Never Giving Up...

Chapter 15: You're Not Alone

~~ Austin's POV ~~ 

"And there you go!" I say to Abigail as the fishing line touches the water

"Now what?" She asks looking at the pole

"Now," I say as I place her pole on one of the handles on the boat, so she wouldn't have to hold it, "We wait," I smile as I look over at her; she sighs, "Hey, it's not that boring" 

"Yes, it is," she says as she takes out her phone

I grab it and place it in my pocket, "no phones it's a distraction," I say 

"This is so unfair and boring!" she places her head in her hands 

I sigh, I had to take away her phone so she could spend time with me, "What if we ask each other questions? Get to know each other more, that's a huge reason why I brought you out here," I say as she turns to look at me 

"Alright," she says 

I smile at my small success, "Okay, what are some of your pet peeves?" 

"Really? This is how we're going to start?" 

"Okay, new rule, every time you complain it adds more chores for you to do at home," 

"I hate it when people chew with their mouth open," she perks up 

I chuckle, "Why is that?" 

"Because it's disgusting! Like no one want's to see your sea food that you are making in your mouth! Then they make noises as they chew and it's like ugh! I can't stand it!" 

"Well, I've never seen someone so passionate over hating people who chew loudly and with their mouth open," I smile

"Oh! I'm not really sure if it's a pet peeve but I have this thing about sitting on the edge, like at a dinner table or at a movie theatre, it's like I have to sit in the middle or I will not be comfortable!" 

"You sound like Jaime," I chuckle; she looked back over to the lake then back at me

"Now can I ask you a question?" I nod, "Why did you adopt me? Out of all the children in the world why me?" 

"You really want to know?" she nods, "When I first saw you in Jake's office and you were in there for punching a girl because she made fun of Caroline for having cancer it reminded me of myself. I saw myself in you and I also saw a girl who needed a father in her life and I wanted to be that person." I didn't know if the words I was saying were the right ones but they were the truth, I wanted to be her father from the day I met her; when I saw the hurt in her eyes I knew. 

"Do you regret adopting me?" She looks over at her fishing pole. 

My heart ached, did she think I regretted my decision? "No, I don't regret adopting you, I still think it was the best decision in my life." 

"Alright," She quietly says as she looks at her hands

"Why don't you like to talk about personal things?" I probably could have worded it better but I didn't know how, I just wanted to know her, the real her, "I want you to tell me about your past because it's something that I should know," I say and she nods

She clears her throat, "As you may recall, my mother died when I was only 3 years old, after her death my biological father became this alcoholic and also abused his drug prescription, along with all of that he became abusive." 

"Abusive? As in he hit you?" I felt anger, pain, and sadness; how can a man, he shouldn't even be called a man, ever lay his hand on a child? 

"Yeah, but it didn't get bad until I was older," She sighs; she wouldn't look at me, "I was around six years old he uh did some things a father should never do he molested me then when I was eight years old he raped me, there was times where we had no money so he would sell me to some of his friends so he could get money," I wanted to beat the crap out of this guy, he doesn't deserve to be in prison, he deserved a bigger punishment