to go” Riley said, tugging on her father’s shirt. Her father held onto her tighter but the guy in the middle grabbed her forcefully while the other two men explained the situation calmly to her parents. Tears rolled down her cheeks as they carried her away in the vehicle.

Riley jolted awake breathing heavily. She looked around and saw Emily sleeping like a rock next to her. She sighed, wiping away a few tears that escaped from her eyes and walked out of the tent. The colour of the sky told her that it was probably very early morning maybe 4 am.

She sat on a log next to the lake, and dipped her feet in the cool water; she wondered what would happen if she still had her parents around her. She knew for a fact she wouldn’t be where she was. She would have never met Jayden or any of her other friends, but on the other hand she would have a friend

 She heard footsteps behind her and turned around to see Jayden rubbing his eyes sleepily walking towards her. He gave her a small smile and sat on the log next to her.

“My parents used to take me camping all the time when I was a little girl” she said, still looking at the lake. She didn’t want to see his reaction just yet. “My father taught me everything about nature and camping and my mother hated camping. She used to say that animals belonged in the forest and humans belonged in civilization.”

“Used to?” Jayden asked, sounding cautious with his words. She could feel his eyes on him but she kept her eyes trained on the water. “Are they….alive?”

“I don’t know” she said, knitting her eyebrows together. She felt a strong arm wrap around her shoulder and she realized Jayden was embracing her. She quickly wiped away a tear that was escaping. She didn’t even realize she was crying. “Sorry.”

“You shouldn’t apologize for crying. So what happened to them?” he asked. She sighed and opened her mouth to answer but stopped when she heard two all-too-familiar voices arguing once again.

“You are not serious!” Emily shouted at Ghost who looked annoyed. “You can’t just throw cold water on someone while they’re sleeping!”

“I just did it, didn’t I?” Ghost said, turning around to smirk at her. Riley chuckled and Jayden just looked annoyed. She was slightly grateful for the distraction so she didn’t have to tell Jayden her whole story. She wasn’t ready for that just yet

“Okay we’re almost there” Ghost said, looking like he was about to fall asleep any second. They had decided to take off again since they were five hours away from Miami. The car ride was definitely quieter than usual. Emily and Ghost weren’t arguing, Nick, Ethan and Remy were sleeping and Jayden was falling asleep. His head was on Riley’s shoulder. She smiled down at him, and played with his hair discreetly.

“If you only knew how much I liked you” she whispered to herself. She quieted down when Jayden stirred and chuckled when he started snoring.

“Can you shut him up? I can’t sleep with all that snoring” Emily complained, turning to face Riley.

“As a matter of fact, wake him up. We’re here” Ghost said, pulling the van to a stop. Riley tapped Jayden’s cheek gently a few times but he still won’t wake up.

“C’mon Jay, wake up” she said. His eyes fluttered open and he flashed a sleepy smile. She returned his smile and got up from her seat and rudely woke Nick, Remy and Ethan up. They glared at her and she smiled innocently at them as they all filed out the van and Ethan unpacked their stuff from the trunk.

“Okay so our friend Toby lives here” Jayden said, helping Riley with her bag. She blushed and smiled at him when he winked. She looked up at the two- storey beach house and grinned. It was beautiful, it was her dream house. “His mother already knows we’re coming.”

They headed toward the house and Jayden knocked on the door and a woman with a huge smile on her face answered the door.

“Jayden, Ghost, Remy! Nice to see you all. Come in! Toby isn’t home but you can go make yourselves comfortable in the guest rooms” she said. Jayden nodded and the group brushed past her, muttering greetings and followed Ghost, Remy and Jayden outside.

“Okay I think she had said that you and Emily could share a room” Ghost said, gesturing to one of the spare bedrooms. Emily nodded and she and Riley headed inside. As soon as they reached inside the room, Emily threw herself at the bed.

“So you and Ghost seem to get along well” Riley said sarcastically, sitting at the edge of the bed.

“He’s annoying” Emily said, her words coming out muffled since her head was buried in the pillow.

“Can you try to get along?” Riley asked but Emily just shook her head stubbornly making her chuckle.

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 “You haven’t been to a beach in two years?” Jayden asked Riley in surprise the next day. Once again they had been the only two up early so they decided to head down to the beach. Riley shrugged and buried her toes in the sand.

“Yeah. I move around a lot so sometimes I end up in a state with a beach and sometimes I don’t” she said.

“You know you don’t talk about your past a lot and when you mention something you never really elaborate on it” Jayden said, she felt uncomfortable after he said that. He had told her everything and here she was unwilling to tell him anything.

“You don’t want to hear it” she said, looking at the waves crashing on the shore.

“Of course I do. I really do. But I can tell you’re not ready to tell me so I respect that” he answered with a shrug, making her feel even more guilty.

“The last time I came to a beach I was with Donovan; that was the longest I stayed in one place. I stayed for two years but then we had to move again. We moved here” she said, hoping she had said enough to satisfy him.

“Why do you move so much?” he asked. She opened her mouth to answer him until she felt her phone vibrating. She grunted and answered her phone rudely.

“What?” she asked, people didn’t usually call her so whoever it was couldn’t be important.

“Riley Moore?” the voice on the other line asked.

“Yes?”

“This is Christopher Ryan from Child Services. We have news on your father so we need you to come to our office immediately. Where are you?” Christopher asked.

“In Miami” she answered, feeling her heart racing. Her father. The man she hadn’t seen in over twelve years. Was she finally getting a chance to see him?

“Okay. I’m going to give you directions to our office. You need to come now” Christopher said with an urgent tone in his voice. She couldn’t help but wonder what this was all about.

Cliffhanger. Kinda….

So idk when I’m gonna update again. Maybe sometime this week? But I’ll be busy on Thursday, Friday and Saturday so idk

K bye.