Chapter Seven
AJ
I’m beginning to wonder if I should engage an attorney of my own. The way this Sawyer guy is defending Chad makes me think I’m on my own here. Although, I can definitely understand the attraction. Chad Ludwig is very attractive. The kind of guy that makes men and women drool at the sight of his wide chest and thick muscles. But these are my sister’s kids, and I’m not about to walk away from them without a fight.
I’ll never forgive myself for not doing more to help Britney. She probably never even knew that she had a trust fund coming. It could’ve changed everything for her and Harper. I know it did for me. I went from a starving student living in a piece of shit apartment to a business owner.
If only she would’ve reached out to me, I could’ve helped her.
I could’ve helped all of them.
She was just so damn stubborn. No matter what we did to try to change her mind about that asshat she was so in love with, she just wouldn’t leave him. Her mind wouldn’t be swayed, and now she’s gone forever, orphaning these two beautiful babies. I still can’t believe she’d want them to be raised by a stranger. But maybe she truly believed she didn’t have any other options.
Ludwig and the attorney walk back into the room and stand awkwardly in the corner. Chad and I stare each other down for a few seconds before I finally ask the question that’s been bothering me since I first found out about him. “So, you were Britney’s new boyfriend?”
“No.” He shakes his head and glances at Sawyer. “Not at all. I met her through a friend who owns a bookstore. She and Harper used to hang out there and read books all day. My friend’s mom kind of adopted them.” He takes a deep breath and his eyes fill with sadness again. “Britney wouldn’t accept much help from any of us, but she did let me get her a cell phone and buy a few things for her and Harper. It wasn’t much but I couldn’t just ignore them.”
I narrow my eyes, not sure if I should believe the purity of his intentions. “So, nothing ever happened between you two? You just took pity on this poor girl and her kids and then started buying them things?”
“Yeah, I did.” Chad’s getting defensive, and his arms cross over his chest, accentuating the massive biceps squeezing out of his T-shirt. “Is that so hard to believe? That a person could want to help a young homeless woman and her kid? I just wish I was able to do more for her.” His shoulders relax, and he looks down at the floor with regret clearly written across his face. “We all tried to help her. Getting rid of her boyfriend was the easy part.”
The attorney standing next to Chad clears his throat and places a hand on Chad’s shoulder. Chad turns to him and nods once, obviously understanding the gesture.
“Anyway, we offered to get her a place to stay. I even offered out the guest room here, but she refused. She said she was afraid to get too comfortable anywhere because she didn’t want her parents to find her.”
“Goddammit!” My fists clench as I turn away from the group and pace across the room. “I knew she was scared of them, but I had no idea it was that bad.”
Sawyer speaks up quietly, taking a step closer to me. “Why was she afraid of them? What happened? Your mother said she almost killed the housekeeper, but I didn’t get the full story.”
“What?” Chad shakes his head violently. “There’s no way. She wasn’t like that. She wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
I shake my head. “She didn’t. My parents are pathological liars. You can’t believe anything they say. The only thing they care about is impressing the neighbors and making sure they never look bad in front of anyone. I guess Britney and that asshole…”
Glancing down at Harper, I’m grateful she doesn’t seem to be paying attention to us. “Um, that jerk stole some silver and a few pieces of jewelry from my parents when they finally took off. The boyfriend locked Rosa in a storage closet while they were making their escape. She would’ve been fine, but my parents were out of town for the weekend, and Britney didn’t know they wouldn’t be home for a few days. Rosa’s daughter had the police come check on her a day and a half later. By then, she was severely dehydrated and her blood sugar levels were dangerously low. A few more hours and she would’ve been a diabetic coma.”
“Fuck!” Chad says quietly, and this time when I meet his gaze, most of the hostility I’ve seen there so far is gone. Only compassion and concern are reflected back at me. “I don’t think she had any idea that happened.”
“No, I’m sure she didn’t. No one had any contact with her after that. But she was smart to stay hidden from my parents. They really—” I’m facing the mantle, and my eyes lock on a photo with Chad at a pool party. He’s with a bunch of friends, but he’s easy to spot. All the men pictured are attractive, but with his sculpted muscles and a huge grin on his face, he definitely stands out in the crowd.
A throat clears behind me, and I realize I’ve stopped talking in mid-sentence. “Anyway, they intended to press charges, and Harper would’ve probably ended up in foster care at that point. I just wish Britney would’ve reached out to me. I would have gladly given her all the money I got just to make sure she was safe and taken care of.”
Chad sighs deeply, so I turn and wait to see what he has to say. “You keep talking about getting money. What do you mean?”
Right, they don’t know about that. “A few months after Britney left, I turned twenty-one and found out my grandfather left me a pretty sizable trust fund. Britney has one too. She just didn’t know about it. That’s why I was trying to find her. I wanted to help her and let her know that she would be getting money as soon as she turned twenty-one as well.”
Chad’s face morphs into one of sadness. “She had no idea. She was living on the streets and practically starving. She could only change Harper’s diaper twice a day because the shelter gave her two diapers every morning. That baby needed a new tube of rash cream every other week, and Britney had a fucking trust fund coming?”
When he paints the picture of how my sweet baby sister had been living for the past year, my heart breaks all over again. I drop onto the sofa and bury my face in my hands, weeping over the pain she suffered for no good reason.
She was hungry while I was building a sandwich business in the middle of a fucking mall.
She was trying to take care of Harper by herself while I was picking up random guys at clubs and living the high life in my brand-new loft.
She was freezing on the streets while I was snowboarding down powdered slopes and buying thousand dollar rounds of drinks in the lodge.
What the fuck kind of big brother was I not to try harder to find her? How could I have ignored her after a few reports from the detective claimed she couldn’t be found.
I could have found her.
I could have helped her.
I could have saved her.
But I didn’t. I pretended she was fine and left her to her own devices. And look how that ended up for her. All because I didn’t try hard enough.
A gentle touch to my shoulder reminds me I’m not alone. Holding my breath to try to stop the sobbing, I attempt to get a grip on my emotions until I am alone. After wiping my hands across my thighs, I pull my shirt up and soak up my tears as best I can.
It takes another awkward minute before I clear my throat and look up at the man standing beside me. Sawyer looks devastated as he gently pats my back. “It’s not your fault. There was nothing you could do to help her if she didn’t want to be helped.”
To my surprise, Chad takes the few steps forward that have been separating us and drops down onto the coffee table in front of me. With his large body, there isn’t much space between us, but I actually appreciate the show of support from these strangers. Even though we just met, I can already feel a sense of ease wash over me at their proximity.
“He’s right, AJ. Britney didn’t want help. We tried, god knows we tried, but she probably would have run again if a detective showed up, whether he was promising her money or not. She was scared and not always thinking straight. You can’t blame yourself for what happened.”
I nod my head without saying any words. In my mind, I know what they’re saying is true. But in my heart, I’ll never forgive myself for letting her down. And it just strengthens my resolve to keep my niece and nephew safe. As long as I’m alive and kicking, they’ll never have to be afraid of anything.