Love Is More Than Skin Deep (A Hidden Hearts Novel Book 4) by Mary Crawford

kill her eventually, so for the first eight and a half years of her life, she knew that she was going to die and they were planning for her funeral the whole time she was alive. So, when they heard the story about my brother, they figured that they needed to try to adopt me.”
    “That was nice of them,” I comment.
    “One would think so, but it didn’t turn out to be so great. Instead of allowing me to be myself, they tried to turn me into the person that their daughter used to be. It was a huge humongous mess, I really didn’t have any idea about who I wanted to be, and I was trying to pretend to be somebody else. I was in a household where nobody wanted me to be who I really was. It was a recipe for disaster. I became this fake teenager, trying to be older than I really was. So, I started doing all of this weird stuff to my hair and going to tanning booths with the older girls.”
    “How old were you again?” I ask, trying to do the mental math in my head.
    “I did about a year in temporary foster homes before I was placed with Neil and Vicki Wilcox, so I guess I was still thirteen, may be a few months shy of fourteen,” I deduce.
    “That’s absolutely crazy. They shouldn’t have allowed you to tan that young. Was Mrs. Wilcox taking you to those appointments?” I can’t help it as the natural attorney-voice in me pops out.
    “No, of course she wasn’t. The older girls always had convenient excuses why we had to go to the mall and no one ever questioned it, because teenage girls always hang out at the mall.”
    “Shelby, didn’t the mom-lady notice that you were changing color?” Ketki asks with open curiosity.
    Shelby looks troubled for a moment before she answers, “You know, she probably should have, but I don’t think she did. I think she was too busy with her social engagements to look that closely at me. Don’t get me wrong, the Wilcox family was really nice to me. They gave me everything that I needed and could ever want. I thought I had everything that I wanted while I was hanging out in the middle of the wilderness with my parents, but even after I had all that new stuff, I still felt empty and lonely. What I learned from the whole experience is that it’s not really about stuff — either no stuff, or too much stuff. You just need to find someone and a few things to make you feel cherished and comfortable. The rest of it doesn’t really matter.”
    Ketki looks baffled for a moment before she asks, “Why aren’t they here with you? My Dad is the busiest person I’ve ever seen and whenever I have to go to the doctor or the hospital, he’s always there.”
    A spark of pain crosses Shelby’s face. I can tell that this question is not an easy one for her to answer, yet she puts on a brave face and forges ahead, “Ketki, I don’t know that I’ll ever know the whole reason, but I think it’s because they never got over the loss of their daughter and I couldn’t compete with that. Sadly, I left on angry terms and we don’t really communicate anymore. I don’t know that they would even care what I’m going through. I turned out to be simply an inconvenient blip on their radar. It’s weird, I’ve got two sets of parents who didn’t really want me”
    “Wow, you didn’t tell me that you have a mom that didn’t want you too.” Ketki breathes almost silently.
    Shelby and I immediately start to protest, “Ketki, That’s not exactly true — there was other stuff going on.”
    “Dad, if that’s true for me, who’s to say it’s not true for Shelby too?” Ketki challenges.
    Shelby swallows hard before she replies, “You’re right Ketki, I guess I don’t really know all the answers. I can only make guesses and they might be wrong. I’ve had the same cell phone number since I was twelve and no one has ever called me. I can only assume that no one wants to speak to me.”
    “I like you and it’s not just because you play video games with me. I like talking to you and I don’t