《The Secrets She Kept》Chapter 1
Advertisement
It had been years since I had been back to the coast. Once I left I never saw myself coming back. But now, stepping out of an Uber with my four year old daughter, the familiar salty scent invading my nose, I knew, this would always be home. I'd always find my way back to it. "Milana!" My brother Robbie shouted while rushing off his porch and to my side. He wrapped his arms around me tightly. I hadn't seen my brother in five years, he looked different. "Hey old man!" I scratched his new beard teasing him. "Woah, is this her?" Robbie looked down at Leah. She smiled shyly at Robbie. All I could see was her father. She was a spitting image of him. "Leah, this is your uncle Rob." I patted her back, in a way that told her it's okay. "Hi." She mumbled. It wouldn't last long. Leah was very outspoken and had no filter at times. She is a very confident four year old and I loved that about her. "Come on, come inside, make yourselves at home." Robbie held his hand out to Leah who hesitated a moment before taking it. Entering his home I was actually surprised to see how clean and neat it was.
"Nice place Robbie, when did you get it?" I asked while walking around looking at everything.
"A year ago, when the store started making money."
"You still have that old shack?" Before I left Robbie invested in a small shack right on the docks. The docks are where most tourists go to rent boats.
"I'll take you by later to see it, I renovated it and fixed it up. It actually gets a lot of business even during the off-season."
Advertisement
"That's rare."
"You're telling me." Robbie chuckled softly.
"Well, you always were the lucky one." Robbie and I were orphans. Robbie was determined to make one of our foster homes a forever home, while I intended to wait for our parents to clean up. Eventually, Robbie was adopted...without me. I couldn't stay out of trouble and I didn't want a family. I was sent to a girl's home, while Robbie finally got his forever home. "No, I just knew what I wanted." Robbie responded without looking at me.
"Wow, look momma!" Leah ran to the living room pressing her face to the glass sliding doors. You could see the bay, and a boat parked by Robbie's dock. Closer to the house a pool sat with plastic floats, floating in the water. "You guys want to go for a ride?" Robbie looked down at Leah who gasped excitedly and looked at me with puppy eyes. I giggled at how cute she was. "Okay, fine." I smiled brightly at her. We followed Robbie down to the dock and onto his boat. Leah giggles happily as Robbie puts a life vest on her. As we drifted out of the bay, Leah's eyes lit up at the sight of other beach houses and resorts along the shores. We traveled down the shoreline, and through a few inlets before parking the boat at the docks. The old beat-up shack I remember was no longer there. Instead, there was a small building with a sign that read Robbie's in red with a goofy looking font. "Wow, Rob, this looks great!" I looked over to Robbie who smiled with pride. "Come on, let me show you around." He headed off the boat. He helped us off the boat and led us inside. "Hey, Delilah! This is my sister Milana, and my niece Leah." Robbie introduced us to a blonde girl who sat behind the counter. The girl's blue eyes studied us for a moment, before giving us a small smile. "I'm Delilah." She spoke. I looked around the store at all the pictures hanging on the wall. One caught my eye. It was a picture of Robbie and me playing on the beach when we were kids. "You remember that day? Our fosters took us out for a day on the beach." Robbie admired the picture. I thought back to that day, and the tantrum I had thrown when they told us it was time to leave. I loved the ocean. I saw souvenirs everywhere, beach toys, swimwear, and even groceries. "I sell supplies to the locals too." Robbie gestured to the groceries. "It's like a small market." I giggled. "Sort of." Robbie shrugged. "Hey! Don't touch that!" Delilah yelled at Leah, who jumped, dropping a small glass turtle. "Sorry." Leah whimpered. She looked up at me worried, as Delilah groaned. "It was just an accident." I defended Leah.
Advertisement
"She should know better than to touch breakables in a store." Delilah snapped.
"You should know better than to yell at children. She only dropped it because you scared her."
"She shouldn't have been touching it." Delilah's voice grew louder.
"Hey calm down, no worries it's alright. Look, here Leah, this one is better to play with." Robbie handed Leah a small plastic turtle that swims in water. She smiled at Robbie and stared at the toy in awe as she watched it move around in her hand. Delilah rolled her eyes as she cleaned Leah's mess. Noise from outside grabbed my attention. I looked out to see a boat docking and girls and men jumping out laughing. I was just about to focus my attention back on my daughter when I saw him. Climbing out of the boat was a ghost from my past. Luca Denzel. Suddenly through the window, our eyes met, and in his eyes, I saw my daughter. Slowly, I pushed Leah behind me and towards Robbie. I turned to face Robbie, using my body to hide Leah. "Lana?" Robbie's face filled with confusion. "We need to go. Hide her." I whispered as if Luca could hear me. Without questioning me, Robbie quickly scooped up Leah and carried her out the back. As soon as they were out of the room, the door swung open and the sound of a small bell caused me to snap my attention towards it. Our eyes met and we were both speechless. He watched me in a way I couldn't read. His sparkling blue eyes looked me up and down. Not much had changed though, his shaggy blonde hair had gotten longer, and his body was muscular and well built. Although he always had a pretty toned body, to begin with. "Lana." Luca said in almost a whisper. "Well hi to you too Luca." Delilah rolled her eyes walking in between us and back behind the register. "Sorry, hi Delilah, picking up my mom's usual." As he turned to face Delilah, I quickly slipped out the back. My heart pounded against my chest beating me from the inside. I just got home and now I'd have to leave again. I didn't think he'd still be here. He can't find out about Leah
Advertisement
Sold To A Prince!
