The Secret Sister
By Ayla Hashway
Copyright ? 2016 Ayla Hashway
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual places or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced, copied, or recorded without written permission from the author.
The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark ownership of all trademarks mentioned in this book. Trademarks are not sponsored or endorsed by the trademark owners.
Cover photo ? Tithi Luadthong
Dedication
To my friends in Mrs. Dickerson's third grade class.
Table of Contents
Chapter One The Big Announcement
Chapter Two Abura
Chapter Three Another Argument
Chapter Four Breaking In
Chapter Five The E-Mail
Chapter Six The Secret Sister
Chapter Seven The Secret Passageway
Chapter Eight Amanda Who?
Chapter Nine Back To Amanda's
Chapter Ten Mr. Walters
Chapter Eleven To the Airport
Chapter Twelve An Exciting Ride
Chapter Thirteen Welcome To Abura
Chapter Fourteen A Mysterious Disappearance
Chapter Fifteen Time For Dinner?
Chapter Sixteen The Purple Waterfall
Chapter Seventeen The Secret of the Waterfall
Chapter Eighteen A Shocking Discovery
Chapter Nineteen A Close Call
Chapter Twenty The Hidden Password
Chapter Twenty-One Behind the Door
Chapter Twenty-Two The Confirmation
About the Author
Chapter One
The Big Announcement
There once lived a girl named Olivia and her younger brother, Max. Olivia liked being older, mostly because she got to pick where she and her family went on vacation each year. Max didn't like being younger. He wanted to pick where to go on vacation. The only thing was, until Olivia was eighteen and went away to college, she would get to pick.
Beep, beep, beep went Olivia's alarm clock.
"Morning already?" Olivia asked as she threw a pink lacy pillow at her brother, Max, in his bed on the other side of the room they shared.
"Hey, what was that for?" Max asked.
"It's morning. Now go brush your teeth. I can smell your bad breath from here!" Olivia exclaimed, sitting up and fanning her nose.
"Oh yeah? Well, your hair is a mess!" yelled Max.
"You don't think yours is too?" Olivia asked.
"Olivia! Max! I have good news," called their mom from downstairs.
They scrambled out of bed and raced to the door. Olivia pushed Max into the door and made Max bump his head. As they rushed down the stairs, pushing one another back, Max tripped Olivia on the last step. He pulled the carpet tread covering the stairs right when she put her foot down and...splat!
"Ugh, thanks a lot, little bro," Olivia said angrily.
"Any time!" Max said with a smirk. "That is how you get payback!"
"Very funny," Olivia said back, resisting the urge to strangle him.
Olivia got up and looked at the bruise on her kneecap that was turning a dark purple.
"What happened in there?" Mom called in a worried and concerned voice. "I heard a big crash."
"Max..." Olivia paused and thought should she really tell on her brother? He might hate her even more after that, and there morning had already gotten off on the wrong foot.
"Max what?" asked their mom.
"Max helped me up when I fell off the stairs." Olivia and her mother looked each other in the eye as Olivia and Max walked into the kitchen. "Now what's the big news?"
"Yeah, are we going to a zoo?" asked Max, jumping up and down.
"No, we are going on a vacation!" Mom told them.
"Yes!" screamed Olivia.
Chapter Two
Abura
Later that day, after Max broke his sneakers trying to put them on the neighbors' Great Dane, Mom, Olivia, and Max went to the mall.
"Olivia, Max and I are going to the shoe store. Where are you going, honey?" Mom asked as they walked into the mall.
"I guess I'll go to Hadley's across from the food court for some jewelry." Hadley's was Olivia's favorite store because they sold the cutest tote bags and other accessories.
"Okay. Be careful, and if you need anything, give me a call."
Olivia patted the cell phone in her pocket. "I will."
As Olivia was walking, she passed the bookstore and saw the two books she'd been wanting called Blues Bones and Visions of Mockingbird Point. Olivia went into the bookstore and straight to the display table in front. She picked up the books and debated if she should buy them both.
