Being the daughter of a wealthy businessman has had plenty of perks for Charisma Isles. Having grown up in a stable home with the best of everything that money could buy, she has all that she could ever want, or so she thinks.
When a homeless strang...
I stared in disbelief at the idyllic house. Watched as Jake's parents stood talking in the sunshine before heading back indoors together, hand in hand.
Parents?
In all the scenarios that I'd imagined regarding how Jake had come to living his life the way that he was, I'd never imagined his home and his parents would seem so... normal. I teetered on the edge of asking what happened, but I could feel the way that his body had tensed and sensed that pushing him was the wrong move. He'd brought me here for a reason, and it would be something that I'd have to give him time for, in order to hear it.
"I was a happy kid, you know," He said eventually, turning away from the house and leaning his side against the bars of the fence. "When I was little I always wanted to play. I could make a game out of absolutely everything."
I smiled at the idea of a small boy zooming around the house playing newly created games with household items.
"When I was six, I had the best news ever. My mom was pregnant and I was getting a little brother or sister. I was so happy, and when the day that she arrived came, I was even happier still."
"A sister," I said softly, now understanding Jake's close bond with Tina, he was used to having a little sister.
"They called her Lily," He told me, taking a deep breath of air and forcing himself to continue his story, the one that I'd waited so long to hear, and now feared beyond all imagination. "We were the best of friends as she got older and I was fiercely protective of her. My parents were sure that one day I was going to become bored with her, that I'd be a teenage boy who cursed them out for having to have another child that I had to live with."
"I think that comes with being a teenager."
Jake gave a small laugh in response, casting an eye back to the house.
"It didn't come with me being a teenager," He said coldly. "I was twelve when everything came crashing down. It was summer and it was such a hot day. The ice cream truck came round and Lily pleaded with my parents to take her for ice cream. My mom told her she could have one after dinner, but Lily didn't stop there. She came into the back garden and asked me to take her instead."
I held his hand tighter, I could tell from the strain in his voice that this was getting hard for him to continue now, and I wanted him to be sure that I was here.
"Some of my friends had stopped by and we were talking. I brushed her off and told her I'd talk to her in a minute. I didn't even look at her."
"What happened, Jake?" I asked tenderly as he looked back at me, his eyes red as they swam with unshed tears.
"The gate must have been unlocked because the next thing I heard was the screech of tyres and such a loud crash. I looked around and she was gone. My entire world shattered around me as I ran out onto the street. She was right there," He indicated to the patch of road a short distance from his childhood home. "She was lying on the ground, she'd been hit by a car as she ran across the road. I scooped her into my arms, but she was just limp, she was already gone. I screamed for my parents and when they came racing outside they broke down."
My heart plummeted through the ground. Jake, and even his family, had been through more than I'd ever considered. Tears rolled silently down my cheeks as I held onto his hand for dear life as if he were my anchor that kept me strong enough to not crumble and break down in front of him right now. I watched as the brimming tears in his eyes overflowed. Closing them briefly, his tears streamed out under his eyelashes.
"That day broke us all," Jake croaked. "But my parents, they were even worse than me. They'd lost their daughter, and nothing and no one could bring her back or take their pain away. They didn't care that their son was still alive, that I missed her too... that I needed them both. Eventually the pain they had turned to guilt, and with it being too much for them to bear alone, they turned it on the only other person they could. Me."
"They blamed you?" I gasped.
Jake nodded sadly, turning his back on the house completely now.
"I was the one she was with before she ran off. They were angry that I hadn't stopped her, that I didn't take the time to make sure she was safe."
"That's not fair, you were a kid, you didn't know what she was going to do," I said firmly, blinking away the tears as I felt a rush of anger at the behaviour of his parents.
"They were right," He replied angrily, "I was the oldest, I was outside, they weren't. I should have made sure that the gate was locked, that she was safe. I should have taken one fucking minute to stop talking with my friends and look after my baby sister."
With the last three words, his voice cracked, the pain and sorrow he'd been carrying all these years becoming too much for him to contain.
I didn't want to speak ill of grieving parents, but I was unable to comprehend just how they could have stood by and watched as their twelve-year-old son blamed himself for the tragic accident that stole his sister, and not only allow it to continue but to reinforce in too.
"You didn't know what was going to happen, you couldn't have. It was just another normal day for you all until that happened," I said clearly, taking it upon myself to try and give him the pep talk that his parents didn't bother with some twelve years earlier. "You were a child, Jake. Your parents were the ones who were supposed to watch and look after you both. It wasn't your job, and it wasn't your mistake. It wasn't even theirs, it was an accident."
"After that day my parents never really bothered with looking after me. I lived with them and that was about it. They lost all interest in becoming my parents. Their days were filled with arguments and grief for Lily. The only times they even recognised that I was there, was when they turned their anger to me. They screamed and shouted, their dislike for me building daily until I couldn't take it anymore."
We drifted away from the house, walking slowly back along the path, heading for the exit where the taxi sat waiting.
"They went out one day, and I just saw my future being stuck in the house where I was hated, and I couldn't take it any longer. Everywhere I looked I saw Lily. I was reminded of how happy we were when we were a family, and how broken we were without her. I figured they'd be better off living a life where they could grieve in peace rather than have to see me all the time. I thought that their anger would go away without me being there anymore. So I packed a bag and I left."
"Jake, please tell me you don't still think that this was your fault, that your parents were right?" I begged.
He didn't answer, his face answering for me as he looked blankly back over his shoulder at the place where six-year-old Lily Hardy was killed.
He did.
I didn't know how to assure him otherwise, not after all this time, and it crushed me to think that I may never be able to show him how wrong he was. I steered him back to face me, pulling him into the tightest hug that I'd ever given anyone. I felt his heart thudding against mine, warm tears falling against my shoulder. If I could have taken his pain away at that moment, I would have. It was a burden he was too young to have had to bear and it was one made heavier by the following years of neglect that he'd endured. I stared at the house where his parents still lived as I held their son, feeling more anger than I'd felt in my entire life.
Did they care about him at all?
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