Chapter Seventeen

Tyson

“Well, is she getting in his car or not?!” Mum yelled at Eve who was doing a terrible job as lookout. We had all immediately relocated to the front lounge room as soon as Hannah stepped outside.

“Just let me look,” I snapped at them and Mum blocked my path to the window which Eve was failing at looking out of.

“If she sees you then she might get into that car.” Mum was really pissed off—nah, not just pissed off, she was full-on upset. I had no idea how any of us were going to be able to calm her down. “Go stand back where you were.”

I rolled my eyes but went back to standing next to Dad who hadn’t stopped looking at the front door. His eyes were literally glued to it. I think he was waiting on whether he would see Hannah again or not.

Well, he didn’t fucking deserve to see her again.

I caught glance of Brad’s expression. He was glaring at Dad. I looked back at Dad; his eyes were still glued on the door. I thought Mum was having a meltdown. But I think Dad was on equal paths with Mum. So I looked back at Brad. Why did it look like he was also having a meltdown?

He wasn’t about to lose a daughter or a sister. But the way he was looking at Dad, it was like he had lost something and it was completely Dad’s fault.

I guess Brad and Hannah had always been close. Maybe he was glaring at Dad so hard because he was itching to be on his feet and start a fight because Hannah was someone he looked at as being under his protection.

Yeah, Brad was always protective of Hannah. So I knew what was coming as he threw back the rest of his beer and headed toward Dad.

“Come on, Brad, not now.” I stepped in between them. I don’t think Dad had even realized Brad was approaching him. Brad was looking at going for the kill and Dad was too busy staring blankly at the front door.

We all knew Dad and Hannah had some unspoken rule about him hitting her. Hannah was always the first one to get upset as soon as an argument broke out. She was always the one that couldn’t stand any of us fighting. And she was really afraid of violence. She hated watching it on TV. She would basically run behind Dad or me if a fight broke out in the club.

Actually, come to think about it, there was someone else she would hide behind if there was a fight in the club.

And I was looking at him.

Brad.

“Where do you want it?” Brad threw the beer bottle at Dad, causing Dad to break his eyes off the door. “Come on, fucking man up, Reaper, where do you want it?” Brad’s voice went up in pure rage.

Again it had me thinking he was acting like he’d lost something. Not someone. Hannah. How had he lost Hannah? I was sure she was still going to be a friend to him. Us, however, she was going to cut off.

Then again, I guess if we were out of her life then that meant the club was and I guess that also meant Brad was.

Brad was losing Hannah like all of us.

I watched him reach in between his vest and shirt, gripping his gun, pulling it from his holster.

“Come on, Brad, calm down.” I put my hand up. Suddenly it seemed like I was the only one in the room still using their brain.

“You know, I shouldn’t even be fucking asking. We both know you deserve this in the head.” Brad’s voice was sinister. I had never heard him disrespect Dad. In fact, Brad was always carefree; he didn’t have a worry in the world and if he did have a worry, he would shrug it off. Nothing was a big deal to him.

But right now, as he lifted his gun at Dad, he was acting on emotions and impulse. We were all angry with Dad for hitting Hannah. I glanced at Mum who was glaring at Dad. I think if Hannah left and ended her relationship with us, well, I think Mum and Dad’s marriage would also come to an end.

“I think in the head, too,” Mum snapped at Dad, and then picked up the cigarettes from the table. “I still can’t believe you did it, Reaper.” Mum was shaking with rage. Instead of lighting a cigarette, she threw the packet at him with the lighter. “How the hell could you hit our daughter?!”

Dad wasn’t fighting back. Or defending what he did. Not that he could defend his actions. Still. He was just letting everyone hate on him. As pissed off as I was with Dad, I knew if I was in that situation and my daughter had just told me she was going to an early grave and there was nothing I could do to stop it, I might just have reacted like Dad did.

So I saw his point of view. But still, he fucking knew! He knew! Never ever touch Hannah! We all knew it. Fuck, I could play fight with Eve, but when it came to Hannah, the rule was the same. You don’t hurt her. Period.