"Excuse me," one of the workers said. "Just so you know, both of those books are on sale for only $5.99 each."
Olivia's eyes lit up. "Wow! Thanks. I'll get both." She brought them to the counter and paid.
"Would you like a bag?" asked the man at the register.
"No. I'm fine," Olivia said, walking off and looking at the books in her hands.
Outside the store, a woman with brown hair, who was wearing short sleeves, shorts, and a half-broken star necklace that had "Sisters" written on it came up along side her. She smiled at Olivia and handed her a flyer.
"Have you ever been to Abura?" the woman asked her.
Olivia took the flyer and looked at the beach and boardwalk displayed on the front. "No, but I've been wanting to go there."
"Oh, you would love this one waterfall," the lady said. "At night it looks purple from the sunset reflecting on it."
"Really? That's awesome! Thank you for the flyer. I think I know where I'm going on vacation this summer," Olivia said with a big smile. She put the flyer in her back pocket with her phone.
Olivia went to Hadley's and saw a beautiful handbag that would be perfect for Abura. Then, she saw a golden feather necklace and a silver bracelet with her birthstone in the center surrounded by cubic zirconium. When she picked it up, it started shining and sparkling in the light. She liked the amethyst especially because it was purple, her favorite color.
She went up to the counter and paid for all three items. As she left the store, she counted the rest of her money. She only had ten dollars left.
On her way back to the shoe store, she noticed the woman who had given her the flyer on Abura was gone.
Chapter Three
Another Argument
On the ride home, Olivia showed Mom and Max what she bought.
"Nice, honey," Mom said.
Max stuck his new sneaker in Olivia's face. "Look at my new shoes! They have skulls on the bottom!"
"Get this out of my face!" Olivia said, pushing his foot away. Although she didn't like having the sneaker in her face, she did think it was pretty cool with all the red highlights. Not that she would tell Max that.
"Oh," Olivia said. "I picked where we are going on vacation."
"Wait!" Max waved his hands in the air. "Can we go to Cape May or New York to go to the zoo?"
"No, we are going to Abura," Olivia said.
"What's Abura?" Max asked.
"It's a private island that I've wanted to go to since I was three or four." Olivia took the flyer out of her pocket and handed it to Max.
"Boring," Max mumbled, tossing the flyer on the floor.
"Excuse me!" Olivia shouted as she scooped the flyer back up.
"What? If you really wanted to go, you should have picked it the last eleven times. Plus, you don't even know when you started wanting to go. You're just making that up." Max pouted and crossed his arms.
O
livia leaned toward Max and whispered, "I'm not going to start another fight because of what happened last time when you tripped me."
"What so special about Abura anyway?" Max asked, rolling his eyes.
"There's this one waterfall that the sunset reflects on and makes it look purple."
"Sounds...cool?" Max said, obviously not impressed.
"You'll see how awesome it is when we get there."
"So it's in front of the airport?"
"I didn't mean literally when we get there." She kicked Max's leg. "Brothers," Olivia mumbled to herself so he couldn't hear.
Max tried to kick Olivia back, but she pulled her leg away just in time.
"Dang it!" Max said, slapping his leg.
"Ha-ha! Too bad, so sad."
Olivia looked at the brochure next to her. She couldn't wait to get there and see the gorgeous waterfall. Maybe it was even better than how it looked in the picture.
Chapter Four
Breaking In
As Olivia and Max ate their lunch, their mom was in her home office, talking on the phone and typing on the computer. All of a sudden, Mom got up and slammed the office door shut. Olivia and Max looked at each other.
Max shrugged and walked into the den.
"What do you...?" Olivia began to call after him, but she stopped when Mom started screaming and yelling. Her mom was talking so fast Olivia couldn't keep up and make out the words she was saying.
Then there was a minute of silence. Olivia knew something was wrong, and she was going to find out what. After a few more minutes passed, her mom came out of the office. Her face was all red from anger.
