That explains a lot, Amanda thought as she hurried after Sunny.

"What happened?"Glenn asked in concern stopping Amanda in her tracks. "Is she okay?"

She smiled brightly. "Yeah, I think I just scared her a little," she replied, her mind reflecting back to how the teen had overreacted to Phillip's attempt to shake her hand earlier. "But I'll just go talk to her. I'm sure it will be okay."

"Maybe I should talk to her," he suggested.

"No, you just stay here and keep reading to Ivy. I'm the one who messed things up, so I'm the one who needs to make it right." She hurried off to the girls' bedroom where she was sure Sunny had run, but then paused when she got there, hand poised to knock. As she thought about it, she debated if knocking was the right thing to do or if she should just go on in. Either way, she was risking trouble. If she did the courteous thing by knocking, Sunny would most likely tell her to go away and if that happened, she wouldn't feel right not respecting her wishes if she were trying to model good behavior. On the other hand, if she just walked on in, the girl was likely to feel that her space was being invaded and she might clam up even more. She let out a sigh and decided it was worth the risk because she didn't want her running away again where she and her little family would be on their own again. She pushed open the door with a soft, "Sunny? Can we talk?"

"Go away. I don't wanna' talk!" She folded her arms across her chest and flung herself backwards onto the bed.

Amanda nodded. "I know how that can be. My younger boy, Jamie, gets like that sometimes. And sometimes when he doesn't want to talk, I just do all the talking and sometimes that helps him feel better."

"Whatever," Sunny muttered as she stared straight up at the ceiling.

"Okay, listen, I think we both know now why you reacted the way you did when you hit Phillip earlier. You were afraid he'd see the scar on your arm, maybe even make fun of you for it. I know sometimes kids can be mean about things like that."

"Yeah," She admitted with a shrug.

"I understand what it's like to have a big scar like that that you want to hide," she informed her as she sat on the edge of the bed beside her.

"What do you know about it?" Sunny questioned and looked up at Amanda with a defiant stare.

"I have a big, ugly scar that's still healing too."

"Huh, you look fine to me."

"Well, that's because, just like you, I can hide it underneath my clothes if I want to." She unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse and tugged at her left bra strap to slide it aside just enough to show the girl who own scars. "See?"

"So? You can at least hide yours better."

"Not always. You see, this is only a small part of it." She gestured downward to the bottom of her ribcage. "It goes down to here and all the way through to my back."

"Wow."

"Yeah. All summer long when Lee and I would take Phillip and Jamie to the beach, it was...well, it was a little difficult for me because I didn't feel comfortable wearing a bathing suit. I wanted to spend time with my boys playing and you know, splashing around in the water with them, but it's..."

"It's hard to let people see how ugly you are," she commiserated with her.

Amanda nodded. "It is. Not only that, but I have half a closet full of pretty dresses that I don't think I'll ever wear again because they have either a plunging neckline or a low back; sometimes both. So, you see, I do understand." She buttoned her blouse back up.

"So...uh...what happened to you? To leave those scars, I mean?"

"I'll make you a deal. I'll tell you my story, if you tell me yours." She gestured to Sunny's left arm. When the girl shook her head, Amanda knew she'd pushed just a little too much, but she'd at least gotten her to open up a little. That was progress. "Okay. You don't have to, but I still could use some help in the kitchen if you're up for it."

"Yeah. Okay. I did promise I would."

Amanda smiled warmly at her. "Good, let's get back to work then."

As they walked back through the living room together, Amanda paused when she saw Jamie talking to Glenn with a handful of books.

"Here," Jamie offered. "I thought maybe you could use these 'cause you seemed kinda' bored with the same book."

"Thanks," Glenn replied gratefully. "I am."

Amanda smiled at her son's generosity and walked on to leave the children to their conversation.

When they reached the kitchen, Sunny commented, "That was really nice of him. I mean, I like reading to Ivy since my mom's not around to do it anymore, but when it's the same book over and over again..."

"I know that feeling too," Amanda told her. "When Jamie was...I don't know...about six or so, his favorite book was Bunnicula. I can't even count how many times I read it to him and every time we'd finish it, he'd want to start it all over again."

"Sounds like Ivy," Sunny nodded. "She can read a little, but just little kid books with small words, not big chapter books or anything, but we-" She clamped her mouth shut and shook her head, blinking back tears.

"Lee said you told him that was the only book you had left from your mom and dad," Amanda said gently. "That must be hard, losing everything you ever had. I can't even imagine that."

"It's hard, but there's nothing I can do to change it," the girl countered, her tough facade firmly back in place.

"I know you can't." But maybe we can, Amanda thought.

"I'm back!" Lee called as he walked in from the living room carrying grocery bags.

