I walk into the hotel that my brothers are staying in and I sit in the lobby waiting for them to get back from the police station.
Knox taps my leg and I turn towards him. "What?"
He points to a girl that keeps staring at me. "Do you know her?"
"I don't know." As I take a closer look at her I start to notice the blonde staring at me. "Jenny?" I ask.
The girl looks at me. "Yeah," she scratches the back of her neck. "Hey, Ari. I didn't know if you would remember me."
I walk over to her. "How could I forget my best friend. The one that got knocked up and disappeared during our senior year."
Her face pales. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you where I went, Ari. You remember how religious my parents are. They sent me away to give birth to my child. As soon as my daughter was born she was taken from me. I never got to hold her." By the end of the story she's crying.
She had a daughter. My brother had a daughter. Could this girl be my niece? Did my brother and best friend sleep together?
Looking at her I ask. "Who was the father?"
Behind me I hear a male say. "Jennifer?"
She turns and looks at the guy behind us.
I turn as well and see that it's my brother.
She hides behind me.
"Brad?"
He looks at me. "Hey, sis. I'm glad you met the mother of my child."
Now, I have two people to break the news to. I don't want to do this.
"Brad, Jen. We need to talk." I walk away from Shawn and Evan without saying a word to them.
Brad and Jen follow me to the restaurant.
The waiter looks at me. "Welcome to Hotspot. Do you have a reservation?"
I shake my head. "I didn't know we had to have a reservation."
The restaurant is empty.
He looks back at the book. "I have a table in the back corner that you can have. Can I have your name?"
"Ariana," I tell him.
He puts my name in the book. "Follow me."
We follow him onto the restaurant. "Can we get a hug of water please." I look at his name tag and it says 'Collin.' "Collin,"
He smiles at me. "Sure, I'll be back in a minute." He puts three menus in front of us. He walks away to get the water.
"We're not here to eat are we?"
"No," I cross my hands. "I have to tell you something that I learnt a couple of hours ago and it involves the both of you."
Jen frowns. "How does this involve me?"
Brad looks at the table. "I think it has something to do with our daughter. I've been looking for her for awhile now and I couldn't find anything until Bethany."
Jen looks at him. "My parents sent me to a church that dealt with kids like me. They would treat you well while you were pregnant, but as soon as the baby was born you weren't allowed to see them. Our daughter was taken from me and I never got to hold her." Tears begin to fall down her face. "I think they filled out the birth certificate with fake information, so it wouldn't be easy for us to find her. I was sent home the next day and told that I should forget about the child." She takes a deep breath. "When I got home things got worse. My parents would beat me, but in places that people wouldn't see it. I was forced to go to church everyday and I wasn't allowed to go near boys. Mom would tell me they were the devil. She sent me to an all girls school, so I wouldn't get knocked up again."
*Flashback*
Jen and I walked into her house and we headed to the dining room.
We placed our bags on the floor next to our chairs and we pulled our homework out of our bags.
Jen looked at me after she read the first question of our assignment that we had been partnered with for. "So, what do you want do for the homework?"
"Teen pregnancy?"
Jen smiles. "That's a good topic."
Footsteps are heard approaching the kitchen and Jen put her index finger up to her mouth telling me to be quiet.
Her Mom entered the kitchen and she looked at Jen and then at me. She holds her hand out to me. "Hi, is Rose. Jen's mother."
I shake her hand. "Ariana, it's nice to meet you."
She looks at the table. "What are you girls working on?"
Jen looks at her mother. "It's an English assignment. We have to find an old book and present it to the class and tell them what we liked and hated about it."
"Why don't you do it on Romeo and Juliet."
"They die at the end, Rose. Why would we want to write about something that has been done a thousand times. Romeo and Juliet are from two different families that hate each other, but they fall in love anyway. Only for them to die and be together in the afterlife. Is there an afterlife for them? No, I don't think there is. Once you're dead, you're gone. That's it."
Rose grabs my arm. "You will not talk like that in my house." She holds onto her cross she's wearing. "God will greet us when it's our time and the gates will welcome the people who believe." She yells at me. "YOU'RE GOING TO HELL."
"MOM," Jen yells. "LET MY FRIEND GO!"
Rose let go of my arm. "I don't want to see your friend here again, Jen."
I pack my stuff.
I won't ever be coming back.
As we walked to the front door I see a closet under the stairs and there's a banging noise coming from inside.
Jen shook her head. "Don't open it. Mom will kill me if you did."
I ignored her and opened it.
Inside the closet I see chains on the wall and a little girl is chained to wall and she has tears falling down her face.
"We need to get her out."
Jen grabbed my arm. "You can't. It's her punishment for disobeying my parents. If you help her out she will be in even more trouble."
I touched her arm. "I'm going to help you and your sister out. You shouldn't be living like this."
*end flashback*
I tried a number of times to help those girls out, but it never worked.
The police didn't help and when they searched under the stairs there was no chains on the wall and it had stuff inside to make it look like there was nothing in there.
I knew the truth.
Brad shakes me. "Ariana?"
I look at him. "Yeah?"
He sighs. "What are we doing here?"
"Brad, I'm sorry that I have to be the one to tell you. Charlie did some research and she found your daughter."
"Where is she?" He yells.
I hold my hand up to silence him. Looking at them both I say. "She died last night."
"No," he shakes his head. "Bethany told me my daughter was fine."
"Well she's not. She died, Brad. I'm sorry."
Brad starts shaking and he places his hand in his arms.
Jen walks over to him and she comforts him. She's also crying over the daughter she never got to hold.
I walk over to Brad and I hug him. "I'm so sorry." With that I walk away leaving Jen and Brad to grieve over the loss of their daughter.
Exiting the restaurant I see Shawn and Evan standing next to each other.
They start to walk towards me and I shake my head. "Leave me alone."
I walk towards the main entrance where I find Knox and Hans. "Can we go back to the hotel?"
"Sure, let me get the car." Hans walks out of the hotel.
Knox touches my arm. "Are you alright?"
"No, telling my brother and an old friend that their daughter is dead is the hardest thing I've ever done." I point outside and say. "Everything was pointless that my brothers did. He was too late for his daughter and in the process he lost a sister."
***