I’d been doing that a lot, going to that redwood and thinking about my future, and thought I had figured out which path my life would take. I would work at the convenience store, buy the old beat-up truck, rent out the tiny loft apartment, and save up for community college. I had only vague plans after that since I wasn’t in the habit of making long-term plans, never having been in one place long enough to make them.
My plan, which only that morning seemed exciting and fulfilling, was now lacking. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was missing, but I was sure that I could no longer be satisfied with that life, with any life really, at least not until I put my curiosity to rest. I guess I wasn’t too surprised that I’d come to that conclusion. Margaret’s seed had taken root and was sprouting.
I had managed to save nearly a thousand dollars working part-time at the convenience store, but I knew that wouldn’t last long. Airfare would take up a big chunk of that and, for once, I was really glad that I didn’t have that many things. Everything I owned could easily be packed into a couple of suitcases. It wasn’t as if there were anything keeping me here. If I went to North Carolina and it didn’t work out, I could just go somewhere else, start over in a place where nobody knew who I was, where I could be whoever I wanted to be. Besides there was a little money waiting for me, more than enough to replenish what I would spend getting there, and if the house belonged to me, then there wasn’t anything that anybody could say about my living there.
Who said I even had to see the supposed family that lived in the area? I figured I could ignore them quite as well as they had ignored me over the past few years. Better, in fact. I ended up being so very wrong, but at the time the thought comforted me and helped me steel my will toward a new direction.
I stayed a good deal longer under that tree, making mental to-do lists and planning my next few days. I didn’t think about what I would do once I got to my mother’s house, didn’t think about the family that still lived in the area. Instead, I kept my thoughts filled with the few things I could control: the details of what I needed to do the next day to claim my inheritance.
Before going back to Margaret’s house I stopped by the convenience store to talk to my boss and let him know that there was going to be a change of plans. He was disappointed when I told him I would be moving away and would be unable to work that summer, but he wished me luck and gave me a gruff hug before I left to walk, still barefoot, back down the road to Margaret’s house. It was a strange walk, everything looked different to me, as if it were the last time I would see that road. I was thinking about how vastly different my life would be from then on. I felt that I was on the verge of becoming a new person; that I was about to be reborn.
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Sneak peek - “Bound by Spells”
Sneak peek - REGAN CLAIRE’S “Gathering Water”
Bound by Duty (Bound Series Book 1) Page 30