“If we lose her, Reaper, you lose me as well.” Mum shook her head and wasn’t giving empty threats. She was firing them at him with intention to follow through. Their marriage could face anything, but Mum losing one of her daughters because of Dad…yeah, that their marriage couldn’t take.

Dad didn’t even give a response back. He didn’t fight Mum on it. His eyes were back on the door. Arms crossed with no emotion on his face. If Hannah didn’t walk through that door again, he wouldn’t just lose Hannah, he would lose Mum and he would lose Eve, because Eve would follow her twin. And he would lose all my respect, and by the look on Brad’s face, I think Dad wouldn’t just lose his best friend but also his vice president.

Eve’s eyes were still on the driveway and we were all waiting on her to tell us if Hannah was coming back to the house or getting in the car.

“You know, Reaper, you didn’t just hit Hannah, you also sent her into a man’s arms who is only going to use her and spit her out. And thanks to you, right now he is the person she’s thinking of running away with!” Brad screwed the silencer onto the end of the gun. He wasn’t serious about shooting Dad, was he?

He pointed the gun back at Dad. And this time Dad was actually looking at him. He uncrossed his arms.

“Right arm. Right under the elbow. So it hurts when I write.” Dad was giving Brad directions. Dad had actually given some thought into where Brad was going to shoot him!

I looked between them. They couldn’t be serious?

Brad went to aim.

“Okay, fucking stop it! No one is shooting anyone!” I stepped in between Brad’s gun and Dad. “Put the gun down.”

“Fucking move, Tyson.” Brad wasn’t even listening to me.

I looked at Mum. “Come on, Mum, you aren’t seriously going to let Brad shoot Dad?” I looked at her, hoping the mother I knew who was extremely smart and thought before she acted was listening. She would put her life in front of Dad’s. Everyone knew that. So I was finding it really hard to believe she was going to let someone—not just anyone, but Brad—shoot Dad.

Dad was standing there, ready to take it and I watched Mum’s eyes go from the gun to Dad.

“Come on, Mum? You can’t seriously let Brad shoot him!” I couldn’t believe she wasn’t already barking for Brad to back down.

She slowly nodded her head and walked away from the couch and to Brad. “Tyson is right.” Mum’s hand went around the gun, taking it from Brad. “You can’t shoot him, Brad.”

I exhaled slowly. Finally someone was seeing sense. But then it happened so bloody quickly I wasn’t sure I had seen it right. Mum lifted that gun and fired.

“But I can.” Mum handed the gun back to Brad. Not looking one bit sorry for what she’d just done.

This was a side of Mum I hadn’t seen. I looked at her in disbelief. Cold was not a word I would use to describe Mum, but right now that was the only word to sum up her expression and what she’d just done.

“Fuck, Mum!” I couldn’t believe she had just done it. I didn’t know which was worse; that Mum shot Dad or that Dad was just standing there, not even letting the pain capture his face. His eyes had gone off Mum and were back on the door.

He didn’t even give a fuck that blood was running down his arm.

“For fuck’s sake, have you all gone mental?!” I yelled at all of them and went to Dad. God, Mum couldn’t just shoot Dad like that!

Dad fucked up. We all knew that. But I think what everyone else was forgetting was Dad loved Hannah more than all of us put together.

“I think he gets off lightly.” Eve’s attention was back on us, and this time she was showing a side I hadn’t seen. I saw the tears slowly running down her cheeks. “Dad gets a sore arm. I lose a sister. If you ask me, I know which one I would take.” Eve’s words were bitter and her attention went back on the driveway. Then she pushed herself away from the window. “I can’t look any longer. We all know she’s going to get in that car.”

Eve walked to the couch and sat down. Her eyes were on the ground while tears ran slowly down her cheeks.

My stomach dropped hearing Eve say it out loud. Yeah, we did know how this was going to end. Hannah was getting in that car. She was going to leave.

My eyes went to Dad’s bullet wound. That bullet wound was going to be a reminder to him of the day he lost his daughter. And the day I lost my sister.

Then I heard it. I think we all heard it at the same time. The car pulled away. We all listened till it disappeared. My heart was pounding twice as fast as normal, watching, listening for any sign saying Hannah was still here.

