him whenever he’d let her, and they’d spend a few hours in their own little imaginary world, playing games and telling stories. I just prayed that they’d managed to get away without getting hurt.
Without checking to see if he was going to follow, I turned from the police officer and rushed out of the front door, running as fast as I could towards the park. It was still dark and the morning fog had started to creep in, making it almost impossible to see. I started calling out their names over and over, praying that one of them might answer. Just before I made it over to the monkey bars, I spotted Charlie sitting on a bench with Hadley resting her head in his lap. Even with his shaggy brown hair covering his eyes, I could still tell that he’d been crying. My heart ached as I watched his hand run up and down Hadley’s arm. He was a good big brother, and tonight, he’d gotten her out of that house and kept her out of harm’s way all on his own.
I rushed over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly as I cried, “Thank god you’re both okay. I was worried out of my mind!”
“We’re okay … but Mom and Dad …” he started, then stopped when he started to sob.
Still holding him close, I whispered, “I know, sweetie. I’m so sorry you were there when it happened.”
“I couldn’t save them, Livie. Those men … they were so much bigger than me. I couldn’t …”
“Oh no, honey. Don’t do that.” I leaned back and looked at him as I said, “Charlie, Mom and Dad would’ve been so proud of you tonight. Don’t you know that? You got Hadley out of that house all by yourself. You saved your sister’s life and yours. You were so very brave.”
He glanced over to me with tears streaming down his handsome face as he sobbed, “I wish I could have done something more. I wanted to … really, I did. Now they’re gone. What are we supposed to do without them?”
“I don’t know, Charlie, but we’ll figure it out,” I assured him.
Reality was starting to set in. We were all alone, and I had no idea who I could turn to. Our grandparents had died years ago and the rest of our family lived hundreds of miles away.
“Livie?” said Hadley with tears filling her eyes.
Her dark hair framed her face, making her porcelain-smooth skin seem to glow against the darkness of the night. She stared at me with those beautiful blue eyes, silently pleading with me to tell her that everything that had happened was just a bad dream. Since I couldn’t tell her what she needed to hear, I reached for her, wrapping my arms around her as I held her close to me. I gently ran my hand over the back of her head and said, “It’s okay, sweetheart. Everything’s going to be okay.”
Unfortunately, I was wrong. Everything wasn’t okay. The police had several leads, but were never able to identify the men who killed my parents. I tried telling them that the murder had something to do with my father’s work, but they wouldn’t listen. Everyone knew he owned one of the most prestigious real estate companies in the state, and over the past year, he’d managed to bring in several new developers to restore the downtown area, making it a place where people would actually want to go spend their time and money. When he pushed to bring in a new investment broker, he’d met a great deal of resistance. People were getting angry to the point that it made my mother worry, but my father kept pushing forward. I wasn’t sure what exactly triggered the attack, but I quickly discovered they weren’t the only ones being targeted.
After the shooting, the kids and I couldn’t bear to go back to the house, so I took them home with me. Somehow we managed to make it through the funeral, and the kids were doing their best to adjust to the reality of our new lives. Unfortunately, just a few days after the funeral, I noticed a dark blue minivan following us back to my apartment. At first I thought it was a coincidence, but it was far from it. That damn van could be spotted everywhere I went—work, the grocery store, a friend’s house across town—and Charlie even noticed it sitting outside his school building.