Vanishing Rain (Blue Spectrum Chronicles Book 2) Read Online Free

light was dim, and I was hoping she wouldn’t notice anything was amiss.
    “How sweet,” she smiled.  “When I was a kid I had a best friend, and we did the same thing.  One heart matches the other, right?”
    “Yeah,” I answered, tamping down a tremendous dose of guilt.  My real mother could always tell when I was lying, but Dove trusted me. 
    “Where did you get it?”  I knew Dove wasn’t prying.  She was genuinely interested in my life.
    “At an antique store on Broadway,” I lied.  Part of me wanted to just spill the beans to Dove, to let her take over and make everything turn out fine.  Like she did when I had been incarcerated. 
    I pursed my lips.  No.  This had to be something I did alone. 
    “Okay,” Dove whispered, placing her hand on my shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze.  “Get some sleep, sweetie.”
    “Thanks, Dove.  I will.” 
    I watched her small, slender figure disappear into her bedroom where she would lie next to my dad.  The man she loved.
    At one point I thought I had that.  With Orion.  He had asked me to be his marriage partner.  Right before he disappeared without even saying good-bye. 
    I stared at the closed bedroom door, knowing I would never have the love they had.  My heart was tattered, shredded into pieces, and I knew I could never love anyone again.  Not like I loved Orion.  I let out a frustrated breath. 
    Maybe I just thought I had loved Orion.  Loving someone didn’t mean you would just up and leave that person.  For weeks my mind and my heart had been playing a cruel game of tic-tac-toe, and I never came out the winner. There was never a clean, straight line with all of the answers.  It was better before I figured out I was pregnant.  I could pull it together, try to forget about Orion and go on with my friends and my studies…my family.  But this baby…it changed everything.
    I had made a decision in a matter of seconds, and it staked a claim on me, dancing murderously over the skeleton of my body, the beating pulse of my heart.
    I knew then, more than ever, that I had to vanish.

Chapter 4
    Tools
    I carried the box to my room, setting it on my pink bedspread.  There were all kinds of colored paper in the box; reds, blues, yellows, polka dots, stripes.  Carnival animals.  Clowns. Balloons. Ocean creatures and bubbles.
    I wasn’t particularly interested in the front of the paper.  It was the back that I needed.
    I found a large square with blue dolphins swimming in the ocean on the front.  The back side was completely blank.
    I turned my tablet back on and found the map of the ancient sewer routes that started underneath Province A.  I opened the cap to the calligraphy pen and meticulously copied the angled route that wound underneath it, snakes that connected with solid lines.  The route led in perfect alphabetical order until it stopped at Province J, the last surviving Province.  Orion’s Province.
    I sighed.  I truthfully thought I was over him.  My family had seemed to fill in the void.  But once again, I had to wonder.  He cascaded into my mind like a moving carnival ride, his face spinning at every turn I took.  Why couldn’t he just leave me be?  I had enough on my plate, what with trying to get the tracker-timer out, find a place to stay, and keep the Administration from aborting my baby.  His baby.  Our baby.
    I smacked my thoughts down.  I didn’t have time to think about a boy who would just leave without a trace.  I continued with my project, sticking my tongue out of the corner of my mouth as I concentrated. My map complete, I folded it neatly and began putting the paper back into the box.  I was on my last piece when something sharp pinched my fingers.
    I pulled out the shiny, metallic object, smiling with satisfaction. 
    Scissors.  I snatched them up and tossed them into my small satchel, the very one I carried with me when I first came to Dad and Dove’s apartment to live.  I stuffed my map on