I glanced at Dad and his eyes were still on the front door. He was still hoping. More time passed and there was no noise, and that front door he was hoping would open, didn’t.

We weren’t a religious family. But right now, I knew every Wilson in the room was praying that Hannah hadn’t got in that car. I sure as fuck was.

More time passed and I couldn’t put it off any longer. My eyes went to Mum. I didn’t want to see the pain in her eyes. I didn’t know how she was going to react. She had meant it when she said to Dad their marriage was over if Hannah left.

Mum’s eyes were on Dad. Dad’s eyes, however, were stilled glued to the door. He was still hoping Hannah was going to walk through it.

A few more minutes passed and then Dad’s eyes finally left the door and went to Mum. I knew I was about to see my family fall apart and it fucking terrified me. Hannah left. She’d gone. I knew we had zero chance of getting her back.

Dad wouldn’t put his resources into finding her. He’d promised her he would let her leave, and he would let her go.

I had never felt so fucking furious. Well, he might have told her he wasn’t going after her, but I sure as fuck never made that promise.

“I’m going after her.” Brad was the one to speak what I was thinking. My eyes snapped to him. How could he be thinking the same as me? “Tatz is a vice president, and he can’t just take off without giving notice. Which means she will be in town. Which means we can make her change her mind.”

The panic in Brad’s voice was clear. But I didn’t see any flaws in his plan. In fact, I’d be right beside him doing it.

“Count me in,” I started, patting myself down for my bike keys. “You got any idea where he lives?” I knew Layla would. I’d call her. Wasn’t how I was planning on using her number for the first time, but she would tell me, wouldn’t she?

Not if Hannah got to her first.

“Don’t.” Dad spoke for the first time, causing all eyes to go to him. “I promised her if she left she would be left alone. I won’t let you two be the ones to make me break that promise to her.”

Mum scoffed. “Yet you were happy to break it by hitting her?” Mum was only saying what we were all thinking. “How the hell is it fair I lose my daughter because of you?!” Mum’s hand reached into the bookshelf and threw the first thing she could grab at him.

Dad didn’t even dodge it. Though we all knew he could. Mum just so happened to throw a vase at him. The water and the roses went over him and Dad just took it.

“You fucked up, Reaper, and this time you can’t fix it because you went ahead and promised her we would let her go and accept her decision!” Mum threw something else at him. She wasn’t furious—I think Dad would have preferred if she was. Instead, she was upset to the point where there was nothing that could calm her down.

Maybe if Hannah came back.

I was watching my family crack into pieces.

“You know where I stand, Reaper. I’m not giving you fucking notice either. And I’m not listening to you when you say I have to stay away from her.” Brad was basically throwing his vice president patch at Dad. “I’m not letting her waste her life with a man like him!”

Andrea didn’t know what to say. I think she was wishing she never agreed to come to this family tea.

Eve stood up, her eyes going from Mum to Dad. “Well, I don’t want to see either of you. You are blaming him, Mum, but where were you when she stopped eating to begin with? Hell, where were you when Dad was promising her that he would let her go and not chase her down if she did leave?!”

Eve was never emotional. She always had this strong front when it came to her emotions. It was like Hannah showed every emotion and Eve showed zero. Even when Hannah and Eve were little, if you hurt Hannah’s feelings, Eve would be the one punching you for doing it.

It was like Eve was stronger when Hannah was around. And now Eve was looking at a future without Hannah, and that strength she normally had was gone. The emotions were clearly showing on her face. Just like she wasn’t used to showing them, she also wasn’t used to feeling them.

Mum was silent for a minute. I saw the pain that washed across her face. Mum knew she was partly to blame for this.

Then I saw Mum’s eyes go to Dad’s and he was staring right back at her. Like he knew what she was about to say. My stomach twisted tightly. I knew Mum was going to go through with what she’d said; she was leaving Dad. I saw his expression, and he knew it, too.

He knew what she was going to do.

Fuck. This was sick and twisted. This shit didn’t happen to us. We caused others pain. I was about to watch my parents split. I had just lost my sister. My other sister was a second from leaving as well.

Brad, the only other man I looked up to, was basically saying he was throwing in his patch and walking away from a club he had promised to follow for life.

