For the Love of Music

Chapter 5

I looked up to see Daniel staring at me. His face was pained, his eyes were a mixture of dark stormy gray and dark navy blue. As if both sides were warring against each other and Daniel’s eyes were the battlefield.

“Why? Did he adopt you?” Daniel asked.

In the background, I heard the bell ring twice, signalling beginning of class but I didn’t move.

I nodded. I wanted to get everything off my chest. I had never told anyone the full story about the Hastings or my parents’ death. It felt so good to let it all out.

“His name was Marc, Marc Hastings. He was the kind of guy that everyone laughed with and when he walked into the room, there was this air around him that made you immediately look at him. He was charismatic and knew how to charm his way into getting what he wanted. The day he walked into the orphanage was the day I decided that I would not be staying in the orphanage for another year. I cleaned myself up and placed myself in his way. We talked and bonded, and after a few hours he told me that he would come back with the rest of his family before they decided if they were going to adopt me. The next day, I got up early and picked out my best clothing and waited for them to come back. Marc and Susanna were amazing, just what I wanted in parents. I tried to forget about my parents but they were always there in the back of my mind.”

The unshed tears in my eyes slowly fell until they were racing down my cheeks, leaving little trails of water behind.

Daniel hesitated for a moment before pulling me into his arms just as I started sobbing. He rubbed my back soothingly and whispered, “Keep going. You’ll feel better when it’s done,” in my ear.

I nodded as I tried to control my tears.

“Everything was going great. I was going to have a family again. I was placed in their home for the trial period before the adoption process started and I loved them even more. They had a daughter, Lucy, and she hated me but that never stopped me. I was determined to start over and forget the past. After the adoption process was finished, everything changed. It all started the night they threw the first party since I had been with them. Lucy had locked me out of my room again and I went downstairs to see Marc and Susanna to tell them that I couldn’t get back into my room. When they saw me, their eyes were so angry. I-I could feel their absolute hatred for me pouring out of them. That was the first time they beat me. A broken rib, a fractured arm, two broken fingers and a broken heart.”

Daniel’s arms tightened around me as if to encourage me to keep going.

“They were a family of evil creatures, I still can’t believe they were considered human. Marc got mad a lot of the time I was with them. He broke a lot of bones but he didn’t do any permanent damage. Lucy was worse than Marc though. She loved her swiss army pocket knife more than anything and even before that party, she would knock me down, sit on me and pull out the blade and cut my back. She said she was being creative by giving me something that I could keep forever. I have so many scars, so many that I can’t even force myself to find them all. Susanna didn’t touch me often. Susanna would talk down to me. I never knew words could hurt so much before I met her. She changed everything. To this day I can’t look in the mirror without hearing her words in my head. Not to mention all the people I met in the foster homes. Most of them were like the Hastings’ but I survived I guess. When you go to war, you don’t exactly come back unscathed.” a broken chuckle escaped my dry throat.

Daniel was completely silent. I was scared to pull away now that I had told him everything. No one knew all of that. Not even the police knew of everything that went on in the Hastings’ home from the court case against them. I had to testify against them but I was as vague as possible, with just enough detail to land them in jail where they belonged.