I walked back into Jane and Peter’s house calling out their names as I did so. Liam followed me tentatively. He thought what I planned to do was a bad idea but I had two options and I had to choose the one that would keep Noah and I together.
“Hey, where’s Liam?” Jane asked coming out of the kitchen.
“He decided to stay out a little while longer. Where’s Peter?”
“He’s outside with the kids, playing soccer as usual,” Jane rolled her eyes.
“I’ve thought about the whole adoption thing and I think we should talk about it.”
“Well what have you decided?” Jane asked sitting down at the dining table. I sat down with her.
“Jane, I know you and Peter would be beautiful parents to Noah but he needs family. That’s me. I’m his family and I can’t miss this opportunity. I feel like if I let you and Peter adopt Noah, I feel like I’d be taking the easy way out and you know me. Taking the easy way out is not my style and I don’t agree with it. It’s why I’ve put up with my job for so long, it’s why I didn’t just forget about Noah and run away. I just feel as though I need to be the one to take care of him.”
Jane nodded slowly but I didn’t miss the look of disappointment on her face. I felt bad for not letting them adopt Noah but he was my brother and he was my responsibility. I needed to be there for him. I couldn’t be gallivanting around the world and let other people raise my brother. He was my family. My only family and I was his. We should be together just like I promised him when we were younger. Noah and I against the world.
I went back to the hotel after saying bye to Jane. I assumed she would want to talk privately to Peter so I decided to just head back to the hotel to get some rest so I could visit Noah as soon as the hospital visiting hours allowed.
I jumped on the comfy bed and turned the TV on. I flicked through the channels and started thinking absentmindedly about how I would tell Amber that I was going to quit so I could raise Noah. She would not be happy and the record label would definitely not be happy. In their eyes I had just cost them millions of dollars. In my eyes I was pulling myself together.
A knock on my door sounded and I rolled off my bed to go and answer it. I opened it to see Amber.
“Did you miss me?” I asked as she waltzed right in.
“Not even a little bit.”
“Me either,” I said with a smile.
“So how’s Noah?”
“He’s,” I gulped thinking of his battered state, “He’s pretty bad. Nothing he can’t bounce back from though. It’ll just take time.”
“All things do,” Amber murmured.
I was about to agree with her but a furious hand pounded at my door so fiercely that the door shook. Amber and I shared concerned looks before I went to open it.
“Daisy, how could you be so unbelievably naive?” Peter asked as soon as I opened the door. “This isn’t only going to ruin Noah’s life but it’ll ruin yours! You can’t possibly look after your brother all by yourself! You barely know how to look after yourself! And you can’t just throw away your career! You know how stupid you would be to throw away all of that? Noah needs stability and we can give him that! Why won’t you let us do what is best for Noah?”
“What’s he talking about Daisy?”
“I’m talking about the fact that Daisy wants to adopt Noah!” Peter shouted at Amber.
“Why shouldn’t I? He’s my brother! I have a right-”
“Yes, you have a right to be concerned about him but you are not the best thing for Noah and deep down you know that. Daisy, if you go through with this it will be the most irresponsible thing you’ve ever done. You can’t raise a child.”
“Why the hell not?” I demanded to know.
“Because you are a child!” Peter shouted. “Whether you like it or not you are still a child!”
“I’m twenty three years old for crying out loud! If I’m a child then you’re a teenager!” I retorted. “I can look after Noah! I’ve been doing it my whole life!”
“You’ve been doing it up until you were sixteen! For the last seven years Jane and I have been there to protect him from your parents! Jane and I have been the ones to clean him up after he’s suffered a beating from your dad! Jane and I have been the ones to cheer him up when your mum tells him he’s a waste of space! Jane and I have been the ones to look after him whilst you’ve been god knows where! Jane and I have been there ever since he was born! He basically is our child!”
“I’ve done the best I could by Noah!” I cried out. “I didn’t have a choice! My parents were going to kick me out if I didn’t do it! But they don’t get a say anymore so I’m quitting and I’ll look after Noah the way I was always meant to!”
“Wait you want to quit your job?” Amber asked. “You can’t just do that Daisy! Your job is-”
“Is what?” I demanded. “My job means nothing to me! I did it because I had to and no other reason! I would love nothing better than to leave it! Being a parent to Noah would be the best and easiest job in the world.”
“And that right there is why you can’t be a parent! You’ve never been a parent! You don’t know the first thing about parenting! You think it’s easy! It is not easy!”
“Daisy,” Amber approached me softly, “Peter is right. You can’t raise Noah. You aren’t ready. You need to live your life, fall in love and get married. You shouldn’t be tied down to parenting Noah for the rest of your life and I know you know deep down in your heart that you aren’t the best thing for Noah. You love him and he loves you and that won’t change. That will never change but I think it would be best if you didn’t blur the lines of sister and mother.”