Which would also result in him leaving our lives. Fuck, it wasn’t our lives anymore. It was my life. Dad was never going to come back from losing Mum and his daughters. The club was going to fracture. Mum was never going to forgive Dad for costing her Hannah.

The parents I’d always had would go in different directions. And let’s fucking face it, without each other they weren’t heading in a positive direction.

This wasn’t me being a little boy scared about his parents breaking up. This was me seeing my family split up. But what was worse was watching Mum and Dad split, because they needed each other.

I knew that. The whole fucking world knew that! Dad didn’t function without Mum. Simple. When they did fight, and their fights did get bad, you could watch with your own eyes the man that was meant to be known as fearless and feared by all men stop functioning.

I could only compare this to one other time in my life, but even then their fight wasn’t this bad. But it had resulted in Mum leaving him for a week. I was in my teens and was stubborn. I wouldn’t go with Mum. I stayed with Dad.

And fuck did I see another side to him. A side I don’t think even Mum had seen.

She came back. On her own. Even though Dad had been doing everything possible to reach her, she went off the grid. He couldn’t find her or Hannah or Eve who had both gone with her.

She came back the same day Dad thought she was gone for good.

The girls described Mum to be in the same state as Dad. But she somehow had pulled herself together to come back to him.

I still don’t know what he did to cause her to leave. All I knew was what she said when she came back. She said she hadn’t come back for him. She’d come back for us kids. She also said, which I remembered clearly to this day, that he’d broken her again.

Mum wasn’t the same after that. She would make up any excuse not to be in the same room as Dad and I was only a teenager and I noticed. The girls’ memory isn’t as clear on it now. But I remember that solid year of Mum ignoring Dad.

Dad ended up taking a break from the club to focus on mum. But even then she didn’t want to be near him. I remember her ignoring him when he spoke. I remember her rejecting his calls. And what I remember really clearly was the way she acted like everything was fine when someone was watching and then when she thought they weren’t watching she would turn distant and numb.

Still, even when things got that bad, Mum never left Dad permanently. Whatever he did clearly hurt her but she never said she was walking away from their marriage.

Every time she pushed Dad away he would just go back for more. It didn’t matter how many times she just flat-out ignored him, Mum wouldn’t even put in enough effort to fight with him.

But he just kept going back to her. Waiting and hoping for the day to come when she would let him back in her life. And the day did come. Mum did let him back in her life. And I couldn’t say her blocking him out of her life affected us kids. She made sure to never show it in front of us.

I just knew because I was older and ended up spending a lot more time at home because I was always being suspended from school.

Mum started to get less distant and stopped being withdrawn when someone wasn’t watching her. She started to smile again; it was even a bigger deal when she smiled when Dad was in the room.

I don’t think I remember Dad ever being as happy as when Mum started yelling at him, because for once in nearly a year, she wasn’t ignoring him.

Mum slowly started to show him other emotions than just anger. I was only young and even I saw Mum slowly start to let Dad back in her life.

Whatever Dad had done was bad enough for her to ignore him for a year. But whatever it was didn’t come close to Dad losing Hannah.

Mum didn’t talk about divorce and ending their marriage even when he had ‘broken her again’.

I had to do something before Mum left. We all knew that when Mum said something, she fucking did it.

“I’m going to get Hannah. You all need to calm down. Maybe she has just gone to get something to eat with him. Fuck, she said she was fine here. So you all need to calm the fuck down.” I was shouting at them, trying to put a blanket on a house fire.

I could repair this. I could get Hannah back.

I pointed at Mum. “You aren’t leaving Dad. Also, no more shooting him.” I then pointed my finger at Dad. “Don’t even think about fucking leaving because you get some deluded idea it would be best for all of us.” Then I pointed at Eve. “Stop blaming Mum and Dad. You and I sure as fuck had noticed Hannah had stopped eating. You aren’t leaving either.”

Then my eyes went to Brad. “And you aren’t walking from the club because right now you are needed the most. Dad isn’t going to be in a fit state to be the head of anything till Hannah calms down.”

I let out a sharp breath. “So everyone stop panicking. I’m going to get Hannah and bring her back. And we can talk it out. We aren’t letting her leave without fighting for her just because Dad made a promise to her when she was fucking six!”

