Justice (Deck of Lies, #1)

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Showing posts with label Book 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book 1. Show all posts

A Look Inside Justice, Deck of Lies Book 1

 

 

“We just need you to sit in here. Someone’s already on their way over.”

“My parents were supposed to be on the way over! Where’s my mom?” I could feel the tears bubbling in my eyes. Why wouldn’t anyone tell me what was going on? Had Carsyn denied my story? Did the store say I was shoplifting after all? Was I going to get charged with a crime? And why was my dad in handcuffs?

“Just sit in here.” We were back in the waiting room.

“Please,” a few tears spilled out of my eyes and down my cheeks. “Just tell me what’s happening.”

                He must have taken pity on me, because I saw something soften in his expression. “Your mom and dad are being held for questioning right now.”

“Questioning? But they didn’t have anything to do with the bracelet. I didn’t even call to tell them I was going shopping. I’m probably in trouble for that already. They really didn’t know about any of it!” I desperately tried to explain.

“It’s not about the bracelet.”

I frowned. “Then…what’s it about?”

Obviously he regretted getting into this conversation with me. He looked down at the toes of his boots before answering, and when he looked up he wouldn’t meet my eyes. “You were flagged in the database as a missing person.” 


 

“But I’m not missing. I’m right here.”

“A social worker is on her way. She’ll be here any minute to explain it to you.”

“But I don’t understand. What crime are my parents being questioned about?” I asked.

He cleared his throat before answering. “They’re being questioned about a kidnapping, Rain.”

It didn’t really sink in right away. The word kept bouncing around in my suddenly-empty head, completely devoid of all meaning. Kidnapping.

But why would the police want to question them about something like that?

I wouldn’t get an answer for thirty-five minutes, the amount of time it took for the social worker to arrive. I made about a dozen calls on my mobile phone to Aaron, my mom and dad and the house phone, but no one answered and I just listened to empty, hollow ringing as my tension mounted. Finally the social worker came bursting into the room, but I heard her coming well before the door flew open. She was wearing the clunky, square-heeled kind of shoes that made loud, clip-clopping sounds on the linoleum floor. There was a run on the left leg of her pantyhose, and I could see a bit of lace where her hem was slipping past her wrinkle-resistant polyester skirt. It was a nondescript brown color, like her hair, and a poor match for the blue blouse she wore under the matching jacket.

“Rebecca Keene, Child Protective Services,” she introduced herself immediately, thrusting a pale, cold hand out toward me. I shook it automatically. She pulled back quickly, flipping open a manila folder to glance at it before looking back up at me. “You must be Chloe.”

“Chloe? No. I’m Rain Ramey.”

“Ramey. Ramey,” she flipped open the folder again, turning pages. “Yes of course. Rain, right?”

“That’s me.” I nodded. Then, all the questions came exploding out of me. “What’s going on? Where are my parents? The policeman said something about kidnapping?”

She brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. It was just one of many tendrils that had escaped the bun at the nape of her neck. Rebecca Keene looked tired and harried, and I’d never missed my mother more than I did in that moment. “That’s right, Rain. Your parents are still being questioned in connection with an infant girl who disappeared more than fourteen years ago.”

My head tilted to one side as I stared at her. “But it’s all just a misunderstanding. My parents haven’t kidnapped anybody.”

Rebecca Keene gazed at me before her eyes lowered to the folder in front of her. “Today, the child would be sixteen years old. At birth, she had blue eyes and blonde hair. Like all babies born in the Silverwood Hospital since 1985, her fingerprints were taken shortly after she was born. The fingerprints found a match for the first time tonight,” her dark green eyes found mind before she continued. “When your ten-print card was ran through the database.”

My ears were ringing again. I felt my fingertips go numb. My eyes were cloudy; it seemed as though I was looking at Rebecca Keene through fog. “I don’t understand.”

“Rain, you are a match for that missing child. Arthur and Rhianna Ramey are not your natural parents. They abducted you from your home when you were eighteen months old.”


