Page 35 of Dragon Charmed

“I’ll be in the church. If you need me, I’ll come running.” He directed the last words at Ben.

What was going on? It was like they were speaking another language. Was she going to tell them where Evelyn went to? Tessa appeared as confused as he felt.

Susan motioned for them to come into the house. They walked into the small living room and sat on the couch while Susan took the chair across from them.

“Can you tell me who is looking for Mia and how you two are involved?”

Tessa glanced at him and he nodded. He’d let her give a reason. He was starting to hate the lies he was telling.

“I’m Tessa and this is Ben. My friend, Megan, was a teaching assistant for Mia. She adored her. All her TAs and students did. After Mia disappeared, people worried about what happened to her, and the longer she’s been missing, the more concerned they’ve become. We want to make sure she’s okay. Ben was hired to find her, and I've been tagging along, helping in the search.” Tessa leaned forward. “If you have any idea of where we can find Evelyn to speak to her, maybe she can tell us where Mia is.”

Susan sat back in her chair and seemed to be having an internal debate on what she should tell them. She squared her shoulders as if she’d made a decision. “I’m Evelyn.”

“What?” Ben blurted.

“Why is the whole town lying about you?” Tessa blurted at the same time.

Evelyn sighed. “I have spent decades caring for foster children. Their circumstances varied. Some were orphans or they had been given up by parents who weren’t able to take care of them, or taken away from abusive parents or parents who couldn’t take care of themselves, let alone a child. Some of my foster children were reunited with their families once they were able to support them. But there were other cases where some of the kids had abusive family members who came looking for them.

“This little town might gossip and sometimes have their batch of squabbles, but when it comes to protecting children, they are all on the same page.”

“They closed ranks around you and the kids,” Ben said.

Evelyn smiled. “Yes, they did.”

“Who are they protecting you from now?” Tessa asked.

“Not me. I’ll be right back.” Evelyn walked out of the room.

His heart sped up. Was Mia hiding here too?

A few moments later Evelyn came back into the room holding a little girl’s hand.

“This is Lily.”

“Lily, this is Tessa and Ben.” The girl had brown hair in two braids and bright blue eyes. Eyes that widened as she took in Tessa and then Ben. She smiled and waved at them both as if she knew them.

“Lily, sweetheart. Can you go sit in the dining room and color for a little bit?”

Lily frowned slightly but didn’t say anything.

Evelyn rested her hand on top of her head. “Don’t worry, they’ll be here when you get back.”

Lily waved at them again before skipping back through the door.

“Lily doesn’t speak.”

“Is she deaf?” Ben asked.

“No. She can hear, but she hasn’t said anything since Mia brought her here.”

Ben’s head was spinning. None of this made sense. “Is Mia here too?”

Evelyn shook her head. “No. Mia did come to see me shortly after Paul’s death. She was devastated. Kept telling me it was all her fault that he died. It was an accident, but she wouldn’t listen to reason. She told me that she was going to fix things. Before I could get her to tell me what she meant, she left. I hadn’t seen nor heard from her until she showed up here with Lily in the middle of the night.”

“Is Lily her daughter?” Tessa asked.

“No. When I asked about Lily, she told me she was four at that time. And when I asked about her parents, Mia told me they were dead and that Lily needed to be kept somewhere safe. She asked me to take care of her for a few weeks, and she would be back for her. But that was over a year ago.” Evelyn swallowed. “I’m afraid something bad has happened to her.”