Chapter 2: Ryanna

Beep. Beep. Beep.

My phone was sounding like a ticking time bomb and it was annoying the holy shit out of me.

"Renee, sweetie, can you check that for me?" I asked.

"Yeah, mom." my daughter answered.

She grabbed my phone and punched in a few numbers. The she said, "It's Ryan. He wants you to call him back at 55-9373 as soon as possible."

"Okay. I'll do that later."

My fifteen year old daughter and I were headed to Miami, Florida to hopefully meet Ryan Wolfe, whom I suspected to be my twin brother. Plus, I just recently got a divorce for personal reasons. Our marriage was not so great from the start so I was also looking for a fresh start.

"Hey, mom?" Renee asked.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"What if this guy really is your brother?"

"I'm not sure."

"What even makes you think he is your brother?"

"Wolfe is not a common name like Anderson or Johnson and our first names are nearly identical. With the fact that I was adopted at birth really makes me lean towards to us being twins."

"Oh."

We stopped at a nearby motel and I paid for a room for Renee and me. As soon as we walked into the room, we threw our bags down and plopped onto the nearest bed and slept until the morning sun seeped its way through the dark, thick burgundy curtains.

Renee and I woke roughly around the same time. We got ready for our day, gave the key back to the front desk and headed out to our blazer. We threw the bags in the back and hopped into the cab.

"Renee, can you pull out the map out of the gloves box for me?" I asked; ever so politely.

She took it out and handed it to me.

I nodded my thanks and began to unfold it.

I found Lebring (which is where we are now) and looked for the quickest way to Miami.

I re-folded the map and handed it back to Renee. We put our seatbelt on and I turned the key. I backed out of the parking spot and headed to the interstate to head East.

"Miami, here we come!" I exclaimed.

Sometimes, I think my mom is on some kind of illegal drug. If everybody saw how goofy she acts around me, they would not talk to her; ever in her lifetime.

Mom was talking to me,. Face-to-face, about how she wants to go back to college while she was driving until I yelled at her.

"Mom! Just watch the road, will you?!" I said as loud and clear and I could possibly get.

She faced forward with a serious look on her face and kept hr eyes on the road. Her facial expression looked so serious that I think she didn't even blink.

The number of near-death experiences I have had with my mom behind the wheel is so high, that I would need a second set of hands to count them. Maybe I would need a third set.

If this Ryan guy really is my uncle, I will be so God damn happy. I am really anxious to meet him.

As we were driving down the interstate, I noticed the Honda in front of us had the bad case of the swerves.

"Mom, look at that Civic in front of us." I commanded.

"And?" Mom asked.

"It's swerving all over the place."

"Oh. Thanks for pointing that out for me. I will keep an eye on it in case the driver is drunk."

"Why don't you pass it so it will be somebody else's problem?"

"The next passing zone isn't for a while, sweetie."

"Oh."

Sometimes, my mom is so ignorant that she will just ignore the little things like swerving cars, animals in the road, people waiting to cross, and the occasional school speed limit zone. Without me in the vehicle with her, she just might end up dead.

I sat quietly I my seat watching the TINY car in front of us, praying to God it would not crash. I hat it when people drive drunk. Driving under the influence is what kills a lot of innocent people.

I looked into the rear-view mirror and saw that the driver behind us in the Dodge Ram diesel truck looked pissed, although I could not see his eyes. The way his jaw was clenched told me that he was pissed and somebody. He kept gripping the steering wheel as hard as he could and then released his pressure like it was a stress ball. The man's face expression made him look so evil that it made Satan look sane.

I then looked out the window. I knew we were almost to Miami. I have seen some pictures of it and this is what it looked like.

I felt the blazer jerk forward as if someone had hit us. I glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw the pissed man with a wide grin on his face. Then he backed off a little and pulled next to us so that his front bumper was even with our back bumper. He hit the left side and caused us to spin and spin until we hit a pole. The airbags went off and OnStar kicked in.

"I just received a signal stating that you were in a crash. Are you alright?" OnStar said.

"I am but my mom is not. She needs an ambulance." I answered.

"Okay. An ambulance and cops are on their way now. I will stay on the line with you until they get there."

I looked at my mom. She was groaning in pain and I knew I could not help her this time around.

Somebody opened the driver side door and stabbed my mother. He had a ski mask on but I memorized my mom's killer's figure; every last detail.

I started to cry and heard sirens wailing. An EMT helped me out of the blazer and asked me to sit on the bumper of the ambulance. I sat there and held in my tears as best as I could; trying to stay strong for my mom. I watched as men and women shuffled around. A young lady offered the look me over but I convinced her that I was fine.

I then could not hold the tears any longer and bawled like a baby.

I felt the ambulance rock slightly and looked up. Nest to me was a red-haired man wearing black sunglasses, even though the sun was setting.

He removed the sunglasses, revealing blue eyes, and said, "Hello, Miss. My name is Lieutenant Horatio Caine."

"Renee…Wolfe." I answered in between sobs.