Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.
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Books By Eris Kelli
Piper LeVine, A Gypsy’s Truth book 1
Piper LeVine, The Path of Betrayal book 2
Piper LeVine, Follow the Leader book 3
Piper LeVine, They Call me Assassin book 4
Short Stories
Lost (The Story of Richard)
Carry Me Home
Dedication
To my sweet little loves, Sammy and Phoenix, I never finished a story until after I had my first baby. You made my dreams worth reaching for in the hope that I might help you to accomplish yours. I’m so blessed and grateful to be your mommy and I love you dearly.
Also to my mother, no matter what I’ve written you’ve always been ready and willing to read it, even when it scared you. You are the leader of the family and a treasure to me. Thank you for pushing me harder and believing in me. Thanks for being my Mama.
And to Rachel, the reader/listener/fan every writer dreams of. You’re responsible in a major way for my love of great stories of all kinds. With you I’ve battled the Nazi’s, sniffed out the killer and many, many times been a rock star. Thank you for demanding the endings and for always wanting more.
Preface
I was in the kitchen when someone pounded on the front door. It scared me. It was just after two in the morning. Though it wasn’t uncommon for my father, Harold LeVine, a Senator for the State of California, to receive calls and even unannounced visitors at strange hours they’d never knocked like that.
The whole house was asleep, and I was too freaked out to go and open the door. I was relieved when after another forceful beating on the door; my father appeared at the top of the stairs with my mother looking on behind him. He stopped to fix his hair in the hallway mirror, and despite the unrelenting pounding on the door, he halted again to clear his throat and adjust his robe.
“Look through the peephole first,” my mother, Katrine told him.
Dad looked through the peephole. His body went rigid. He looked back over at my mother. “Go to bed, I’ll handle this.” She didn’t move and neither did I from my hiding place behind the chair next to the kitchen door.
Dad didn’t open the door very wide, and I couldn’t see the person who stood on the other side of the door. “What are you doing here?” My father spat the question with such loathing. I hadn’t ever heard his voice do that.
“The time has come and gone. A promise was made, and you must keep it. You tell her or we will.” The answering voice was just as harsh sounding and very deep.
“Get off of my property. Don’t ever come back.” The door slammed shut before even I got a glimpse of who had come. I wanted to ask who it was. Technically, I was grounded and had been sent to bed without dinner, which was why I’d been in the kitchen at such a late hour to begin with.
I hoped they would go to their bedroom and give me a chance at sneaking back to my room, but my mom came down the stairs. Her delicate arms hugged her tiny waist, and her blond hair wrapped up in rollers bounced as she rushed down each step. When my mom’s lips were that thin from being pressed together she was angry. She cleared the last step and the tiny line that was left of her lips all but disappeared.
Dad held his hand up at her, but she spoke anyway. “I told you this was going to come back to haunt us one day. I knew it. I knew it.”
“So we’ll tell her.”
“Tell her? Tell her what? That you were off screwing around with some whore and knocked her up? Oh, I know, we’ll tell Piper that we bought her from that nasty bimbo and paid her mother off to keep quiet. I’m sure she’ll understand since it was all for the good of your glorious political career.”
About this time I was trying to swallow the panic and bile that burned my insides because the things they were saying were about me. I am Piper LeVine. I was the baby bought and sold for the sake of silence.
“Tell her. Make sure she knows that if she breathes a word about this to anyone, I’m cutting her off. I didn’t come this far to have my name ruined. I’ve given that child a respectable upbringing. She’s gone to the best schools. Now that she’s going to turn seventeen, and all the hard work is done, I’m supposed to sacrifice my dreams?”
“I’m not going to threaten her.”
My dad got in the face of the woman I’d known as my mother. “It’s not a threat. It’s a fact. She squeals and there’s no college, no car, no more Grandma Sidney.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! You can’t stop her from seeing your mother.”
“My donations keep that animal sanctuary running. She’ll cut off Piper.”
I wasn’t shocked to hear how fiercely my dad would protect himself and his career. My little sister Trina and I had learned long ago that Dad was in love with himself. We were just the props for pictures.
Katrine went over to the window in the front room. “They’re still here, Harold.” There was fear in her voice, and I couldn’t help but wonder who “they” were.
“We’ll send her to Grandma Sidney’s.”
“She’s going through a phase right now. At least, I hope it’s a phase. Do you think she’s turning out like her mother? Can that kind of thing be genetic?” She backed away from the window. “Do you think she’ll keep quiet about this? She’s seventeen. She’ll tell that boyfriend of hers or that other girl.”
Hearing my mom join in sent a twisting pain through my stomach. I’d never thought she would turn on me like that. The things she said about my birth mother began to sink in, and I stood up. Dad glared at me, and Mom gasped. I could see her mentally going over all the horrible things she’d just said.
I’d thought I was going to say something terrible to them, but when I saw the fear I was feeling reflected in their eyes I couldn’t. Instead, I walked past them and stopped at the stairs. “I’ll go pack.”