Peg suggested she not go to the prison, but her arguments fell on deaf ears. Nem wanted to look in Alan’s eyes and tell him how much she hated him and wished him dead.

She also wanted to try the luck word thing.

She’d been playing with the strange power, ability, spooky thing—well, she didn’t really know what to call it. All she knew was it worked like a weird charm. Her mom always told her there was magic in words, but she had no idea how true this was until she found the diary.

Since discovering the book, she often wondered if her mom knew about the power. She’d found the treasure in the box of her mom’s possessions a year after she’d gone to live with Peg and her husband Ray. The carton, delivered a month later, sat on a shelf inside the built-in wardrobe in her room for weeks before she had the courage to look inside. She knew inside would be her mom’s things, which would make her cry.

Her world still trembled with uncertainty. Peg and the social services woman, who visited every few months, hinted she may not be able to stay with them forever. They were foster parents and not relatives.

In fact, they couldn’t locate any relatives. Nem never gave much thought to the absence in her life of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. All she’d been told was her father died when she was a baby. And that was that.

She eventually forgot about the carton until one rainy day when she hunted for puzzles she’d seen stored in her closet. The box seemed to call to her, even though she tried her hardest to avoid looking at that shelf.

Open me Nem. You’ll be okay.

Since today was a good, happy day, on impulse, she pulled the carton down to finally face the memories connected to whatever lay within.

Dislodging it from the shelf, she placed it on the bedroom floor and folded back the cardboard flaps. Her fear stifled the breath in her chest until she peered inside and squealed. Nestled among scarves, clothes items, books and a jewelry box lay the book she’d been desperate to read. Her mom had always promised this was hers to read if she did well in her English lessons. She thought she’d never see it again.

Nem gently lifted the gorgeous, rich-green, leather-bound book and walked across the room to her desk. Finally, it belonged to her. Her mom surely would agree this was the right time now. She was older and her reading had improved so that she understood most books given her.

As she ran her fingers across the embossed ornate, gold engravings on the cover, she felt her mother near. Memories of her looking through the book some nights but closing it as soon as Nem drew near, flitted through her mind. She’d always wondered about the mystery contained within. Like any secret, she’d been desperate to know, but despite her pleading, her mom never gave in. Nem never imagined she’d see the book again.