Everyone was looking at me in slight disbelief. Yeah, I usually wasn’t great in a crisis. I was normally too drunk to do anything or too furious to think straight. I couldn’t find my bike keys but I saw Dad’s on the coffee table.

“Everyone stay here till I get back with Hannah.” I said it like it was law and I waited for them to say they weren’t leaving. “So no one with the last name Wilson will be leaving this house?” I made sure to make my point.

My eyes were on Mum. She was one I had to worry about. She knew I was watching her, and she finally looked me in the eye and nodded her head.

Great. At least now I knew she wouldn’t be divorcing Dad while I was gone.

“I’ll be back.” I pulled out my phone. I hadn’t planned on the first time I used Layla’s number to be asking where Tatz lived, but I was going to do it anyway. I just hoped Hannah hadn’t reached out to her yet.

I opened the front door and my eyes were on my phone, scrolling through to find Layla’s number.

Then I did a fucking double take when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I accidentally tripped down the porch steps because I was too busy not believing what I saw.

Hannah was on one of the porch chairs.

She hadn’t left.

I saw her run her fingers under her eyes. She was out here crying all along. I didn’t say anything; I just stood there, stunned to see her still here.

“You going somewhere on Dad’s bike?” she spoke but her voice broke. Clearly she had been crying out here for a while. I saw her eyes on the keys in my hand.

“Um, yeah, I was.” I walked up the steps. I wasn’t sure on what to say to her. Sure, I was telling everyone I was getting Hannah back so we could talk it out. But here she was in front of me, and I didn’t know how to approach the subject.

“Why would you be going on his bike?” Hannah’s words wavered slightly as tears kept falling from her eyes.

“I couldn’t find my keys for mine. So I was just going to take his.” I was standing in front of her now. She had a jumper and textbook on her lap.

“Your keys are where they always are.” She wouldn’t look up at me. “In your bike.” She stopped nervously playing with the textbook when I sat down beside her. Her eyes landed on me. “I don’t know how many times I’ve told you, your bike will get stolen.”

I smirked just a little. “Yeah I know, Nice. You’ve warned me. But seriously, who would be stupid enough to take my bike out front of the mother charter’s president house.”

“I am.”

My eyes snapped off my bike and on to her. “What do you mean?”

Hannah sighed, deflated. “Mum’s car has a tracker. Eve’s car too. Your bike doesn’t have one cause you took it off.” She glanced to the side looking at me. “Let’s just say the thought of just disappearing did go through my mind.” She wiped more tears away. “I was going to come in but I can’t seem to stop crying.”

She actually sounded angry with herself. She wiped more tears away.

“We’ve basically been going into meltdown thinking you left.” I was honest with her. “Mum was divorcing Dad, Brad was handing in his patch to go look for you and that twin of yours was following in your footsteps.”

She looked at me with disbelief. “I’ve only been out here for, like, ten minutes.”

“We thought you left, Hannah.” The panic I felt when I heard that car disappear and I thought she was in it surfaced. “I was leaving to drag you back.”

She smiled just faintly and then as soon as she did her hand went to her cheek.

I reached over, taking the hand that wasn’t cupping her face. “You really need to put ice on it. Trust me, it helps.” I had been punched a few times in the face; the jaw was always the worst. Your whole cheek would swell, even inside your mouth would swell, making it impossible to eat.

She nodded her head but her eyes were locked on the ground. She might be sitting next to me but her mind was somewhere else. It wasn’t the first time she had done this to me.

“Hannah, what’s wrong?” I asked. It was clear on her face something was wrong. Something had her not sleeping and not eating. I really didn’t believe that my sister, the one who was always positive, was actually starving herself to the point she would die.

“I’m sick,” she said, her words hollow, and she slowly dragged her eyes off the ground and looked at me. “And I can’t eat.” She wasn’t lying. “Before you even jump to the conclusion that I have an eating disorder, it’s not that. It’s just, like…” She frowned, struggling to explain to me why she couldn’t eat. “You know when you get so worried about something you feel physically sick?”

