I leaned back in my chair as someone knocked on the office door and shouted for them to come inside. I waited for whoever it was to come in and blew out a big breath. I couldn’t wait for this weekend, we were all taking it off and were going to spend time together as a family.
After all of the stress over the last week, we deserved it. I refused to take on any more jobs, wanting to spend some much needed time with Kay and Eli. I’d even debated on taking them on a vacation but I didn’t know whether it would be too soon.
I had a feeling who would be coming through the door because Kay and Corey had taken Eli to preschool and then they were off to visit Miss Maggie so I knew they wouldn’t be back until later. Kitty and Luke were finishing off a last minute job and Evan never knocked, he just walked in with his arms wide so it couldn’t be them.
“Hey,” Charlie said as he opened up the door and shut it behind him.
“Hey.” I nodded.
I watched as he sat down in the chair opposite me, running his hands down his face. He looked stressed and I wasn’t surprised with the amount of work load he had since bringing down Serena.
She’d been asking to see me but there was no way that I would. Although, I had been tempted when she said she’d sign the divorce papers but she’d caused enough suffering to the one person I cared about the most in the world. Not to mention, all of those girls that had been found in that building.
A total of twenty-seven girls had been found locked up, dehydrated and beaten. I couldn’t stomach looking at the pictures so I could see why Charlie looked so worn out.
I still hadn’t talked to Kay about everything. Something that I needed to do, and soon.
“Have you spoke to Ma?” Charlie asked.
“About?” I’d spoken to her about a lot of things these last few days so he needed to be more specific.
“Ava,” he huffed.
“What about her?”
“She wants to take her in.”
My eyes widened. She hadn’t spoke to me about this, but even if she had, I wouldn’t have said it was a bad idea because Ava needed someone like Ma. “Yeah? So?”
“Why would she want to do that? I mean, haven’t we all been through enough? Why does she want to bring something else into our lives, on top of all of that we’ve already been through?”
Leaning forward in my seat, I rested my arms on the desk, trying to keep my cool. I couldn’t believe I was hearing this come out of his mouth.
“Really, Charlie?” I raised my brows. “If Ma hadn’t taken Emmy in, you’d have never met her.”
“That’s-”
I held my hand up, cutting him off. This wasn’t the time to get into everything with Emmy.
“Ava needs to be somewhere safe, she needs to be with someone who understands her. She’s seventeen Charlie, it’s not like she’s a kid and will be our new sister, she just needs guidance.”
I shook my head, utterly disgusted with him. How could he sit and watch a girl like her, who had been through so much already, go into the system when she had someone offering her sanctuary?
From what Kay had told me, she’d been through so much already and deserved so much better than the shitty hand she’d been dealt already. She’d get lost in the system and he knew that. At least with Ma, she’d be able to try and get back to who she was before she was sold to Serena. Maybe she could even go to college. Get her life back on track.
“I know but I don’t want Ma to get hurt.”
“How would she get hurt? She’s a grown ass woman. You have zero say anyway, Charlie.” I chuckled. “You know Ma don’t listen to anyone.”
“Yeah,” he huffed. “I suppose she would be better with ma. I still need her statement though.”
“Well then, you need to talk to Ma about that then.” I said with a smirk.
He blew out a big breath, yeah, we both knew how that would go. Trying to tell Ma what needed to happen was like talking to a brick wall. If she didn’t want to do something, you could bet your bottom dollar that she wouldn’t. At least, not until she was good and ready.
“How’s the case going?”
“Busy,” he said, pushing up out of the chair and pulling his cell out of his pocket. “I better go and pay Ma a visit.”
“She’s at the house with Ava,” I called to his back. He waved in acknowledgment and I waited for the warehouse door to shut behind him before leaning back in my seat.
I almost wished I didn’t have to finish this paperwork so I could go and see him get told off like a three-year-old boy. Looking down at all the paperwork I still had to do, I blew out a deep breath and pushed up out of my chair.
It would still be there when I came back, seeing Charlie get his ass handed to him was a far better way to spend my morning.
No matter how old you got, your ma could always put you in your place.
At least, ours could.