In the land of magic and beasts, Sylvia was betrayed by her family and sold off as a slave. She was expecting the worst, but fortunately, it was a handsome prince who had ‘bought’ her! Who doesn’t love a charming, benevolent, and kind prince, not to mention ridiculously handsome?
8 27703Noli Me Tank in a Mall
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo are important cultural works that ignited the Philippine Revolution against Spain. They are novels that exposed to the populace the abuses and the injustices of their Spanish colonial rulers, the hypocrisy of their priests, and inherent cruelty of their class structure over the powerless masses. Unfortunately, they rose up in the middle of the Spanish-American War, one which saw Spain lose most of their overseas colonies and decisively end as a World Power. The war ended in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, in which Spain also sold the Philippines to the USA for the sum of twenty million dollars. The revolutionary government was then crushed by the overwhelming military might of the United States and the Philippines turned into a territory. While the Philippines stands as the USA's greatest successes in nation-building, their early occupation left almost one-fifth of the population dead from combat and disease. Jose Rizal was executed by the Spanish long before knowing what might happen to his country. The world presented within The Noli and the El Fili is therefore stuck frozen in time, forever caught in that moment before a Revolution. Now let's see what happens to this nation if we give it the Light Novel treatment and jam the entirety of the Internet into their protagonist's skull and watch him try to fix things with his unfortunate tendency to sound like a supervillain. Updates Mondays and Fridays. Note: The Noli and El Fili have been public domain since 1946. This is completely fair game.
8 106Walking Wet Dream
An ordinary girl falls for an extraordinary soldier.
8 194Foster Brothers | COMPLETED
"ONE BROKEN GIRL. FIVE POPULAR BOYS." • • • It's funny how life can be amazing at one moment then terrible the next. For Campbell West, her life was beyond perfect. She had loving parents, friends, and the perfect home. But piece by piece, her world crumbled and there wasn't anything she could do to stop it. And it just got worse. She was placed in an abusive foster home for two years. But whenever she gets removed from the abusive home, she is moved to the Cade family. The Cade family is consist of five teenage boys with their parents. They are the golden family in town, and everybody adored them. They have been waiting and wishing to foster for a long time, and they finally get their wish. Campbell doesn't plan on opening up her trouble past to the Cades, and she doesn't believe that they will love her. She believes that they will be abusive and mean like her other homes. However, it's the exact opposite. Campbell finds herself getting closer to the Cades. She finds herself getting especially closer to Brent Mason-best friend of the Cade brothers. Brent is the quarterback of Midville High, and he is the all around golden boy. Campbell feels like she is finally finding her place in the world, and she feels like this could be her forever family. But what happens when people from the past start to show up? Will Campbell actually feel loved in this family? Will Brent and Campbell be together in the end? Find out in Foster Brothers. (First Book in the Cade Series.)#1 in school year 12/4/19#10 in humor #7 in romance#1 in football 1/27/21#53 in teenfiction#1 in family 4/12/20#17 in brothers#1 in fosterkid 5/30/20#1 in completed 6/17/20#1 in love 7/26/20
8 294Mr. CEO
she has been working for him for over two years now, she's a hardworker, when she apply for the job 'the CEO secretary' she was looking for experience and a good advice to be a successful CEO for her own company, and who better other than Mr. Stanford, the very successful CEO at the age 27, the owner of multiple hotels, apartment, buildings and others, but what she didn't expect is the handsome, hot sexy boss and she definitely did not expect to fall in love with him, she is Rosella Taylor.read this story to find what will happend to Rose and the CEO Mr. Stanford.enjoy reading.vote and comment.Rank #7 on the non teen fiction in 2/12/2016
8 250Gracie & Gray
This isn't a story for the faint of heart. This is a story about a girl who loved a boy.A boy who couldn't love her back.This is a story about the bitter, the sweet, betrayals, second chances, and redemption.If your heart doesn't hurt by the end of this wreckage, then I haven't done my job properly.
8 196