Secrets

Part 1

Hailey Forest, aka DANI WOODS

Today is the worst day of my life. I had to bury my older brothers. I am officially the only one left in my family. My mom died eighteen years ago, and my dad died two years ago. Now my brothers were murdered two days ago. My stepmom told me to leave her house today after the funeral.

I don't want to fight with her when my heart is hurting.

Two days ago, my life fell apart when I returned home, and the police didn't let me in. They said gunshots murdered my brothers. I plan to find out who did it and why. The truth is the only thing that keeps me going.

My brothers Declan, Anthony, and Nathan Forest were my light and reason to wake up in the morning. They helped me when I fought the depression after our dad died. I didn't remember our mom because she died giving birth to me. I was their little princess Hailey, but I don't have them anymore. So I had to change my name, not Hailey Forest, but I was now Dani Woods.

After the funeral, I packed my things and took my brother's dark blue Ford Ranger that they had bought last year. My stepmom wanted that car, but I traded the house for the car. She agreed with that because the house cost much more than the car.

Declan had made me an emergency package a year ago, but he had updated it last week. In addition, he had added money to other things he showed me earlier. Anthony had shown me his care package two weeks ago, so I grabbed that too. Finally, Nathan had sent his computer passwords to my phone, so I took his laptop, iPad, and that box he told me to take if something happened. I have no idea what's in there, but I packed that too.

I was crying too much, but I managed to take all the staff my brothers had told me to take. In addition, I took all my clothes, pictures, a few books and other things I wanted.

When all was in the car, I drove out of the city. I had been gone over five hours when I took a break in a diner. I pulled to the parking lot. I parked near the entrance. The place was quiet, but I liked it. I ordered a burger with fries and coke. The waitress seemed nice but overworked. I was looking out, so I didn't notice when a guy sat at my table across from me. I wiped my tears, and I was startled when someone cleared their throat. I raised a brow and waited for him to start speaking.

"Why is a beautiful girl like you alone and in tears? Can I make you feel better?" He disgusted me, so I growled:" no, get lost." He did not like it, "look, little girl, you should be nice to me. I can make your life hell." I looked at him and started to laugh. I laughed until I had tears coming from my eyes.

He watched me, confused. I finally managed to pull myself together, and I waved my hand dismissively. I smiled at him: "what makes you think I don't live in hell already?" He frowned: "you seem different than others." "Thanks," I answered sarcastically. "Get lost now." "I think I like to stay here." I rolled my eyes. "Okay, stay," I said, standing up and moving to the cash register. "I would like to have my food to go. Thank you." When I got my food, I left the diner and drove away. That man stayed in the restaurant.

I drove for four hours when I started to feel sleepy. Finally, I saw a hotel with a locked parking lot, so I wanted to stay there. So I went in and got myself a room. I parked my car in their parking building and took the most important thing with me, my brother's packages and my nightclothes. My room was on the third floor, and I took the single room.

First, I took a shower and then checked my things with me. I hoped there were clues about who killed my brothers or something about why. But there were things for me, nothing about who would want them dead. So I went to bed. I was more tired than I realized. I slept for 12 hours straight. When I woke up, I ordered food in my room. After that, I took Nathan's iPad and checked where I was. And how far I should drive today.

I was nine hours away in Missouri, Saint Louis from Oklahoma, Tulsa, my hometown. Today I plan to go to Kentucky, Lexington, which means I had to drive almost nine hours. But that was still less than my plans for tomorrow when I planned to drive nearly 11 hours to reach my final destination for a while. After that, I plan to go to North Carolina, Raleigh.

That is a place I talked about with Nathan. He said I should go there because it was a lovely city. He had visited Raleigh two years ago with our dad. They both liked it; I hoped to find something to make my world make sense again.