The Piper's Call

Chapter 17

So...hey.

Yes, it's been a while. Yes, I'm so sorry. Yes, please don't kill me virtually. Writing this chapter almost killed me, it was so difficult...

So, that last chapter ending provoked quite the reaction, it only gets more interesting from here, folks.  I just want to thank every last reader who dedicates themselves to reading this story, your support means the world to me.

Also, in regards to that last chapter ending-sorry, but not sorry. Muhahaha!

Hope you enjoy it! 

Chapter 17- Shattered Hope

Nina POV

Helen was crying, pleading, begging me. She was clawing on my arms, trying to get me to look her in the eye. Nothing in the world could have persuaded me to do that. I had been stupid. So incredibly stupid. Even more stupid than Charlie or Rachel or Thomas had ever been. 

"You killed Eliza Reynolds. You kidnapped those children.You're the one torturing them." I made a vain attempt to shove her away. I wanted to put as much distance between myself and...this as possible. 

"Nina, you don't understand!" Helen's voice sounded like broken glass. 

"Then help me to! You're my guardian, that's what you're supposed to do. Help! All I need is one piece of evidece, Helen! Explain to me how you turn up in town at the same time as a kidnapper.  Explain to me why you were in such a hurry to leave America. Explain to me the real reason that you've come back after thirteen years of silence!" My voice had raised. I was getting emotional. No, not good. Emotions were not good for thinking. I needed to think,  now more than ever.

Helen stuttered, taken aback by all of the sudden questions. "I...I can't. Please, Nina. Don't ask. Your father asked me to come and care for you, that is all you need to know."

Don't ask? Don't ask? I had so many unanswered questions in my life, and she tells me, "Don't ask?". Why did Dad move us around so much? Who was my mother?  I was so young, I had been less than a year old when her and Dad divorced. All Dad would ever say about her was that, "She was a liar." Liars were the lowest of the low, in my book. Why would you hide behind a persona, play pretend? And now, the one person I had put my trust into had been fooling me all along. I was kidding myself after Dad died, who else would ever love me? Someone like me, after all.

"Show me your phone." I extended a hand for it. Helen shied away, playing dumb. I sighed before proceeding, "It's obvious, Helen. You've been texting someone. Every day, in fact. The "Piper" would need accomplices, to keep this information hidden, to kidnap those kids and blackmail the parents. Who's helping you?"

She kept her phone hidden. "Trust me, I'm not getting any help."

"Liar." I practically spat the word out. "I trusted you. You were supposed to look after me!"

"I meant what I said that day. I'm not going to be Dad for you." 

I gritted my teeth. No time for plans. Logic went out of the window. I grabbed my schoolbag, which I'd haplessly flung in the corner the day before. I had a purse in there. Money enough for food, maybe even for bus tickets. Maybe not. At this point, I just didn't care any more. I didn't care about  following steps and methods any more, I just wanted to get out of this mess. 

"Fine, then. Have it your way. Because you might be my guardian, but you will never be my family. You're a sorry excuse for a woman, no prospects, no future. You hated your job as a cleaner, the poverty, the extra costs of a...a burden like me." I tried and failed to keep my voice from cracking."So, you kidnapped those kids for monetary gain. That's why Eliza had a number on her shoe. To keep track of them all, like a serial number. The stolen items, the crates and electric collars, robbed from the dog training shop near Angelo, that was to keep them all in check. And Eliza, she escaped. So you had to put an end to her. People liked her in the town, people would believe her."