I slowly nodded my head, understanding what she was talking about. Working yourself up over something that ends up not being important or getting worked up over something that does impact your life.

“Well, it’s like that. I’m so worried that I just can’t eat. I try and I end up just being sick.” She leaned back in the chair. “It isn’t really a problem.” She glanced at me. “Till people start noticing.”

“Can the doctors give you something for it? Have you seen a doctor about it?”

She scoffed. “All I do is see doctors. It gets to the point where you think, what is the fucking point?”

“The point is you want to live. You might not realize it, Hannah, but everyone,” I pointed to the house, “went into fucking meltdown thinking they’d lost you. Right now, everyone is waiting in that lounge room to see if you are coming back in their life. Fuck. In a matter of minutes, the life I had was shattered all because you weren’t in it.”

She had no idea how important she was to us—to all of us.

“Dad really thought I would leave?” She turned her head to the side to look at me. “He really thought that?”

“We all did, Hannah. You made it real clear on what would happen if Dad hit you.”

She sighed. “I couldn’t leave. Not when I deserved it.”

“Dad should never have hit you.” I never wanted Hannah thinking she deserved to be hit. I reached across, taking my hand off her and forcing her to look at me. “You didn’t deserve it. And no matter what you do, it should never result in something hurting you.”

“You’re meant to say that, you’re my brother.” She smiled and then a painful expression captured her face and her hand went back to her cheek.

Fuck, Dad had really done some damage. “Dad might have fractured your jaw.” I frowned, and I went to feel the side of her face she was nursing, but she brushed my hand away.

He had hit her hard enough for her body to literally drop. If the impact of his hand hadn’t fractured her jaw, the force of hitting the ground might have.

“Please don’t touch it, it’s painful enough.” She pushed my hand away again. “Come on, let’s go inside so you can be the number one son and stop the family from falling apart.”

“Let me check your jaw.” I wasn’t letting her get out of me inspecting her.

“No.” This time she said it and got up, stepping out of my reach.

“Come on, Hannah, let me check it out. You might need to go get an X-ray.”

“I don’t have time for that. I have an essay to do and math problems to figure out and a lecture to listen to.” She listed all the reasons why she wouldn’t be getting it checked.

“It can all wait. You know if you don’t get it set or looked at you won’t be able to speak.” It was the very worst-case scenario. But I wanted to scare her into letting me look at it.

She narrowed her eyes on me. “Which one of us is going to major in biology and anatomy?”

I sighed, frustrated. “I have life experience when it comes to this. If you won’t let me look at it, will you at least promise me you will let someone look at it in the next twenty four hours?” I knew how stubborn she was, and there was no changing her mind when she had made her choice clear.

She nodded her head.

“Alright, let’s go in and face the family. I’m guessing we are in for hours and hours of talking.” I sighed and took her hand.

“I don’t want to talk to him.” Her eyes dropped to the ground. “Just because I didn’t leave, doesn’t mean I accept what he did. I can’t… I just can’t look at him right now.”

I heard the pain in her voice, as well as the nerves. She needed space from Dad. How that was going to happen I didn’t know because Dad was going to try and do everything possible to get her to forgive him.

But from the look on Hannah’s face and from what she was saying, I don’t think Dad could do or say anything right now that would have Hannah giving him another shot.

“Okay. You just head to your room and I’ll handle it.” I didn’t know how I was going to stop them from following her up to her room, begging for her to talk to them.

I think right now Hannah would be comforting them more than they would be comforting her, so I knew there wasn’t going to be any benefit in them speaking to her tonight.

I twisted the doorknob and opened one of our double front oak doors. Hannah hung back for a minute and I squeezed her hand slightly, just enough to get her to take her eyes off the ground and on to me.

I gave her a reassuring smile as we walked into the foyer and straight across from the lounge room everyone was waiting in.

Hannah was a few seconds behind me. Dad’s eyes were on me, confused, and then his eyes went to Hannah. Mum looked completely and utterly surprised and Eve was on her feet within a heartbeat of spotting Hannah.

But it was Brad’s blank expression that confused me the most.

“Hannah’s going to bed,” I said quickly before Eve took another step toward us. “And she wants to be left alone.” I looked directly at Eve.

