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It took a moment for my voice to worm its way into her ears and drill a hole into her young understanding. “What?….No! No, you said you wouldn’t leave me. No!” She launched herself at me, sobbing wet and loud. “Ren! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry I told them about the rabbit. Please. I’m sorry! Ren, please!” She dissolved into tears, wrapping her shaking arms around the top of my thighs. “No. Please. Please don’t go. Please, please, don’t leave me.” She looked up with blotchy cheeks and gut-wrenching sadness, and my heart literally cracked in two.
I bled a river inside, hot and red and painful.
I swallowed back the guilt and the all-powerful desire to stop her tears, and forced myself forward with the plan.
The only plan.
“Our parents arrive back today, remember?” I cupped her chin, willing her to understand. “The Social people will bring you to the farm, and they’ll sit down with Mum and Dad, and this will all be fine, okay?”
Normally, Della would read between the lines—her whip fast intelligence picking up on my lie and realising, if not completely understanding, that this was a lie and lies were our weapons.
But today, her panic had overridden her ability to see, and she’d bear the brunt of believing I was about to abandon her for the second time.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I just needed time.
Time to get things ready.
And even though it butchered me to press a sobbing Della into a cold wooden chair and leave her with people who didn’t love her, I did.
I glowered at the principal, gave him the location of our farm, and promised that my parents would be there to meet him when he dropped off Della with the government officials.
He promised he’d be there at four p.m. sharp with my sister, and we’d get this nasty business sorted out.
I had forty-five minutes to pack up our life.
Forty-five minutes to figure out a way to steal Della, stop them, and vanish.