Family Matters

Chapter One

Mama didn't make it, she had bled out long before the ambulance arrived and was declared dead once they arrived at our house.

"Are you alright?" He asked and I had just noticed that he had a steaming cup of something in his hand and he was holding it out to me. I gingerly took it and the steam from the cup rose into my nostrils and the smell of hot chocolate hit me. My stomach churned at the smell; I didn't like chocolate but I also didn't want to be rude so I took a sip from it anyways. I tried to keep my face as blank as possible as the thick liquid met my taste buds.

"Thank you" I said and Officer Waters smiled at me before sitting next to me, being careful not to sit on my stuffed turtle which I always carried with me.

"I have some good news for you" He said keeping up his smile and I chose to stay silent since not a lot of things could be considered good news to me right now.

Now that I had no Mama, they would probably send me to an orphanage where I'll eventually be adopted by some strangers. I hated meeting new people, I always grew uncomfortable and never knew what to say or do around them. Living with strangers would never be something that I considered good news.

"We found out that you have some more family and when we contacted them, they were more than willing to take you in" He said and I stared at him, trying to process the words that came out of his mouth.

I had more family? And they wanted to take care of me? I wasn't so sure if I was on board with it. I didn't want to get excited only for those people to just be people that would hurt me. They were also strangers to me, people I didn't know and that was what I wasn't looking forward to the most.

"Aren't you happy?" He asked peering into my face to which I just shrugged my shoulders. I knew that even if I couldn't seem to be happy, I should at least be grateful which I was but I guess with the way I was acting, it didn't look that way.

"You have brothers and a father! I know I would be excited especially after-...." I realized that Officer Waters was trying to steer away from the subject of my Mama and I was grateful that he didn't want to mention her, but I hated the sense of pity I could feel from him.

He didn't need to do that. I was just another unfortunate case that he was working on, amongst hundreds of others.

"Well, one of your brothers will be coming to pick you up tomorrow" he said and I slowly nodded.

I hoped tomorrow never came.

But sadly it did. Too quick for my liking if anything. I was now standing outside the police station with my tiny suitcase and turtle plush under my arm waiting for my so called brother to arrive. Officer Waters had wanted to wait with me but his chief called him away and now I was stuck waiting with some officer whose name I couldn't be bothered to remember since she didn't even seem to want to know mine.

A sleek black car had pulled up to the station and I watched as a tall man clad in a sharp suit stepped out. The female officer next to me had her jaw dropped as the man continued to approach us and I had to crane my neck up eventually in order to see his face.

"Ceres, it's so nice to finally meet you" He said bending down to my height and I took a quick moment to assess the stranger. His appearance was very well kept, not a single chestnut brown hair out of place as it rested neatly on his head. It actually looked pretty soft and I kind of wanted to touch it...

His green eyes that matched my own peered into my face as he was waiting for a response from me to which I just nodded, not exactly feeling comfortable with speaking to him.

A smile graced his lips and he held his hand out to me to which again, I stared at. I didn't feel comfortable taking his hand either, even if it was just a small gesture. Seeing that I wasn't going to grab his hand, I saw a look of hurt flash in his eyes before he masked it with that kind and polite look.