Eve would smoother Hannah. And would then go on about how her life would have turned out dreadful if Hannah had left.

I was positive Hannah wasn’t looking up because she could feel Dad’s eyes on her. Well, everyone’s eyes were on her. But I think Dad’s gaze was the most intense. Like he couldn’t stop himself, he took a step toward us.

As if Hannah had felt him get closer, her head snapped up, looking panicked. Her grip on my hand tightened. She honestly seemed terrified. I shot Dad a glare. He should know she wouldn’t want him near her.

I stepped out of Hannah’s way for her to head up the stairs. I glanced at her when she didn’t bolt up them, escaping like I know she wanted to.

Her eyes were on Dad, well, his arm at least. His arm was now covered in blood, it was dripping down his hand and it didn’t look like he had made a move to stop the bleeding or at least wrap it up.

Hannah let go of my hand and didn’t take off up the stairs like I expected. She went up the hall.

“All of you keep your cool. If one of you so much as spooks her, you are dead.” I hissed into the room. It was a huge deal that Hannah was still here and hadn’t left. And it was an even bigger deal she was back in the same house as Dad.

Hannah was coming up the hall, and I was expecting her to turn and head up the stairs. Instead, she turned into the lounge room. I watched her, surprised. But I don’t think I wasn’t nearly as surprised as Dad when she came to a stop in front of him.

Hannah might have been terrified before, but right now Dad was the one looking terrified.

She placed the medical kit down, and gently lifted his arm, examining it. I think Dad was too scared to even move or blink. The fact that Hannah was near him right now—well, it was unbelievable.

I could see by the expression on Dad’s face he was trying to think of something to say to her, to break the silence between them as she looked at his bullet wound intently.

“Through and through. No sign of bone damage. Bacterial infection is high though. Were you wearing clothing covering it when shot?” Hannah spoke up to him. I think we were all in shock—Hannah spoke to Dad! She actually asked him a question.

Like all of us, Dad was shocked and didn’t know what to say.

“Were you wearing clothing over this when shot?” Hannah repeated her question when Dad didn’t answer her. Her eyes went off the wound and she looked up at Dad. I knew it was physically hurting her to look at him right now—she told me she couldn’t do it. Yet here she was because Dad was hurt.

Dad finally answered her question by shaking his head.

“Good. No foreign partials will be in the wound which will decrease the wound infection rate. However, from what I can see, you might have nerve damage.” She looked back up at him. “The nervous system, however, can recover quickly. It needs to be cleaned. The bullet itself is sterile; however, your skin going through the wound is what causes the infection. So antibiotics for the first two weeks is important, and keeping it clean. Which means changing the bandage twice a day, and reapplying disinfection cream to it.”

Hannah straightened up and glanced at Mum. “Can you clean this up or do you want me to?”

Mum had tears in her eyes and looked speechless. Hannah was just blowing out all our expectations of her. We all knew she was smart. We all knew she was heading into medicine or whatever related field she picked.

We all knew when we got hurt she was the one to go to get fixed up.

But this was the first time she had explained it to us out loud. And what was really scary was it sounded like she knew what she was talking about.

“Hannah, how, how do you know all that?” Eve said what we were all thinking.

Hannah had just spoken like she was a doctor- not a sixteen-year-old.

“I can tell by the direction of the bullet, the opening of the wound, the amount of blood loss.” Hannah lifted Dad’s arm just slightly, bending it gently. “The movement in the arm, the direction of the bullet, the likelihood of it hitting the nerves. This was close contact. I can tell that by the blood loss and damage to the skin.”

She was leaving us all speechless.

“It needs to be cleaned and disinfected and covered.” Hannah’s eyes went to Mum. “Tight and firm with the bandage and change it twice a day.”

Mum nodded her head. I think, like us, she didn’t know what to say.

“Gee, Hannah, it sounds like you really know what you are talking about. Has anyone told you that you would be great in the medical field?” Andrea was the one to actually speak. The rest of us, it would seem, didn’t know what to say.

Hannah looked over her shoulder at Andrea. “I’ve been offered two places to study medicine next year. I guess I draw attention to myself doing extra credit work.”