The last time I had been up here, I’d swore that Kay would be with me. I’d stuck to that, not even being able to look out at the woods. It was crazy how much these last six months had changed. I’d known from the moment she walked into the office that she was mine, but I’d never knew how much I would fall for her.
How much my life would revolve around her, and a certain four-year-old boy, and how much I loved living my life that way.
Just looking at her now, laying down in the grass and looking up at the sky; I couldn’t believe how much I truly loved her. I had a feeling she felt the same, but telling her while I still had secrets wasn’t what I wanted to do.
We’d had the perfect afternoon, coming up here and having a picnic, just the two of us and not needing to worry about anything and just spending quality time together.
I could go back and forth in my head all day. It was the perfect time to tell her, we were on our own and I could explain it all to her, but at the same time, we were on our own and having such a nice day. I didn’t want to ruin it.
“Just spit it out,” she said, opening her eye a crack and looking up at me.
Lifting up, I sat down and bent my knee, resting my arm on it. Plucking a few blades of grass out of the ground, I fiddled about with them, keeping my hands occupied.
“I know Serena must have said something to you.” My breath came out raggedly and I closed my eyes briefly at the anger that coursed through me at the mention of her name.
She lifted up from her position, sat up crossed legged, and pulled her long skirt over her legs.
“She said something, but I didn’t want to say anything to you about it.” Bringing her eyes to mine, the sadness that she felt, shined through. “I wanted to wait until you were ready to tell me.”
Nodding my head, I took a deep breath, deciding to start from the beginning. The prospect of revealing everything to her, filled me with dread. Would she look at me differently?
“I’ve told you that we were married and that I split with her because she did something unforgivable.”
“Yeah,” I looked away, not able to look at her when I told her. I couldn’t bare for her to see the pain in my eyes, to see how much it broke me to even think about it let alone talk about it.
“She came home one day, the same as she did every other day of the week. Bags of shopping hanging from her newly manicured finger nails.” I felt Kay shuffle forward, her hand slipping into mine. I gripped it, needing something to hold onto, to ground me.
“She thought I didn’t know, she thought she’d be able to get away with it.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “She’d done it without a care in the world, not one drop of emotion.”
“It’s okay, Ty,” she said softly, her hand coming up to cup my face. “Look at me.”
Turning my head slowly, I looked into her beautiful, kind eyes. Eyes that called to me in a way that nothing had ever called to me before.
“She didn’t even say sorry. She took the choice away from me.” I took a deep breath, trying to get my emotions under control. “I should have had a say. It wasn’t just hers.”
“What did she do, Ty?”
Closing my eyes, I swallowed, the lump in my throat getting bigger. “She was pregnant.” Squeezing my eyes closed harder, I managed to get out, “she aborted my baby and didn’t even tell me.”
“Oh, Ty, I’m so sorry.” Her soft voice was closer now. I felt her move and sit between my legs, the warmth of her body against mine comforting me.
Opening my eyes, I looked down at her as she gripped my face in her hands. “She shouldn’t have done that to you Ty, it wasn’t her place to do that without your consent. I’m so sorry,” she said with venom in her voice.
Nodding my head, I agreed with her. I should have had just as much of a say as she did. Yeah it was her body but that was my baby, too.
I’m not opposed to abortions, far from it. If a woman has been forced upon, or there’s a medical reason, then yeah, so be it.
But Serena? She did it because she didn’t want to ruin her figure. She thought that I’d understand that. I didn’t know what world she was living in, where she could possibly think that I’d have been fine with her aborting our baby because of her precious figure.
“It hurts,” I grunted. “It still hurts after all these years.”
“It will,” Kay whispered, her arms wrapping around my shoulders. I nuzzled into her neck and for the first time ever, I let it all out.
I cried.
That’s something that I’d never done. I’d never let myself grieve, sure it was only the size of a peanut, but that peanut was half of me and would have grown into a beautiful baby.
“I got you,” Kay whispered in my ear.
For the first time, I truly believed she had got me. That I had someone who I could lean on, that wouldn’t judge me or take advantage of me.
It was so hard to watch Ty break down like that. To see him completely come apart because of something Serena had done, for her own selfish reasons.
