Lies

Everyone sat in silence at the dinner table waiting for the police to arrive.

I didn't know what to do.

"So tell me what happened again." Poor Aunt Sara. It was the final straw.

Harry threw his glasses down on the table and ran his fingers through his greasy blonde hair. "For God's sake, Sara, she's said it twice already."

"I don't care. So Dani please carry o-"

"Well I do Sara! I know that it's all a load of crap. Dani helped kidnap our daughter. Our real daughter." He looked at me. "She has been planning it all along. It's the quiet ones you gotta watch, Sara. The police are arriving any minute now, in fact, I think I hear the sirens coming from down the street! So get your stupid story straight!"

Aunt Sara, opposite me, sighed and stood up as well, about a metre to Harry's left. "Harry please-"

"Sara, don't sta-"

"JUST CALM DOWN!" Aunt Sara shouted at the top of her voice. "Dani is our daughter too. A real one. So I don't know where you have been for 7 years. We've had her since she was seven and I'm not gonna let you start disrespecting her. We're all stressed. But let's keep our heads."

Uncle Harry threw his hands up to be in line with his shoulders. "How?"

"I believe her, Harry. And you should too. Cos I'm not gonna let you, Nancy, Jeremy or her tear this family apart!"

I sat there, listening intently. It was as if they thought I wasn't there. I didn't like it when people did that. I'd be ignored and silenced my whole life before I met Sara and Harry Edwards. They had been so kind to me until now. I just couldn't believe that they would think all those lies Oscar were telling were true.

"I'll go deal with the police. But there was an eyewitness, Sara. Maybe ask him." Harry turned around and started to walk out still in his pale brown dressing gown and broken slippers.

"WHAT?! A BOY THAT GOES TO HER SCHOOL WHO HATES HER? THAT'S NOT A RELIABLE SOURCE TO ME!" Aunt Sara shouted after him. She collapsed back into her high-backed chair opposite me and leaned over the chair. "I stood up for you, Dani, so I want the truth. I believe you didn't do it but I know I'm missing something from your story. Start with why you woke up at that point."

"I had a nightmare."

"What about?"

Should I tell the truth or lie. "Just an ordinary nightmare, Aunt Sara. The kind of one I always have, you know. I woke up, then realised that Nancy's..." I paused. "That her snoring had stopped. I checked on her but she was gone. That's when I heard the van door shut outside so I ran to the window. I saw them shove Nancy in the back." Lie. I saw it in my dream. "So I ran down the stairs and out the house as fast as I could but I was too late. They got her. I- I-"

"You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. With the wrong person." She gave a hesitant smile. "Better go talk to the police. Come out when you are ready."

"Wait. Aunt Sara. You know I'd never do anything to hurt you or Uncle Harry. Or Nancy. I didn't do it."

She nodded in the doorway. "Don't worry. I'm sure Harry is just tired. Like we all are."

I heard voices. Some of them were raised. They were coming from outside. But they faded away.

My dream. I was thinking about it. I'd never had anything like it before. How was it even possible? It had been true. And real. So was what the man said true? The people who kidnapped Nancy, were the same ones that…

No it couldn't be. It was just an accident, wasn't it?

I gulped.

Killed my parents?