"Olivia, I'm going to be out for a little while."
"Where are you going? Is everything okay?" Olivia asked.
"I...I'm going to the food store. You're in charge until I get back." Mom grabbed her purse and went out the door.
Olivia waited two minutes to be sure Mom was gone. Then she went into the den and got Max.
"We need to sneak into Mom's office and check her computer to see what she was doing," Olivia said.
"Is Mom home?" asked Max, not even looking up from his iPad.
"No, she just left two minutes ago."
"Do you even know what Mom's computer password is anyway?" Max asked. "Aw, come on!" he yelled at the game he was playing. He put it on the coffee table.
"Yeah, it's Sage26. She changed it last week when we got Sage." Sage was Olivia's brand new German shepherd puppy she got on the last day of school. "Come on now. We don't want Mom or Dad to see us in the office."
Olivia and Max tiptoed down the hall into the office. Olivia sat down and typed S-A-G-E-2-6 in all caps.
The page opened up to an e-mail with a strange link. Olivia spun in the desk chair, debating if she should read the e-mail or click on the link. She knew both would be bad because she would be invading someone's personal business, and that someone wasn't her.
"What are you doing?" Max asked. "Read it. Who is it from?"
"No, Max. I'm worried. What if it's something bad?" Olivia responded.
"Who cares?" Max said, squeezing onto the chair next to Olivia and spinning around to read the e-mail.
Olivia covered her eyes with her hands. "Who is it from?" she asked.
"Her sister," Max said.
"What?" Olivia uncovered her eyes and looked at the screen, but Max was leaning forward and his big head was blocking her view. "That's impossible. Mom doesn't have a sister."
Chapter Five
The E-Mail
Olivia pushed Max aside. "Let me see the thing. Yesterday you thought a candy wrapper was a five dollar bill."
Max pointed to the screen. "I told you it said sister!"
Olivia was so shocked she couldn't look at anything but the word "sister" on the screen. "Why wouldn't Mom tell us though?" she asked.
"I don't know. Do I look like Mom?" Max asked.
"Yeah, kind of," Olivia said with a smirk.
"Stop!" Max said, clicking on the Photo Booth icon on the bottom of the screen so he could check his reflection. "Come on!" he yelled.
"What?" Olivia asked. "You do look like Mom?"
"Yes," Max grumbled.
Olivia closed Photo Booth and read the email.
Sara,
Have you told your family about me yet? If not, meet me at Pigeon Avenue on the corner of Route 305 and Secret Lane.
Your sister,
Amanda
"I've never in my life heard of Pigeon Avenue or Route 305 or Secret Lane," Olivia said. "But that must be where Mom is going right now."
"How are we ever going to get to Mom now?" Max asked.
"We could use the navigation system on my phone and ride our bikes," suggested Olivia.
"Okay, we just need to look it up now," Max said.
Olivia took her phone from her back pocket. "I am, but there is no sign of it. But Mom has a tracker on my phone. I can reverse it and track her!"
"For once I'm glad you're such a nerd."
"You're just jealous because I'm smarter than you and I have the trophies to prove it." Olivia had won several trophies for her inventions. One time she even had her invention featured in the newspaper.
A couple minutes later, Olivia had finished reversing the tracker. "Mom is in New Jersey still. Come on. Get your bike and let's go!" Olivia shouted.
Chapter Six
The Secret Sister
They pedaled as fast as they could, following the tracker on Olivia's phone. After a while, they found their mom's car on the side of the road next to a building that looked more like a wooden hut than anything else. There was no parking lot or driveway. Only grass, mud, and gravel.
"Look, Max. There are Mom's footprints. We can follow them into the building," Olivia said, leaning her bike behind a big green dumpster on the side of the building. "Just be quiet and careful. We can't let Mom or her sister see us."
"Wait. What do you think was on the link in the email?" Max asked, putting his bike next to his sister's.
