Fixing Her

Chapter XXXVI

"I have to say," she says after motioning towards the couch. "I was shocked when you texted me."

"I needed to talk to you," I tell her.

"All ears."

I inhale before asking one of thousand questions when it comes to her.

"Why do you hate John so much?"

Her jaw tightens, just like her grip around the mug she was holding.

"Landon hasn't told you?"

"No...?"

"Has he told you about me and him?"

Her face is deadly serious, and my heart starts beating faster. What's with them?

"About you?"

"Don't start thinking stuff. Has he told you?"

"No," I say and swallow. "He hasn't told me anything about you."

She nods and locks her gaze somewhere above my head.

"I met him two years ago," she starts. "More like found him. Our house had burnt down, and the last thing my mum said to me, was his name. Landon Fernandez. Then she was gone. I looked for him for a whole year and I found his address....."

He was the one opening the door, and her being terrified of everything since what had happened hadn't been an accident and she was a broken sixteen year old who had lost her mother and home and everything, hugged him the first thing she did. She told him and his mum everything, and after saying the name of her mum, Landon's mum told her the whole story.

She's Noah's sister.

Here, she stopped talking. She just looked down, apologizing to my shocked self, saying she would never hurt me and that she hates both Noah and his father with all her heart. She says she's Noah's older sister, older by a couple months. John was first with her mother, and when he found out she's pregnant, left her for Noah's, who was a wealthy woman.

"Hayden you've got to believe me," she says, a few tears in her eyes. "I have never wanted to hurt you. The reason I'm so much around him is that he's the only family I've got. I can't lose him. He means everything to me, he's been hurt multiple times over."

"I....," I say, not knowing what else I'm supposed to say. "I'm... I'm sorry Elaine... for what you've been through, but... I'm sorry, I need to go."

I breath as if the air isn't enough. I'm sprinting out of her apartment and down to my car with a pace I wouldn't be able to keep up with if I'd be my normal self.

She's his sister.

She's Noah's sister.

But she hates them!

But she's his blood!

So is Landon.

I get inside my car and control myself from spilling anymore tears, hyperventilating or panicking. I manage to keep it in and start driving towards the address Dylan gave me.

Isaac's house.

I park in front of another apartment, only this one being in a much worse condition. It makes me anxious to just look at the brick walls it contains, giving the fact they look like they're gonna fall down anytime.

I don't find any buttons to ring, so I just push the unlocked door open and step inside. The half broken doors don't have names so the only solution I find is to knock.

"Hey," a half naked boy says when he opens, triggering me to immediately look down. His jeans are as low as they can get.

"H- hi," I say. "I'm sorry, does Gina Taylor live here?"