Oh, all these minutes passing, sick of feeling used
If you wanna break these walls down, you're gonna get bruised
Now my neck is open wide, begging for a fist around it
Already choking on my pride, so there's no use crying about it
I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to think. My mind was going a mile an hour. Trying to come up with a plausible excuse. But nothing would work. He was here. He recognised her at first glance. He knew that her chart was filled with lies.
Her name. Lie.
Her family. Lie.
Everything. A big capitol 'F' lie.
I'm so screwed!
"Lainy? How... What are..." Kiel tried to make a correct sentence but he was just as stumped as I was.
"Doctor DiMartino? Do you know Miss Wilson?" Nurse Joan asked. She just had to ask.
"Miss Wilson?" Kiel was still shocked.
"We can explain..." Maman tried. She really tried.
"Explain? Explain away, Ma'am. Explain how my own sister is in a hospital bed trying to recover from two gunshot wounds and has been admitted under a false name?!" He shouted out.
Nurse Joan looked at me wide eyed, shocked.
Shit. All I could think about was Shit!
"What in heaven's name is going on?" Nurse Joan asked while still looking at me.
I looked from her to him, then to my hands that were in my lap. I had no comment that could get me out of this situation easily. I started biting my inner lip, I was anxious.
Whilst my mind was in turmoil, I didn't notice him walking closer. I didn't notice he sat down on my bed. I didn't notice him holding my hands. Not until he started rubbing them softly.
Looking back up at him, his eyes were filled with love and concern.
But why? Didn't they all hate me? My eyes started filling up, my vision becoming blurry and before I knew it. I was being hugged. I was being held in a solemn, safe embrace by my brother. Ezekiel. The twin to my knight.
And the dam broke.
I started to cry and sob, my arms going around his body. Holding on to his coat as if my life depended on it. As if it were the simple air I needed to breathe. I kept crying. My eyes kept leaking fluids. I hated that a simple hug, a tight hug from one of my eldest brothers could shake up so much emotion. Emotion I thought I dealt with years ago with therapie. Kiel never stopped hugging me. He never let go of me. Not even when he whispered words I never thought I would hear him say.
"I missed you so much Lainy. I love you so much. All these years apart. I missed you. You laugh, your smile, your goofiness. I missed it all. I know that you didn't want us to visit, but let me at least have this."
Letting go slightly so I could see his face, I looked at him confused.
"I missed you too, kiel. But what do you mean that I didn't want you to visit? Who told you that?"
"Mom."
I wanted to reply, but maman came back into the room. I didn't even notice that they had left.
"Cherie, the detective is here to ask you some questions."
I merely nodded my head while Kiel stood back up.
"Good afternoon Miss Wilson. I am detective Porter and this is my partner Jacks. We're here to talk about what happened Saturday night that made you end up here."
"Okay."
They looked at both maman and Kiel, their eyes questioning when they would leave. As they made no attempt to go, I simply told the officers that they could hear what I had to say.
"Alright Miss Wilson, Do—" Ezekiel interrupted.
"Her name is not Wilson."
The officers looked at him then at me.
"Doctor maybe it would be—"
"It's okay, maman. The truth is supposed to come out one day." I looked at her with a slight smile, before looking back at the detective.
With a sigh I started. "My name is Adelaide. Adelaide Aurora DiMartino. Aurora Wilson technically doesn't exist. Neither does her mother Marigold."
"And then this woman is not your mother I'm assuming?"
"Biologically no. But she is my maman. I call her maman. Please go ahead and ask your questions. And Kiel," I looked at him again. "Whatever you hear, please don't interrupt. A lot has happened since the last time we saw each other. What you are about to hear may be overwhelming, but we can discuss this after the detectives have left." He took a seat in a chair next to my bed and held my hand.
That's when I gave the go ahead.
"Do you know who shot you?"
"Yes."
"Can you tell us what happened?"
"It was a little after midnight, around two a.m. when a creaking noise woke me up. The noise started at the far end of my apartment but started coming closer fast. I grabbed the baseball bat that I had next to bed in case it was a burglar, and pretended to still be asleep. Before I knew it the bedroom opened and someone sat down on the side of my bed. They tried to roll me over and that's when I swung the bat in their direction. Consider me shocked when I see the faces of the people in front of me." I snorted.
"Do you know the name or names of the people that entered?"
"Candace Lahani and her boy flavour of the year Jason Smith."
At this Ezekiel's head went up shocked. The officers saw this. "Do you know those names sir?"
Ezekiel was shocked but he did not discredit my claim so I answered for him.
"Candace Lahani is our mother."
"So am I to assume that you do not live with your mother? If so, who is your guardian?"
This was it. My life was going to change a lot after this statement. I just didn't know if I would like it or not.
