Innocent

Chapter 23

I lay there curled up in my bed, not wanting to get out at all. I made a promise to James that I will go visit him this morning, but truthfully I didn’t feel like getting out of bed. I didn’t have the energy to. No matter how much I try to forget about last night, it still kept playing over and over in my head. I knew I was safe now, but I still felt scared that Mr Waters was going to come after me even though he was locked behind bars.

My phone kept ringing and I had to switch it off. No doubt they featured the capture of James last night on the news, and it was my parents who were ringing to see if I was okay. Aunt Zoe’s landline kept ringing too and I knew it was my parents. She knocked on my door a few times to ask if I want to talk to them. All I did was say no. I didn’t want to speak to them at all. I couldn’t bear to hear the things they were going to say. Mom would keep saying if I’m okay over and over again, while Dad will ask if James touched me or why wasn’t I with Daniel or someone else? I didn’t want to explain anything to them. They will never understand what I was going through right now. They assumed they do, but they don’t.

Clara soon comes in and asked if I mind if she sits with me. I just shrug my shoulders, not really wanting to talk to anyone. We just sit there in silence for awhile until she was brave enough to say something without me biting her head off.

“Daniel proposed to me last night,” she says.

I sit up when I hear what she had said. She had a smile on her face. “Oh my gosh, he did? When?”

“Well, he was really mad at you for not listening to him, so I had to take him outside to calm down. Aunt Zoe also needed some help to take down the stall and to pack the van so we helped her. After cleaning up, he calmed down and proposed to me.” She goes quiet. “And then Zoe gets a phone call from you.”

I look away from her, feeling bad that I had ruined a special moment between my brother and his now fiancée. “How’s my aunt?”

“She is quiet. She hasn’t spoken much at all. She was talking to your parents before. I think they’re trying to blame her for what happened.”

“It wasn’t her fault.”

“I know. She told them what happened, but they still want to blame her and say that she could have been with me or have called the cops when you brought James here.”

“What about Daniel? How is he doing?”

“He spent the entire night crying himself to sleep.”

I realise that I had to get out of this room. I had to talk to my family, get them to understand everything that was going on, even if they don’t want to know the truth at all. I couldn’t let Daniel blame himself for what James’ father did, and I couldn’t let my parents put the blame on Aunt Zoe.

I told Clara what I was planning to do and she smiles at me, saying it was a good idea. She hugs me and then decides to take a walk so I could have some privacy with my family.

I tell Aunt Zoe and Daniel that I wanted to talk to them. We sit in the living room. I tell them that I wanted them both to know that what happened was not their fault. They understood. Daniel still felt like he should have been there for me, but I told him not to worry. I then called my parents, putting them onto speaker.

“What the hell were you thinking last night, Ellie?” Dad says once he and Mom were settled on the other end of their side, and Aunt Zoe, Daniel and I were settled on the couch. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”

“Tony, stop yelling at her like that,” Aunt Zoe says. “This isn’t her fault.”

“Hey, don’t tell me what I can and can’t do. You’re the one who should have been responsible for her. You should have done what we did to keep her safe.”