Motel 6 // n.h

[34] Bathtub Adventures

  Avery Holmes

  The ride home was silent and weird. We all had received good news, but if we were going to try to get Jake put into jail for hurting my daughter and I, there was the risk of her getting taken away from me.

  I was torn, to say the least.

  "We'll talk to everyone else, get their input." Niall said, breaking the silence as we rolled into the long drive of the hotel. I nodded silently.

  When we finally managed to get up to the hotel room after sneaking in through the back door and having to climb and impossibly long flight of stairs, everyone was sitting around the living room anxiously.

  "How did it go?" Louis demanded.

  "Uh, Sam, can you take Aimee out of the room please?" I asked politely. He managed to coax Aimee out of the room rather quickly, bribing her with Netflix, her secret obsession. She was already three and turned into more of a white girl than I was.

  I sighed and held onto Niall's hand tightly as we sat down at an empty space on one of the bigger couches, everyone's eyes fixed on us. It was intimidating, to be honest.

  "The good news is that we spoke to a detective who says that Jake will get at least twenty years in prison." I smiled, hopeful. "But the bad news..." My voice wavered. "Since Aimee was hurt by him and she belongs to me as well, there would be a possibility of her being taken into foster care."

  "What!?" Harry said, standing up. I could see his jaw muscles tense and his fist clench. He was furious, nonetheless.

  "Yeah," I sighed, swiping my eyes. "I honestly don't know what to do."

  "This is ridiculous." Liam chimed in.

  "I know," Niall said. "But if we take this to court, there's a lot of things that can go wrong."

  "What happens if you don't go to court?" Liam asked. 

  "Then he won't get any jail time for what he's done to us." I admitted sadly. "He's still going to get time for being with Kate and attempted murder, but not for what he's put us through." My shoulders slumped and I prayed I wouldn't start to cry.

  All of a sudden, Zayn stood up and sat next to me on the couch, wrapping his arms around me, patting me on the back. He was never good with words, so this was like he was of showing that he cared. It was sweet, although I was sure Niall was glaring at him.

  "You're going to get the justice you deserve." Liam promised. "I don't know how we're going to do it, but we will. Maybe, we could use our power with One Direction to get everyone on your side." He suggested.

  "That's a terrible idea." Niall shot down. "She's going to get hate from the fans."

  "No, Niall, hold on a sec," Harry interrupted him. "If we really show the fans how much this means to us, they'll care and they won't do that. We can talk to Sam, see what he says." He shrugged.

  "The least he could say is no." Louis said.

  I still didn't know exactly how I felt about this, but since I had no better idea, I went along with it, anyway. Instead of joining in on the discussion, I played with loose strands of my hair and got rid of some knots that had been bothering me, doing all I could just to forget about this for a bit, but knowing in the back of my mind that I couldn't.