✅🎊✂️ Hypnosis Won't Take Me There!! [alternative cut]

Chapter 504: Forgiveness

Dean sat on one of the dining chairs. Belle had led him inside and then pointed at the barely-comfortable wooden seat, while she took her usual place on the recliner. There were two spaces available on the sofa, but she'd figured that it would be better for them to be facing each other, and she took some small pleasure in knowing his ass would be aching if he spent more than an hour sitting on the hard seat. Unfortunately, it also had the effect of making him taller than her, and she couldn't help feeling as if her brother was in a position of authority.

He'd started out talking about how he'd done essential maintenance on the cottage. And how even if he'd taken her, there wouldn't have been time for them to spend any time together. He hadn't been able to keep up the lies, and confessed that he had been seriously worried about Adi. That much, Belle could believe.

"You made us feel the same," she snapped. "She's been kidnapped by somebody who wants to turn her into a baby full time. Do you know that's something you can't come back from? Do you know how much we were worrying, about what you'd done to her? She got some messages to us, and then... I can't even believe it. You kidnapped her for someone else, so they can start conditioning her?"

"No. I tried to tell you, I wanted to take her away from..." He gestured vaguely in the air, as if he could somehow convey a nebulous idea. "From everyone who might say her baby name. I tried to make the vacation as normal as possible. I didn't treat her like a baby while we were away. At least, no more than was necessary to keep her out of trouble."

"Really," her voice said she didn't believe him. But that she very much wanted to.

"I promise you, everything I did was to make Adi comfortable, so she could have the life she wanted without anybody judging or putting pressure on her. She was falling apart with the pressure of everyone trying to make those decisions for her, thinking they know how much regression she needs. I needed to make sure she was safe. Everything was about making sure she could be happy and safe."

"Once upon a time, it would have been all about making me happy," she snapped back, and immediately regretted the words. She couldn't take them back now, and it was clear how selfish she was still being. But Dean didn't laugh, or snap at her. He stood up and walked towards her, kneeling next to her chair. And then he hugged her close, letting her head rest on his shoulder like he had when she had been so much younger.

"I'm sorry, Belle. I really am. I didn't know if I could tell you or not, and that was too big a risk. The behaviours she was conditioned with over that summer could have stuck with her for life, and I didn't want to risk her seeing anyone else. Even if it were just carelessness, you could–"

"I know. I understand. Or I'm trying to. I made new friends here, new friends for Lily as well, if you can believe that. Adi needed to be saved, and I'll take your word for that. But I still feel left out."

"What can I do to make it up to you?"

"Make me a promise," she suggested. "Promise me that the next time I get a playdate with another little, you'll be there. Not as my babysitter this time, but as my big brother. Like you always should have been."

"Of course."

"And let me feel like a part of the story. You could tell me more about what you got up to in Kolechia. Prove that you looked after my cottage well while I couldn't be there."

"Well, I replastered the office wall," he started, "You know how long that's needed doing. And..."