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Hht to herself This is odd

She waited another twenty ured he’d forgotten about their plans, so she decided to walk home It was a rather far walk, especially for such a cold day, but she wanted to do it She wanted to be outside and she wanted to have tis

CHAPTER 8

Rachel was freezing cold by the tiid air Her face felt chapped and her ears raw as she walked up the driveway towards her house She still didn’t feel like she had any clarity on what had happened to her the past two years since she left Pennsylvania She didn’t knohat to do but she knew she had to do soive her peace of mind

"Dad! Dad!" Rachel yelled as she went into her house "Where are you?"

She waited quietly, but there was no answer She went into his home office but he was not there

"Mark? Are you hoain, no answer

Rachel was home alone and didn’t knohere her father was or why he didn’t pick her up fro machine to see if es Despite the oddity of this, Rachel was excited to have the house to herself She liked being hoe around to find clues about her past years she couldn’t remember

She started in her parent’s rooh their personal things, but she couldn’t help it She had to see what has been going on with the family She opened her dad’s closet and opened his safe, and started perusing through his old coin collection, his old high school yearbooks and a few gold es of his yearbooks, and laughed at the old pictures Secretly, she was hoping her dad was hiding soes of the books that would miraculously fall out and have all the answers for her, but there was nothing Only dusty, old pages with funny old photos of the past She poked around in his drawers but there was nothing secretive hiding there, and nothing out of place So far her plan was not working

Then, she went into her s from the move and her personal items were still in boxes, which her dad had put neatly in the bottoh her e Then, she decided to open one of the boxes titled Betsy’s things She opened the box and peeked in at its dusty contents She saw old photos from when she was a kid, a few recipe books, her favorite sci fi novels, old keys on a key chain and so any inforotten the past two years She wasn’t even finding anything that showed they had ainst her or was it really true She couldn’t figure it out

She left her parents room and walked towards her brother’s room She entered it, but then realized he probably wouldn’t have any information She walked to her sister’s roo there Sarah had taken s with her to Syracuse University and there was nothing left except her floor s for Rachel to search through

Rachel took out her cell phone and dialed Sarah She hadn’t spoken to her in a while, and wanted to find out what she knew She pressed her nu Then, her voicee:

Hey Sarah, it’s your sister Just wanted to say hello and see how you are doing See what’s been going on and I have a few things to ask you So please callup the phone and then stood there, in the hallondering what to do next She looked around and then the dangling string to the attic steps caught her eye She walked towards it and then ju She was too short She looked in the coat closet and pulled out the step stood She reached for the string and pulled down the folding steps, which led to the attic She carefully cli in her ears froo up into the attic It’s not a place to play

She got to the top of the attic and looked around She saw old Halloween costumes from when she was a kid, old stuffed animals, old clothes and shoes and a bunch of boxes She looked around, and couldn’t believe they’d just moved back in By the looks of this attic, you would think they’d been living in that house one hundred years It s She blew on one of the boxes and read the label

Old Files

Rachel pulled the e cloud of dust hit her in the face h and sneeze She opened the box to find stacks of old bank statements and old records She picked one up but it was from when she was only ten years old There were no recent docu that she found was from the time they lived in that house and froed about her whole idea of uncovering the truth about the past two years She knew she wasn’t getting anywhere in her search and decided to go back downstairs As she carefully walked across the floorboards of the attic, she saw an envelope sticking out from under one of theed in the floor It was taped closed with duct tape on all the edges and looked like a private letter On the front was her raphy in red pen She didn’t know if she should open it up, but her curiosity didn’t give her much of an option She carefully re the envelope or its contents Then, she unfolded the small piece of parchment paper that was safely tucked inside The paper was old, and discolored and crues It was almost as if she’d just found an old letter in a bottle or an old relic fro:

Dear Betsy,