A Dangerous Lie

24. Fighting For Our Lives

I wait outside and Michael finally comes out.

"Michael I thought they were gonna keep you there in jail." I say.

"No, he said we both had nothing to do with Maya Young's death." Michael says.

"Now you realize we need to talk to Hailey?" I say.

"Yes. I'm sorry I doubted you." He says and I hug him. We walk back home and he waits for me in the car.

I walk inside and Emily jumps up and down happy.

"Jade is home!" She says and I pick her up. She hugs me.

"So, wanna go visit daddy and Hailey?" I ask. Emily frowns and looks at her fingers.

"Come on, Hailey misses you." I say and she shrugs. "Let's go." I take her in the car and I drive to Hailey's house. The gates are still broken so I don't touch them. We walk out of the car and to the house.

I knock on the door and Hailey opens the door and looks down at Emily.

"Emily!" She wants to pick her up but Emily hugs my legs behind me.

"You guys are the one who stole her!" She says.

"We need to talk." I say. Hailey hesitates but we walk inside to the table. I think she's only letting us in because talking is the only way Emily might return home.

"What is it you wish to talk about?" Hailey says.

"Why we did what we did." I sigh. "I wanted Emily because she's my sister and didn't think she shouldn't be near Emily." I say. "But there's also another reason."

Hailey listens carefully.

"There's someone who threatens me with a secret. And I think the secret was Emily being my sister. I thought bringing her home would solve that problem." I say. Hailey looks down, almost like she's thinking about something.

"I was wrong to take Emily without your permission, and I'm sorry." I say. Hailey looks up at me.

"You can take her." Hailey says.

"What?" I say.

"Emily deserves a better home than this. Most of the time she's here alone because me and Maxwell are working and I only got worried because Maxwell was furious." Hailey says. Emily looks up at Hailey and smiles.

"Thanks you." She says. Emily then runs to her and hugs her. Hailey hugs her back and then walks back to me. I pick Emily up.

"Thank you." I say and we head out.

***

We drive Emily back home and my mom starts to play a game with her. I'm about to join them when Michael taps my shoulder.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"We need to head to the cabin." Michael whispers and we run in the car. I drive to the cabin with Michael but hesitate to go in.

"Don't worry, James won't hurt you. It's probably another meeting." Michael says.

"Yeah. Okay." I say. I'm not afraid just a little worried. We walk in but it's dark.

"That's strange." I say.

"Very." Michael opens a door to his room and peeks his head out. I look around until it looks like there's a shadow. I walk slowly to the shadow until someone grabs me and pushes me. Michael quickly turns around and sees someone attacking me. I punch that person and kick their gut, causing the person to fall down.

Red? Red pulls my hair and pulls me back.

"Ow!" I say and kick Red's back.

Red pulls me arm close to Red and I punch Red's throat causing Red to choke. Michael starts to Red and I want to help but instead I look for a gun. I find a gun in the closet and I'm about to shoot Red but Red kicks the gun out of my hands and it falls on the table.

I jump on Red and pull Red's mask, reveling the true Red. It's...Kevin?

"What?" I say and Kevin pulls me up by the hair and wraps his hands around my neck about to choke me. I try to pull his hands away from my neck but if I do he chokes me. Michael stares at Kevin who just laughs.

"Didn't see this one coming did you?" Kevin says and grins.

"How could you do this Kevin, I thought we were friends." Michael says.

"Friends?" He laughs. Kevin's face is covered in blood. "Everyone always preferred you, and ignored me!" Kevin says. "You always got everything and this time, you won't have what you want." He looks down at me. "Thanks to this redhead, you didn't go with the runaway plan. I saw her first and yet she chose you!" Kevin gets closer to choke me and I kinda struggle to breathe.

"What do you want Kevin?" Michael says.

"You suffering." Kevin says. "And so far it's pretty fun to see this."

"You can break my soul, take my life away, beat me, hurt me, kill me, but for the love of God, don't touch her." Michael says. Kevin laughs.

"Well, well, well. You hear that? Michael rather die than to see you die." He laughs. What? Michael can't kill himself. There had to be some way to push Kevin away.

Michael then looks at the gun at the table.

Yes, shoot him. Michael quickly grabs the gun and Kevin chokes me a little and then doesn't.

"Careful." Kevin whistles and another person comes in with a mask. The person takes off the mask and there stands...