Lie to Me (A Touched Trilogy) Read Online Free Page B

watching over my shoulder.
    She waited for an answer, but I didn’t give her one. She
would see everything anyways. At my lack of response, she sighed and let my
fingers slip from hers, obviously finished with my memory. She shook her head
and said, “You’re just like your mother.”
    I stiffened in my seat. That was not what I wanted to hear.
Not because I didn’t love my mother, or at least the idea of her, or even that
I didn’t want to be like her. I just didn’t want to be a replacement for her,
which is exactly what Nanna wanted.
    “Before she met your father she didn’t want to accept her
gift either. Once she met Michael, she realized the benefits of giving hope.
She never listened to her heart, how it wanted her to help the people around
her, but Michael’s problems went beyond what she’d seen before. That was when
she started -”
    “It’s not the same, Nanna.” I pushed my chair back, intent
on ending the conversation. “Mom made a choice not to use her gift. Mine hasn’t
appeared.”
    “It’s there, Phoebe, otherwise, why would you call Tonya a
liar?”
    Defeated, I sank back onto the hard seat. She wouldn’t leave
me alone until I told her and if I tried not telling her she’d just watch me
harder. Sometimes I wish that along with seeing the past she could hear and
feel everything I did at that time as well, so I wouldn’t have to go through
the process of explaining myself.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I mean, one second she’s telling me
she’s going to see her mom and the next I called her a liar.”
    “There must have been something. What were you feeling?”
    “My stomach cramped,” I said, and her head nodded.
    “Your Aunt Ava had similar symptoms when she suspected
someone was lying. But you sounded so sure when you said it, as if you really
knew she was lying, not simply suspected she was.”
    “I wasn’t sure. I mean, I wasn’t really calling her a liar,
I was just repeating it.”
    “Repeating who?” She leaned forward, the creases scoring her
forehead deepening.
    “I don’t know. Just some voice in my head.” My words seemed
to echo through the room and I watched her eyes widen impossibly. “Is that
wrong?”
    I had no idea how these gifts worked, especially since Lily
and Chloe both had different experiences. Chloe explained her visions as a blurry
still-frame movie playing over top of what she saw in front of her, while Lily
said she would get a tingling in her hands when she felt someone in pain.
Neither of them had talked about voices. In fact, none of my mom’s relatives
had ever mentioned voices, and considering the look Nanna was giving me,
hearing them wasn’t a good sign.
    “I...I’m not sure, dear. Honestly, you’re the first truth
teller we’ve had in the family since before my time.”
    “What about Aunt Ava?”
    “Oh, she wasn’t a truth teller. She was more of an empath.
She’d feel the guilt people experienced when they lied.”
    “Great. So first I’m the family freak with no gift, and now
I’m going to be the freak that hears voices.”
    The basement door opened behind me and I spun around to see
Chloe coming up. “Oh, please,” she said, and levered herself up on to the
counter. “You really think anyone in this family is going to judge you because
your gift is unusual?”
    “Yeah, well, it’s not like I can actually do anything with
it anyways. What good does it do to know that someone’s lying?” I gave her the
evil eye. “You could have at least warned me I was going to get into it with
Tonya.”
    “You know my visions don’t work that way, Phoebs. Besides,
it’s not like I want to see everything you’re going to do. I’m just glad you’re
not planning on having sex anytime soon.” She shuddered and made a gagging
sound. And that was the perfect example of why I could hate her so much.
    “Shut up,” I snapped, turning back to Nanna. “So, what now?
I’m supposed to listen to this voice and do what?”
    “It