Though the room was beautiful - generously sized, and with pretty maple furniture - it had been my prison cell for the past year. Then I ran back upstairs, darting one last time into my bedroom. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere without him. The last thing I brought downstairs was Jordan - my guitar. It had been that way my entire life, even though it had taken me seventeen years to figure out how deep the deceptions went. But that’s how we did things here at casa Ellison. There were so many half truths in that short note that it wasn’t even funny. Mom and Dad - I got the time wrong for move-in day. Then I went upstairs again to pull my getaway note from the desk drawer and place it in the middle of my bed. One at a time, I lugged these things down the stairs to the mud room. Out came the duffel bags - already packed - and the box of books.

Just in case it proved newsworthy.īy the time I heard my parents’ car accelerate up the street, I had already yanked my closet open. Over the past year, the news networks had taken thousands of shots of the interior of our garage. When there are three news vans parked on the edge of your lawn, you don’t raise that door frivolously. I didn’t need to look out the window to check that my parents were driving away. The minute I heard the hum of the garage door opener, I was in motion. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne “Ah, but let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.' Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. Names, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously. The Year We Hid Away is a work of fiction. Cover image: L e s B y e r l e y / istockphoto

The Year We Hid Away by Sarina Bowen