"Candace is my official guardian, although I don't live with her. Honestly I haven't lived with her since the age of twelve."
I looked at Ezekiel again. He still held a shocked look. But it soon changed into concern and questions.
"I ran away a day before my thirteenth birthday. Maman, could you look up the photos you made of me?" Maman was near tears from the memory she was about to relive.
"I ran away because Candace was abusive. So next to attempted murder charges, there are a heap load of charges you can put to her name."
"Charges like?"
"Domestic abuse. Child abuse. Forced drug abuse of a minor. Child neglect. Forced child prostitution."
When Kiel heard that he immediately stood up and started pacing. He couldn't look at me anymore. He just simply looked at the ground while pacing and chanting the word no over and over again.
"You have to elaborate on that so we can build a solid case."
"Maman has photos of the last forms of abuse before I ran away on her phone. I covered most of it up over the past few years with a tattoo. I didn't want to be reminded. I am sure you can understand that."
They simply nodded. I sighed again.
"I was two when it first started. I have to explain that Candace has bi polar as well as psychotic tendencies. And over the years with the drinking and the drugs, it just got worse. When I was still living in my father's home, she kept it to a minimum. A slap here, a punch there. But always in moderation so no one would find out. Early on, I figured out how to avoid her as well as my sister in the house if everyone was gone for the day. I would stay with one of the house staff or I would stay in the garden all day. When I was five my parents divorced. My father took custody of all the children and I thought hell was over." I started to tear up. "But it wasn't. When I was eight, my father relinquished his custody rights of me because of something he thought I did, when I didn't. He didn't believe me and proceeded to get me driven all the way to my worst nightmare." I sniffed. "There was no place to hide. Nobody to shelter behind. So I was given the full force of Candace's rage and hate for Adaline."
"Adaline? As in your sister? Why would your mother hate her and then proceed to abuse you for it." The detective asked, confused.
"Because Sir, I have 7 older brothers. And all of them were always around her. Which meant that if she had hurt Adaline, they would've found out early. I only had one constant who eventually also slipped away from me. You must understand sir that Candace's bipolar and psychotic tendencies made her reliant on the world revolving around her. But the moment Adaline came into her life she was no longer in the spotlight. Adaline was. And I was their perfect scapegoat."
The detective interrupted me. "Their?"
"I believe Adaline was already showing signs of the same tendencies as Candace when we were little. She would often break something or do something bad and would proceed to put blame on me. It's one of the reasons my father sent me away."
This time it was Kiel's turn to interrupt. "Hold on for a minute. You're trying to tell me that what happened, Adaline was at fault?"
I looked at Kiel with a sad expression. "Yes. From stealing nonna's jewelry, to breaking your console to Noah's laptop being damaged. Adaline did it all. It was one of the reasons Uncle Beck would always be so mad at father for punishing me. Uncle Beck was part of my alibi but father never believed him." I looked back down. I didn't want to see the look on his face. Whatever guilty look he would have.
"So the... uh... the incident that happened with Adaline?"
I knew what he was referring to. The reason I was sent away. I looked at him with tears still in my eyes. I simply shook my head no. He looked at me and I really thought he was going to make me out for a liar. Like the rest of them had always done. But he didn't. He didn't say anything.
He simply took me in his arms again and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead.
"You believe me?" I whispered to him. He looked down at me with a small smile.
"Of course I do. And now I also fully understand Theo." he murmured.
"Theo?"
"I'll explain in a bit."
I looked back at the officers, they still did not have the full story. I needed to tell them. I needed to put my hurt out into the world. It was the only way to fully heal and get her behind bars.
"When I was eight, Candace locked me in a cupboard for four days, seemingly forgetting that I was in there. Again she was either drunk or high. When she took me out she chained me to the wall and proceeded to give me her judgement. And after that if I was still screaming in pain she would drug me up. She would rather have a quiet child than a crying one." I nodded at maman to show the pictures she had.
"But everything went to complete shit when I turned ten. She invited her drug dealer over. 'Uncle Tommy' was what I was supposed to call him. She sold me to him on my birthday." I started laughing. "I was sold for a couple grand and drugs. That is how much I was worth to her."
"That went on for a few more years, until I ran. I came here and never looked back."
I told the officers more details of the punishments I got. How long it took for me to get clean from the drugs I had become reliant on. I also in detail explained how my back got branded. Word for word. Letter for letter. I had to relive all of the memories again. I had to relive the pain again. At the end of the interview I was a tired sobbing mess and fell asleep whilst being in Kiel's arms. My brother. The twin to my protective knight. The only one who supported me and would become my rock over the next few months. He would have a bigger spot in my heart than I had ever given anyone before. Even bigger than Noah had. I just didn't know it yet.
Hoped you liked it, please comment your thoughts and vote
Till next time,
Sarah