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Secrets Exposed in Justice

     I didn’t know where else to go but my locker. Maybe I could act like I was poking around in there for the next thirty minutes, until the lunch period was over. Of course, I only had two books so far…but no one knew that but me.
    I wanted to turn and run when I saw the back of another student, already buried in his own locker only two doors down from mine. But I really didn’t have anywhere else to go; I definitely wasn’t going back to the cafeteria. So I marched straight to the door of locker 389, wrenched it open and buried my arms up to my elbows inside.
    “New girl, huh?”
    The guy at locker 391 was movie-star handsome. His smile was pearly white, each tooth perfectly straight and even. He had a perfect tan and perfect blonde hair, not a single strand out of place.

 

 

    “Um,” My mind went blank as soon as I looked at him, and I felt a flush creeping up my neck.
    “Owen Harper,” he winked one of his green eyes at me. “It’s always tough to be new. Pretty soon you’ll blend right in.”
    “Yeah, right,” I mumbled.
    “Just remember to look down your nose at everyone at all times, and you’ll fit in perfectly.” He grinned, and a smile sprang to my lips in response.
    “I’m Rain Ramey.” Finally, I remembered my name, but he was already closing his locker.
    “Nice meeting you, Rain Ramey.” Another flash of that perfect smile, and he turned to move down the hall. I stared into my locker, wondering if now would be a good time to just crawl inside. After all, it couldn’t be too bad to live in a locker if I could see a glimpse of Owen Harper from time to time.
    “There you are!” I recognized the strident shriek immediately and jerked back out of the locker to look down the hall. The blonde, now garbed in her school gym uniform, was marching purposefully toward me.
    “Oh no,” I whispered to my History book.
    “You’ll never believe what this trashy scholarship girl did to me in the cafeteria!”
    My heart sank. The blonde wasn’t coming toward me -- she was heading right for Owen. “Oh, no,” I groaned again.
    “Carsyn! Why are you in your gym clothes?”
    “Oh my God, what are you doing here?” The blonde -- apparently, her name was Carsyn -- was giving me the same look I once saw my mother give a beetle that found its way into our kitchen from the garden.
    “This is my locker,” I answered.
    “You two know each other?” Owen, poor guy, smiled at both of us.
    Carsyn was annoyed by his cluelessness, or so her dramatic eye-roll suggested. “This is the girl I was telling you about. Look at my shoes,” and she shoved them into his face. They were in her left hand; her feet were now clad in silver sandals.
    “You know, Carsyn, I heard Kate Moore say she thought they were last season. Maybe Rain here did you a favor,” Owen suggested.
    “Last season? Hardly. She probably doesn’t even know what that means. Wait a minute -- Rain? Is that your name?”
    “Sure, she’s Rain Ramey,” Owen spoke up when I only stared at Carsyn. “And I think you look great in your gym clothes.” He moved closer to her, and I felt my stomach flip over. Together, they made a gorgeously blonde, perfect pair.
    Of course they were together. I should have known it the moment I saw Owen. Who else would date Barbie but Ken?
    “Come on,” he had an arm around her shoulders now. “I’ll walk you to your car so you can put those shoes in the trunk. See ya, Rain Ramey.”
    “Bye,” I muttered as they drifted down the hall together.

 



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Lies, Murder and Mistaken Identity in Justice

 Take a look inside Jade Varden's Justice, a book about lies, mistaken identity and murder...

 


The red BMW was waiting for me as if it had always been mine. I tried, again, to call Aaron and my parents on their cell phones, but when no one answered I threw the car into gear and left the von Shelton estate.

I saw the car parked in front of the blue house almost as soon as I turned onto Sutton Street. By the time I crookedly parked the BMW behind it and stumbled out, the tears were pouring freely down my face. I stood at the front door sobbing and fumbling with my keys for nearly five minutes before I managed to get the door open, and by that time I couldn’t find the breath to call out.

It wasn’t necessary. “Rain!” I heard the startled whisper as I stood near the door catching my breath. The sound of my own name brought a fresh rush of tears to my eyes.

“Aunt Ronnie.” She had me swept into her embrace a moment later, and I laid my head against her shoulder. I didn’t realize how badly I needed a hug until I felt her familiar arms around me.

“Oh, Rain,” she squeezed  me, and for several minutes we stood there and cried together. Finally she pulled away, wiping tears off her cheeks. “Honey, what are you doing here?”

“Looking for you. And Aaron. And my…and…everybody.”

