Read The Vanished for Free Online Page B

He removed his glasses and wiped them. “I know how hurt you must be. You feel let down by the one person who should have been there for you.”
    “You lied to me.”
    “Yes, I did.”
    “You kept Matthew from me.” My voice cracked again, and despite my best efforts a tear escaped from my eye.
    “I know,” he said with a sigh. “I’m so sorry.”
    How had I ever thought that this man was warm? Why did I believe he was the one person who would always be there for me? I would never, ever feel like that again.
    “The Enforcers took Matthew. I couldn’t stop them.”
    Dad’s voice came out in a rasp. “Oh… that’s… poor Matthew… oh, you poor child.” He stepped forward to hold me but I moved away. His arm dropped to his side. “I’m so grateful to him for getting you here.”
    “We nearly didn’t make it. If it hadn’t been for Ali we never would. Murder-Troll––”
    “Your teacher?” His eyes widened in surprise. “What did she have to do with anything.” Then his face flushed again. “Mina, your hair! What happened to it?”
    I sighed and re-told the story of how my teacher Mrs Murgatroyd, or Murder-Troll as we nicknamed her, had obsessed over my relationship with Daniel and Sebastian, although I left out some details, like meeting Sebastian in a field at night, before taking it upon herself to teach me a lesson by cutting away my hair. Then later that night, the same night my dad disappeared, Daniel had gone to Murder-Troll’s house to break in because he was so angry over what she’d done to me, and troubled about losing his adoptive mother, which was when I joined in instead of talking him out of it. The break-in was classed as an act of terrorism, and Murder-Troll had worked with the Ministry to have us arrested, trying to kill us at Sebastian’s farm in the process. It was only Ali’s quick thinking which got us out of Area 14. He’d impersonated an Enforcer to help get me out.
    My dad stood shaking his head and groaning as I told him the story whilst two more shapes exited the barn. A wiry looking blonde girl watched me with her head titled to the side and her blue eyes growing bigger and bigger until she looked more like a sad kitten than a human. A small boy, around ten years old, hung back from the rest of us. He had a short crop of straight black hair and pale skin.
    “I never would have left,” dad said after a long pause. “I left you with all that… I’m so sorry, Mina.” His face had aged as I told the story, wrinkles seeming to deepen, his eyes glazing with sadness. I’d been brutal in my re-telling, going into detail about the bullets and the fights and Daniel’s wounds. I told it cold. It was my revenge.
    “Well you did leave. And that is what happened.”
    “I had a good reason.”
    “I hoped you would say that. Because I’m very interested to hear it.” My voice sounded strange. It was cold and distant, not like me at all, but I couldn’t help it. I took a deep breath and tried to unclench my hands.
    “Hiro, could you come over here please?” Dad said, angling his head towards the small Asian boy.
    “You know you don’t have to say it,” Hiro said in a small voice. “I hear it anyway.”
    Dad placed a protective arm on his shoulders. “Hiro I would like you to meet my daughter, Mina. She is special too and can do special things with her mind.”
    “No kidding,” the scruffy haired boy with the strange sense of smell said, kicking at the grass.
    My dad turned to him. “Let it go, Mike.” He sighed and crouched next to Hiro. “Mina can move things without touching them. That’s called telekinesis.”
    “I know what it’s called,” Hiro said. He spoke with a frightening maturity for a little boy. “I’ve heard it before.”
    I didn’t know what was going on, but I did see my dad gazing lovingly at a child he wasn’t related to. Was this the reason why he left me? To help a boy he didn’t even know? I was his daughter.
    Hiro put his hands