Paying the Price

Chapter 38: Oakley

Last chapter recap- Jenifer

"You are safe Jenifer. You are never going to have to see your mom and dad again because they are bad people. They hurt you. What they did to you and to Owen is not okay. You do not have to follow any of the rules that they gave you. You are allowed to speak, you are allowed to be seen, you are allowed to do whatever you please." Oakley smiled at me and then kissed my forehead.

"Pinky promise" I softly asked him.

Oakley's smile grew double the size when I spoke to him.

"I pinky promise."

—------

"She spoke to me!" I told my siblings.

I was the first one she spoke to and I couldn't be more proud.

"What? That's not fair, I wanted it to be me!" Oliver whined.

"Sucks to suck." I grinned at him. "I'm just the better brother."

He rolled his eyes "You wish."

"Just shut up," Janae told the two of us.

We all turned our heads after hearing a little giggle. Owen and Jenifer were listening to our conversation and hiding behind the wall.

The four of us looked at each other and smiled before going over to the twins.

Their giggles were the cutest thing in the world.

"She spoke to me first, actually," Owen said with a big cheeky smile.

I picked him up and started to tickle him, causing Owen to erupt in even more sweet laughs. "Admit it, Owen, Jenifer spoke to me, I'm her new favorite brother now."

"Never!" He shouted, "You're going to admit it, or else I'm not going to stop." I continued to tickle him.

I looked down and saw that Jenifer was not as scared anymore and she was actually smiling and laughing along even as I was torturing her brother with tickles.

"Okay! Okay!" He finally gets out. I stop and let him catch his breath.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "So are you going to admit it?"

He smiled again. He quickly managed to jump out of my grasp and ran down the hall shouting "neverrrrrr."

I looked down to Jenifer again who was still smiling at me and Owen.

I had made her smile twice that day.

The good thing though is that she is not scared of me anymore. She was able to talk to me.

"Would you like me to carry you back to Owen or would you like to stay with me? No promises though, if I catch Owen he is getting tickled."

She smiled at me again!!

"You." She said really softly, just barely above a whisper.

"I would love to," I replied and then scooped her up into my arms.

I held her on my hip, she barely weighed anything reminding me how malnourished she was.

"Would you like something to eat?" I asked her.

She hesitated for a second. I saw the gears in her head grinding, she was trying to remember if she was supposed to be doing this. She was wondering if she was going to be in trouble.

"You can have anything you want, anything at all."

She still didn't answer. She's never had choices like this before. She was probably overwhelmed.