“Rain,” her brown eyes, so much like my mother’s, were filled with pain as she reached out to brush a stray curl behind my ear. “You can’t be here.”

“But you haven’t been answering my calls! I had to come here.”

“Oh, Rain,” she turned away, bowing her head to hide behind a black curtain of hair. “I can’t take your calls. I can’t talk to you, and neither can Aaron. Not right now.”

“What? But Aunt Ronnie-”

“It’s not me, Rain, it’s the lawyer.” She held up her hands defensively.

“Rain? Rain!”

My breath caught in my throat, and for a moment I couldn’t catch it to speak. “Aaron!”

He appeared at the top of the stairs. Aunt Ronnie stepped before me, blocking my view of him just as he came into sight. “No. Aaron, back upstairs. Do you want to make things worse than they already are? Rain, you’ve got to go.” She put her hands on my shoulders and bodily turned me toward the door. “Aaron, upstairs!”

I’d heard her use that firm tone only once before, when I was six. I’d found the birth control pills in her purse and thought they were candy. Aaron was no longer rushing down the stairs, and I had no choice but to let her physically push me out the front door.

“Aunt Ronnie,”  I turned and seized her hand, my eyes boring into hers. “Just tell me why they did it. Just tell me they aren’t terrible people.” I didn’t even know how important it was to me until that moment, that horrible moment when I saw my entire childhood being pulled away from me on the front porch of that blue house on Sutton Street. If the parents who raised me were capable of committing such a terrible crime…then what did that make me? The desperation in my eyes made Ronnie look away; I saw her swallow several times before any words came out of her throat.

“I can only tell you to ask Violet von Shelton. She knows the answers to your questions. I can’t talk to you. I’m so sorry, Rain.” The door closed to punctuate her statement, and I was left standing alone on what used to be my own front porch. I slipped my key ring out of my purse, the one with my house keys and the keys to my Corvair, and placed it on the welcome mat.

There was nothing left to do but climb into the BMW and go back to the von Shelton mansion. It was the only thing like a home I had left…and apparently, it was the place with all the answers.

 


Justice is available at Amazon, Smashwords and everywhere books are sold!

Sweet Justice

"This certainly turned out to be a great read."


"There are still a lot of lies to uncover...I am excited to find out more."

Justice (Deck of Lies #1) has been reviewed at Random Things in Action. Visit the blog to read the entire review, and then go get your copy of the book!

Justice, by Moonlight

"Varden sure does know how to tell a story and keep you intrigued."


"If you like a book that will surprise you and keep you in suspense, pick up Justice by Jade Varden."

Moonlight Reader has reviewed Justice (Deck of Lies, #1). Read the full review to see the final rating!

Alert! You Need Justice

"If you enjoy a mystery and contemporary young adult this book’s for you."


"It’s different and refreshing from a lot of the YA that’s out there."

Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) has been reviewed at Good Book Alert. Read the whole thing to find out why the book got 5 stars!

Unravel the Deck of Lies FREE

Visit one of my favorite blogs, Reading...Dreaming, and find out how to get Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) free. The sooner you start exploring the lies, the sooner you'll discover all the dirty little secrets. 



A Tornado of Lies

"As she learns more and more about her past, everything she knows changes forever. Can she come out of the tornado unscathed?"


The Bibliophilic Book Blog has reviewed Justice (Deck of Lies, #1). Read the review to find out why so many details are left unwritten!

Jade's Thoughts on Justice

"A few flawed characters, a dash (or more) of romance, some (or many) secrets, a bunch of character growth, and a few surprises spell out a pretty good recipe."



"Through circumstances she couldn't control, she was taken from the world she was already comfortable in and shoved into a cold, superficial one."

Read the latest review of Justice at Reading is My Treasure, and go to the end to find an interview with me where I talk about writing the Deck of Lies series!

Real Justice

"The characters were so rich and real, I felt like I was watching a movie."


"It was so well written, the plot lines flow beautifully and the characters are so real."

Find out why the reviewer at Eastern Sunset Reads loved Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) when you visit the blog!

Going Around with Justice

"Within a few chapters, I found myself hooked and couldn't put it down."


Find out what Roundtable Reviews had to say about Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) before you buy your copy of the book!