"Good morning, sweetheart!"

Polly sent a glare towards Tom who sat in the driver's seat with a fancy pair of sunglasses over his eyes. He was smiling, but it wasn't his smile that caught her attention. It was his salmon colored polo that he wore.

"Don't call me that." She grumbled, buckling up her seat.

Tom had picked her up for school everyday that week, and made sure to bring her home. Like a true prince charming, except Polly didn't want him as her prince charming. She didn't even want a prince. She wanted a princess, who went by the name of Kenzie

Of course, she was becoming friends with Tom. But his certain brand of cheeriness was not appreciated before eight o'clock. Polly wasn't a morning person - in fact, she'd never met a morning person until meeting Tom.

"I think it suits you. No animal shirt today?"

Polly looked down at her grey hoodie. It didn't have an animal on it, but the shirt under it did. She was surprised he'd notice something like it.

She didn't really answer, but instead ducked her head and smiled. It meant something to her that Tom would notice. That perhaps this situation was developing into a friendship. Maybe.

Tom fiddled with the radio, settling on a pop station. Polly wasn't one for music - never had been - but she found herself bopping her head to the tune coming from the speakers. Her heart was beating fast because she was nervous. Nervous because hanging out with Tom was still new and nerve wracking. She didn't know anything about Tom or his intentions for her. And because of Doctor Higgins, she was sure she'd never blindly trust a person. He taught her that.

"Okay, so here's the deal. I can't visit Minny today. But I can bring you home, if you want the ride."

Polly gave Tom a sideways look. She never wanted to depend on Tom for rides, or even expect that he would bring her to see Minny, so his words didn't disappoint her. If anything, she felt bad that he even had to consider her in his plans for the day because he carted her around.

"That's fine, Tom. You don't even have to give me rides, really. I'm totally okay with walking. Totally okay."

Tom pulled the car into a space in the school parking lot, shooting Polly a look. "And I'm totally okay with giving you rides, so chill. I'm just wondering if you want a ride home."

Polly fiddled with her hands, not meeting his expectant gaze. She didn't even have to answer before the passenger side door opened and Kenzie was sticking her head in, a frown on her lips. "Alright loser, I'm taking my best friend back."

Polly gazed up at Kenzie with wide eyes, watching as the purple haired girl yanked her from the car. "I have some major stuff to tell you about. Like, major."

Polly's mind was whirling, and she saw the disappointed look on Tom's face, as if he were upset Kenzie barged her way into the car. But she shook it off quickly with a smile, winking when he caught Polly's gaze.

"I'll see you two later then," he offered, sticking his hands into his pockets as she walked towards the school, his hand waving already at a few guy who were approaching him. And like he had never been there, he disappeared into the group of guys, blending back into where he belonged.

Polly blinked up at Kenzie, whose mouth was moving a mile a minute. "My dad is such a piece of shit sometimes. God. I went to see him the other day, after he asked, and then he bailed. He was all like, 'I have a job to do'. Like, excuse me, what is more important? Me or a job?"

Polly sent Kenzie a sideways look. She knew the answer, of course Kenzie was more important, but she barely knew anything about Kenzie and her family. It had been a mystery, and one that Polly had no right to budge into.

"Speaking of fathers, or in my case, father figure..." Polly looked down at her phone, watching at her uncle's name flashed on the screen. "I better take this."

"Polly, I just cracked something huge. What do you say to skipping school today?" Her uncle's voice filled the phone before she could even say a simple hello, and the words that left his mouth was shocking that it had Polly catching flies with her mouth.

"You'll have to pick me up. I'm at school already."

There was shuffling on the other end of the phone, and Kenzie was staring at Polly with wide eyes, her curiosity blatantly obvious on her face. Kenzie was as curious as they came, and she wasn't afraid to ask questions when it came to getting what she wanted. And right now, she wanted to know why Polly's face looked as bright as a Christmas tree.

"Alrighty, kid. I'm on my way."

Polly looked down at the phone in her hand, and then up at Kenzie. "Sorry, but I guess I'm going home. My uncle just came across something important." What Polly didn't add was that she was hoping it was about the rat in her locker and the note that accompanied it. She knew she needed to tell Kenzie - after all, Minny knew and Polly felt like she was much closer to the pink haired girl.

"So not fair!" Kenzie whinned, slinging her arm over Polly's shoulders. "What will I do without you?"

Polly felt flutters in her chest at those words, at the arm around her shoulder, at the girl dramatically rolling her eyes. She longed to return the embrace and wrap her arms around Kenzie, pulling her close enough so that Polly could hear the sure beat of her heart beneath her chest. She wanted to see what it would taste like if she kissed Kenzie. She wanted to feel the pink hair between her fingers, and she wanted all of Kenzie's attention on her and no one else.