"Just in time," Amanda replied as she greeted him with a quick kiss. "We've just about got the salad ready to go. Sunny, are you still going to be my kitchen helper?"

"Can I help too?" Phillip inquired as he walked into the room. "I like cooking."

"Sure..." She smiled at Sunny. "That is, if Sunny doesn't mind since she was here first helping out."

"As long as he keeps his hands to himself," the girl replied.

"Right back atcha'" Phillip countered with a gesture to the bruise that had formed on his face.

"How about you both agree to keep your hands to yourselves and I think we'll all get along just fine?" Amanda interjected.

"Good plan," Lee concurred as he finished unpacking the groceries.

"Oh, Lee, Sweetheart, I hate to ask since you just got back, but would you mind doing me another favor? With taking care of getting all the kids situated, I still haven't had a chance to get our stuff unpacked."

"I got it," he readily agreed. "Looks like you're gonna' have your hands full in here so it's the least I can do." He leaned in for another quick kiss and then whispered in her ear, "We need to have a talk about the orphans." When Amanda responded with a questioning eyebrow, he hissed, "Later."

While Amanda was burning with curiosity as her husband walked away, she couldn't very well ask for more information with the three orphaned children nearby. Besides, she knew she needed to get dinner on the table for all of them. She pasted on a cheerful smile and began assigning jobs to the pair of teenagers. "Okay, here's what we need to do..."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that evening once dinner was over, Sunny immediately jumped up to start cleaning up. "You don't have to do that," Amanda protested.

"I said we'd earn our keep and I meant it," the teen argued back. "We're not some charity case just 'cause we had some bad luck."

Lee jumped to his feet. "Let me help since I didn't help with the cooking," he offered hoping it would give him another chance to reach out to the melancholy teen. He'd already noticed just how much she was like he used to be, hiding her pain and fear behind a mask of false bravado and sarcasm.

"I've got it," she insisted, but then in a softer tone, added, "Thanks anyway."

"You shouldn't have to do the cleanup for seven people all by yourself," Jamie chimed in. "I'm going to help you." He shot her a stern look that said he wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Fine," the girl conceded.

"But I offered first," Lee protested.

"You know what, Sweetheart?" Amanda jumped in. "That's okay. You and I said we were going to take a walk after dinner anyway, didn't we? You know, just the two of us." She gave him a pointed look.

"Oh, right." He knew that look on her face all too well. She wasn't about to be kept waiting any longer.

"Phillip, you and Sunny can hold down the fort while we're gone, you know, look after the younger children and all."

"Sure," her older son shrugged.

Lee and Amanda put their coats on and stepped outside. "A walk, Amanda?" Lee questioned. "It's freezing out here."

"I know, but it's the only way to make sure we won't be overheard by any of the kids." As they walked a little farther away from their temporary vacation home, she queried in a worried tone, "So, what did you mean when you said we needed to talk about the orphans? After all the trouble we went to to get things arranged for them to stay here, you haven't changed your mind, have you? I mean, we can hardly throw them out into the cold, can we?"

"No, Amanda, I'm not suggesting we do that, but I think I may have been wrong about not contacting the local police." He pulled out a folded up flyer from his coat pocket. "This was hanging up at the grocery store."

Amanda recognized the format of the flyer. It was the standard one often posted to help find missing children. She only half-glanced at it before asking, "Well, this isn't exactly a surprise, Lee. We already figured they might have been reported as runaways."

"Look at it closely," he requested. "Not 'they.' That's just for the little one...Ivy. She was reported missing three days ago. And I made a casual inquiry with the cashier who waited on me...you know to see if she knew any of the details."

"I thought we agreed we weren't going to do that," Amanda admonished him. "Not until we knew more about what happened to them."

"Relax, Amanda. Like I said, it was just a causal inquiry. I have learned a thing or two from you about how to make it look like I'm just making conversation and you know, tugging on the heartstrings. I made a comment to the cashier about how sad it was for someone to lose their child right before Christmas and she pretty much did the rest."

"Okay, I'm listening. What did she say?"

"Apparently, the people who reported her missing are friends of a friend of hers and they were having trouble having kids of their own so they were doing this fostering-to-adopt program. Anyway, it turns out they'd had Ivy in their custody for only a couple of days..."

"Only Ivy?" She frowned at that thought, her mind drifting back to what she'd told him about older kids being overlooked.

"Yeah, and they haven't seen her since."

"Do you...you think she ran away from her foster parents to try to find her brother and sister...you know like you did when you were little trying to get back to your mom and dad?"

He shook his head. "No, it's worse than that," he explained, a grim expression on his face. "The same day they reported her missing, they made a separate report with the local sheriff that their house had been broken into because the lock on the backdoor had been broken the night she disappeared."

"So, that means..."

"Yeah, they think she's been kidnapped and if we don't do something about this, they might think we're responsible," he finished.