“I thought you supported me on this,” I said backing away. Whenever I told Amber of my plans to one day get Noah out of my parents hands she had always seemed supportive.
“I supported you on getting Noah away from your parents but I never-”
“Leave. Both of you. Leave,” I demanded. I stared at them and they stared at me. “LEAVE!”
“Do what’s best for Noah,” Peter said before closing the door behind him.
I screamed. I just screamed. I had had a plan all my life and that plan was to someday get custody of Noah and now that I could do it people were telling me my plan wasn’t the best idea. That I wasn’t Noah’s best shot and that hurt because I wanted to be Noah’s best shot. I was his sister and I should’ve been his best shot. So that night I went to the mini fridge and pulled out the bottle of vodka that was in there. I poured myself a glass and sat on my bed and stared into nothing as I sipped my drink and tears fell down my face because despite the fact that I despised everything that Peter said, he was right about everything. My biggest fear was coming true. I wasn’t Noah’s best shot and I’d always known that deep down but I ignored it because other people had never said I wasn’t but now people had. I wasn’t Noah’s best shot.
A knock on the door sounded a half hour later and I’d already downed half the bottle. My glass lay forgotten and I held the bottle by the neck as I glumly went to answer the door.
“Liam,” I said.
“Daisy, what are you doing?”
“Drinking away my sorrows. As usual,” I added darkly before taking another swig.
“I think that’s enough for you,” Liam said immediately taking the drink from me.
“Whatever,” I said and I just went to the mini fridge and grabbed the bottle of bourbon instead. I twisted the top and started drinking. I cringed at the mix of alcohols but ignored my throat that felt as though it was on fire.
“What happened?” Liam asked taking the bottle of bourbon off of me as well. I frowned before babbling out everything that happened. I told Liam of my decision and how Peter and Amber reacted.
“But I can live my life and still raise Noah. Noah wouldn’t stop me from living would he?” I asked Liam. “In guy world what would I be classified as?”
“What do you mean?” Liam asked.
“You know, complicated, simple, baggage you know.”
“I don’t want to say,” Liam admitted and I rolled my eyes. He was such a wimp at times.
“Just tell me you wuss.”
“Fine you’d be considered complicated because you’re well you and you’re famous but you’d also come with baggage because of Noah. If you were to adopt him.”
“I’m hard to love aren’t I?” I asked rhetorically but before Liam could say anything I continued, “I’m not Noah’s best shot. I can’t adopt him. He deserves real parents.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do with my life but Noah is going with Jane and Peter.”
“Are you sure because once it’s done, it’s done. The courts won’t pull him out of a family if you change your mind.”
“A hundred. Jane and Peter are the best parents. When I was little, Jane and Peter would always throw me a party at their house because my parents were too busy yelling at each other to care about me and after everyone sang ‘happy birthday’ Jane would smile at me and say ‘make a wish!’ and every damn time I wished that they were my parents.”
“Were your parents really that bad?”
“When I was six I broke my arm because my dad threw my across the living room. Then I got into even more trouble because I landed on the TV and it broke. I still remember him grabbing me by my shirt and holding me in mid air and shaking me and asking me why I broke the TV and him yelling and saying I deserved to be punished. He threw me across the room again and I tore a ligament in my ankle and I broke my mother’s bowl. She punched me in the face. I had a busted cheekbone for weeks.” I breathed in and out heavily before continuing. Liam had a sombre expression and he looked as though he was going to cry and for some reason that made me feel warm inside. “When I was twelve, I was severely sick. I had a soaring temperature and I was coughing badly. I left my medicine cup in the sink and my mum didn’t like that. To ‘teach me a lesson’ she took me outside, in the middle of winter – it was snowing and the grass was frozen, and told me to stand against the wall. She grabbed a tennis ball and started throwing it at me. Then after about a half hour of that she told me to sleep in the garage. Mind you, my face was bloody because the ball hit my face a few times and my legs and stomach were killing me. The next day I had huge bruises all over my body.”
“I’m so sorry,” Liam whispered and I shrugged.
“It’s not a big deal. What happened, happened.”
“Of course it’s a big deal,” Liam said and he did something I would never have expected. He pulled me into a huge hug, his hands wrapped around me like my very own personal security blanket. My arms slowly made their way around his body and I rested my chin on his shoulder and for some reason, in that moment, I felt safe.
.
.
.
.
.
A/N: Hi Everyone!! Sorry for the delayed update!! But life happens and it was mother's day and I had a wedding over the weekend and between my very busy weekend and school I didn't find much time to write!!
VOTE or COMMENT if you like this chapter!!!
1) Thoughts on this chapter?
2) Who agrees with Peter?
3) Cute moment at the end!!! Diam!!! Who thinks Daisy will start warming up towards Liam?
THANKS FOR READING!!!
-Natalie xx