“So, do you study how to handle a bullet wound often?” Andrea asked.

“I just know the basics. Trust me, I don’t know everything yet.” Hannah’s attention was back on Dad’s arm. “I just know what is life-threatening and what isn’t. This bullet wound isn’t causing physical incapacitations, meaning it hasn’t hit a major blood supply or critical organ. And well, we all know Dad wouldn’t have a psychological incapacitation. Which is when your mind decides it is life-threatening and shuts down due to fright and fear.”

I always knew she was smart. She was always studying, so why was I so shocked that she knew all that? Her eyes were still on Dad’s arm, but Dad’s eyes were on her bruising cheek. He went to touch her and Hannah must have realized what he was about to do cause she dropped his arm and took a step back.

“Hannah…” Dad started to speak to her but she was quickly shaking her head. She didn’t want to hear whatever he had to say.

She exhaled slowly, her eyes on him. “I need time.” Her words were short, forced and she backed away.

I knew that was exactly what Dad didn’t want. He wanted to fix the damage. Time usually made things worse. Time could cause Hannah to withdraw completely from the family. But she was still here, so that said something, right?

She turned around and headed toward me, leaving Dad standing there.

Hannah gave me a slight smile and she headed for the stairs.

“What about our birthday?” Eve spoke to her, causing Hannah to pause on the bottom step.

“Yeah, Hannah, we still haven’t got you anything, while your sister has bought nearly every store out,” Mum spoke quickly after Eve.

Hannah’s eyes were on the ground. She didn’t seem to care.

“Come on, Nice, there must be something you want. Even you have things you want.” I nudged her, trying to get her to open up a little before taking off upstairs and disappearing from us for the night. Or maybe forever. Who knew what she was thinking…

“What about that party you two wanted? Have you given that any more thought, Hannah?” Dad tried to talk to her. I think he would cave on the whole ‘no teenagers in my bar’ thing, if it meant Hannah got the birthday she wanted.

“I can have anything?” Hannah’s voice was low and she lifted her eyes slowly in time to see Mum and Dad nodding their heads and Eve grinning, thinking Hannah was going to get her the party she wanted.

“Anything, Hannah, you name it and it’s yours.” Dad was speaking softly to her but was firm. I think he would give Hannah anything she asked for.

I think everyone’s hopes went up, as if a material present would somehow get Hannah back.

“In that case…” She looked at them. “…I want to be left alone. That’s all I want.” She clenched the textbook tighter. “If you all could manage that, that would be great.” And then she turned and headed up the stairs.

All she wanted for seventeenth birthday was to be left alone? I watched her disappear up the stairs. She might still be here but the damage was done. Just because she hadn’t run didn’t mean she was going to still be a part of this family.

We all heard her door close.

I couldn’t stop the long sigh from coming out. It was going to be a long battle. I looked at Dad. I hoped he was willing to have her ignoring him for a year, like Mum had. Hannah was a lot like Mum. Not just when it came to studying, but when it came to feelings. They usually acted the same.

So I wouldn’t be surprised if Hannah blocked us all out of her of her life.

“Babe, maybe we should go?” Andrea said to Brad, who was still glaring at Dad.

Brad shrugged her hand off his shoulder and got up, leaving and disappearing through the dining room.

“Well, she didn’t leave,” Eve sighed. “That means something, right?” Eve looked at us for answers.

Dad was staring down at the carpet. He knew her being here didn’t mean he would ever get her back. The relationship he had had with Hannah was gone and there wasn’t a high chance he would be able to rebuild another one with her.

We all knew that. Even Eve—though right now she was hoping that one of us would say that Hannah would be fine come morning. That Hannah would be back to doing Eve’s school work and helping Dad with his bookwork on one of his laptops that she would normally stop him from throwing in frustration. Hannah was the only one in the family that understood what Mum did, and also what she taught.

Brad reappeared and had ice in a tea towel. I frowned; he didn’t think he could go see her, did he?

He walked through the lounge room, ignoring Andrea’s confused look.

“I think when she said she wanted to be left alone, Brad, she meant from all of us,” I said to Brad. But he just walked past me and up the stairs, ignoring me and what Hannah wanted.