If she wasn’t already locked up I would have gone and given her a piece of my mind. She’d been asking to see Ty and I told him that if he wanted to visit her then I was fine with that.
He’d point blank refused and said, “I never want to see her face again.”
After that, I didn’t bring it up again. I wasn’t going to press the issue, not when I didn’t want him to go and see her in the first place.
We’d all had more time on our hands now that the case was over, which meant we got to take on fun cases. At least, they did. Me and Ty had taken a little time off and we spent most days up the clearing, just spending time together.
I was still healing and spending a lot of time with Corey and Ava. She was a little better now and was moving in with Elena and Trevor tomorrow. Which would mean that the house would have one less person in it. I didn’t know how I felt about that.
It sounded strange but I liked having a house full of people. It meant that there was always someone to talk to or to bake with. I hated being on my own, I hated the silence that it brought. It was another thing to add to the list of things that Max had caused. But I was determined to get over it, even if it meant sitting in a room by myself all day.
It had been great seeing Eli get to know his Uncle, they’d become inseparable, but luckily, Luke was a part of that too. He and Corey had become fast friends, mostly thanks to Eli.
Rolling over, I watched Ty as he slept. He looked so peaceful and I didn’t want to disturb him so I rolled out of bed, tip-toed across the floor and closed the door behind me with a soft click.
I went down the stairs quietly, not wanting to wake anybody else up. Even though I’d been sleeping better than I had before, I still couldn’t sleep for the whole night. Like clockwork, I’d wake up just before the sun rose.
I gasped as I walked into the kitchen, the floor so cold on my bare feet. Heading straight for the coffee pot, I switched it on and waited for it to finish brewing, getting lost in the view out of the window.
It was so beautiful to watch the sun rise, the way it climbed over the trees and made the dew on the branches sparkle, was amazing.
“Morning,” a soft voice whispered from the doorway.
Turning to face Ava, I smiled. “Morning, you want some coffee?”
This had become our morning routine, we’d started to meet down here around this time and at some stage, Corey would always join us. He was so used to sleeping in short bursts that he never slept all night.
“Please,” she said, walking over to the table and sitting down.
I poured us both a cup and sat down next to her. We never talked much but she was slowly opening up to me. Each day, she would tell me something else, no matter how small it was, it was still a step in the right direction.
“How you feeling today?” I asked, cringing as soon as I said it. I hated when anyone asked me that.
“Good.” She smiled, her eyes lighting up. “Corey’s helping me move to Elena’s today.”
“Yeah?” I grinned, picking up my coffee and taking a sip. “You excited?”
“Elena was talking about college.” She shrugged, her face unsure.
“You could totally do it.” I reached over and clasped her hand. “You really could. We’ll help in any way that we can. Get out of here. Make a life for yourself.”
She looked over my head at whoever had come through the door and nodded. “I think I might. It’ll be good for me, right?”
“What will?” Corey’s gruff voice asked
“Erm…going to college,” she mumbled into her coffee cup.
“Ahh.” He turned, leaning against the counter. “Yeah, it’ll do you good to get away from this place.”
I looked to Corey, noticing how guarded he was being. I frowned, trying to read him and figure out why he looked so angry.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I stood up.
He huffed, looking away from me and out into the woods. For several seconds, I stood there and waited for it. I knew it was coming sooner or later but I thought I would’ve had more time with him.
“I’ve been called back. I leave in two days.”
My stomach bottomed out, my feet moved toward him and I went straight into his arms. I didn’t know when I would see him again, that was the worst, not knowing when I would talk to him. Not knowing if he was okay.
I was just getting used to him being back and now he was being taken away from me again.
“It’ll be fine, sis,” he said, planting a kiss on the top of my head.
“I know,” I whispered, looking up into his eyes.
“We’ll spend the whole day together tomorrow; you, me and Eli,” he said.
“Okay,” I sniffled onto his shoulder. I loved having my brother here but I knew that he had a job that he needed to do. I backed away and walked out of the kitchen, not being able to face him. I knew I would break down if I saw his face again.
I needed some time to process so I climbed up the stairs and back into bed with Ty, snuggling up to him and closing my eyes.