"Don't know. Don't care," Olivia whispered.
They crept to the front door, which was cracked open. As they looked inside, they saw a lady with blond hair, hot pink painted nails, and a floral sundress.
"That must be Aunt Amanda," Max whispered to Olivia.
"Don't call her aunt. We don't know anything about her," Olivia said.
Amanda looked over and saw the kids but did not tell their mother they were there. Their mother had her back to them and they couldn't hear what she was saying.
When their mother turned in their direction, Max and Olivia ran for the dumpster and jumped inside. Olivia peeked out and saw her mother get into her car and drive away.
"Ahhhh!" Max screamed like a little girl.
"What is it? A snake?" Olivia asked.
"No, worse. A m-m-m-mouse!" Max mumbled.
"Yeah, it's right behind you," Olivia said, pretending to be scared.
"No, it's not!" Max said, realizing he'd been tricked.
"Well, now there is," Olivia said with a laugh.
"Ahhh! There's a rat! Oh wait. That's just your face." Max burst into laughter.
Olivia waited a couple of seconds and then tackled him. As Max went down, his hand touched the mouse's tail.
"Ew! I thought you were just joking about the mouse!" Max shrieked and fell backward out of the dumpster.
"When did my brother turn into a baby?" Olivia asked.
"Hey!" Max said. "I'm-"
Before he could finish, Olivia interrupted. "Wait. We have to get home before Mom, and she's on her way already!"
Max looked around. "There's a path through the woods. Maybe it's a shortcut. We have an opening like that in our backyard."
"We'll have to find out," Olivia said.
As they were biking, Olivia thought about Amanda. She seemed familiar for some reason.
Chapter Seven
The Secret Passageway
The pathway finally came to a big opening. T
hey were shocked to see it led directly to their backyard.
"Max, what do you think is going on?" Olivia asked, stopping at the edge of their yard.
"I don't know. Do you think Mom knows though?"
"I would guess, but she drove. She didn't take the pathway. So maybe not."
"Look, Mom's car is pulling into the driveway," Max said. "We have to get inside."
"Come on. Hide your bike under the back deck." Olivia took off for the deck and stashed her bike.
They ran up the stairs and to the sliding glass door, trying not to be seen. They went upstairs and turned left into their room. Olivia quickly grabbed her phone and Max looked around for his iPad.
"I left it in the den!" he said.
"Uh, play with Sage," Olivia suggested.
Max whistled for the dog. Sage came running up the stairs and burrowed under Max. When Max stood up, there was a big wet mark on the back of his pants.
"Ew! What is this?" Max asked as he tried to wipe it off.
"Drool, maybe?" Olivia suggested.
They quickly got back to what they were doing when they heard the front door open.
"Olivia! Max! I'm home. Where are you guys?"
"Upstairs in our room," they called down.
Then they both rushed down the stairs. They went into the living room to greet their mom.
"Where are the groceries from the store?" Olivia asked, looking at her mother's empty hands. She wondered if her mother would lie and keep going with the food store story or if she'd tell the truth.
"They didn't have the good chips and were out of ice cream sandwiches," Mom said. "I even checked with the workers, and they were all out of both. They said they would have some by tomorrow though."
"I guess there's always next time," Max said.
Max and Olivia went into the den.
"Mom lied to us again?" Olivia asked.
"Victory is mine!" Max said, grabbing the iPad from the coffee table.
"You're worried about an iPad after all that's happened in the past few hours?"
"Who wouldn't be?" Max asked, already playing his game.
"Um, smart people, so obviously not you."
"Die, zombies! Die!" Max yelled at the screen.
"Seriously?" Olivia said.
"Don't you have an invention to work on?" Max asked.
"Max, I'm not worried about them right now. What I'm worried about is all the stuff that's been going on. And why we never knew about Aunt Amanda. What did she do that made Mom keep her from us for all these years? If Mom's not going to tell us, then we'll have to find out for ourselves."
Chapter Eight
Amanda Who?