Polly was selfish. Terribly so, and she wanted all of Kenzie for herself. She dreamed of telling her here, right now, that she liked the badass in the stunning dress. But, she couldn't. After all, she was a devil child and nothing more.

"Don't hate me, but school isn't all that fun anyway. I'd much rather be home." Polly's words rang true, despite how much she had begged to go to school earlier in the year. And before Kenzie could respond, her uncle pulled up to the curb with an urgency that made Polly feel concerned.

"Gotta go." Polly flattened down the urge to kiss Kenzie on the cheek as she squeezed into the cop car, barely shutting the door before her uncle was squealing out of the parking lot. This must be worse than I thought, Polly fretted, knotting her hands in her lap as she looked over at her uncle.

"It's all coming together, Polly. You wouldn't believe what we found this morning. Elliott's mother? Her name isn't Mary Cole at all! And wait until you find out why she changed her name!"

Polly's mouth fell open. So, it would appear this had nothing to do with her, afterall. Though, she couldn't help but feel intrigued by Elliott's case and what was happening with him and his brothers. The case still haunted her, only because it felt so close to her own life that it was shocking.

"Okay, how did you find this?"

Polly's uncle looked sideways at her. "Would you believe it was completely by accident? We stumbled upon an old investigation about a missing girl that took place about 40 years ago, if not more. The girl's name was Darcy, and she was kidnapped when she was about seven years old. Well, imagine my surprise when I found out she was found about twenty years ago, going by the name of Mary. The article also featured a Where are they now? section that offered up the information about her children. Twins by the name of Elle and Elliott."

Polly's heart stuttered. "Wait. She had been kidnapped?"

"Yeah. Can you believe it? We stumbled upon that investigation by chance. In fact, we were just moving around folders this morning, and my eyes fell upon the end information. A woman named Mary with a child named Elliott? Too close to ignore."

Polly's back was rigid and she felt a chill along her spine, though she had no idea why she felt this way, or why this information did not settle well with her.

"I'm guessing you looked more in depth."

"Of course. She married a man named Theodore Chambers, though here is the kicker: he belonged to the family that kidnapped her! Apparently though he was not involved. But they got married, yada yada, and had these two kids. It was too convenient that she had a son named Elliott, so I dug deeper. And that is where it all ended. No more trails, no nothing. Until I searched more on the Chambers family."

Her uncle pulled into the police station, barely turning the car off before he was rushing inside. Polly could barely keep up as she rushed after her uncle, watching as he nearly knocked over a man with a coffee mug in his hand.

She followed him to his office where he locked the door behind her. "But it gets better."

She took a seat at his desk, settling in his office chair. She watched as her uncle yanked free a folder from a filing cabinet. "I found nothing on Theodore that was recent, but I found a lot about his brother Keith. And this kid was not very smart, because he left a trail behind him. Court cases, police visits, all that sort of stuff. And it didn't entertain me until I stumbled upon a woman by the name of Mary Cole."

"We already knew her name was Mary Cole from the birth certificate."

Her uncle looked at her squarely, and then puffed out a sigh. "You're right, we did. But I needed to connect Mary Chambers to Mary Cole, and I did so. I found out though Keith that his brother. Theodore Chambers, went by Ted Cole now. So, now that I connected the two, it wasn't hard to find out everything about the woman, including where we can find her."

Polly felt chills run up her spine. "That was quick. I thought investigations were a lot longer than this."

Her uncle ran a hand down his face, obviously tired. "We've been chasing this case for a while now, Polly. If we hadn't stumbled upon the investigation of Darcy, we would have found nothing about Mary Cole."

Polly looked down at the faces of Elliott, Adrian, and Mat. She felt a sense of joy in knowing they were on the path of being safe.

"How do you know where she lives?"

Her uncle opened another folder. "Again, by chance. Her neighbor has security cameras attached to their house, and once I found out what Mary Cole looked like, it was easy to find videos of her. When the video of her on the surveillance camera surfaced, it was easy. All we have to do now is wait to get to go ahead to check her house for those missing kids."

Polly's head whirled at all this new information. Never did she think it would come together quite as well as it had. She pictured months of nothing but little clues that led nowhere. She pictured those missing children dead because the police could not find enough clues quick enough to save them.

Now, she had hope.

"What do you need from me?"

Her uncle showed Polly a picture of a middle aged woman. "I need you to actually draw up a sketch for us. This is Mary."

This, Polly could do. If only she knew how quickly things were actually coming along. If only she knew the people she considered friends were in danger and there was nothing she could do to help them. 

* * *

Follow my twitter: https://twitter.com/UWbooks

Follow my blog: https://wickedpromisesblog.wordpress.com/