It turns out that I had to repeat what happened that day a couple more times, mostly to the police, but to other family members who came by to visit and some of my friends that I was close enough to that I was okay with telling them about what had happened. Anyone else had to speculate what happened to my family. Everyone knew my mom was dead and my dad was a suspect since it was all over the news, but they didn't have all the details and they probably wouldn't until the case was close.
Not only were the local news channels covering what happened to my family and constantly trying to figure out what had happened or stating what they thought had happened, but everyone in town was coming up with their own theories on what they thought had happened. Kate and Ben were the ones who kept me update on that. I wasn't sure if my brothers knew what was going on though.
They probably hadn't turned on the television since I had gone missing and they probably didn't want to. Everybody was going to have their own opinions on what my father did and why he did it. Some of them were probably going to be outrageous and nowhere near the truth. It was going to keep people gossiping for months, trying to figure out what happened in that house and in that basement.
So, they didn't want to hear what everyone else thought had happened because it was just going to make everything harder. Some of those theories were probably just going to be hurtful, not just outrageous. My brothers seemed more focused on making sure that I was alright anyways, then what was going on in the outside world.
Not to mention when I finally stepped outside, there would be people staring at me, waiting for me to break down or whatever they thought I was going to do. I'm sure that there were people outside right now, waiting for me to get released from the hospital. And I'm sure some of those people included the media, who wanted to talk to me and hopefully be the first to get an exclusive on the story that was my version about what had happened. I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone about what happened though, except for my family of course.
That was okay with me though because I didn't feel comfortable talking about it that much anyways. Especially with people I didn't know very well. I wanted to stop thinking about it for the moment because that was all anyone seemed to want to talk about, even the nurses who were taking care of me. Although they didn't ask me anything because I'm sure they didn't want to lose their jobs, but I knew they were talking about it.
The police didn't want me to talk about what happened to anyone, including the media, and end up telling them something that they didn't want the public knowing about that could hurt the case as well as potentially help them find my father, who was making it hard to find him ever since that day had happened. And since I didn't want to say anything about the subject of what happened that day, I was glad that I didn't have to talk about it with anyone else.
I wanted my father to pay for what he has done, no matter how hard he was making it to find him. It could take weeks, months, or even years to find my father, but as long as he paid for what he did then it didn't matter how long. Although it would be nice if he was in jail right now.
Same went for my father's friend, Ron Hampton. It seemed like they both had disappeared and were doing their best not to be found. If Dad had any plans to try and make himself look innocent, then that was all out the door now. Maybe he had been keeping an eye on the news to see what the reaction was and decided that since everyone had already decided that he was guilty, he felt like it wasn't worth it.
To come back and try to prove that he was innocent since he probably figured he would end up getting arrested. You kind of make yourself look guilty when you don't show up at your burning house and show concern that your wife and daughter could be burning to death in it. I think that made everyone think he was guilty.
"When am I getting out of here?" I asked Hayden finally deciding to stay something after the twenty minutes he had been here. It was the day after and I was getting restless and maybe just a little bored of lying in a bed while doing nothing.
Even though I didn't want to go outside, I wanted to go home and be somewhere where I felt safe and comfortable. Plus, I wanted to do something else besides watch television and lay in this bed. And I just wanted to be somewhere where no one could try and sneak in to see me. No one had done that yet, but I was always wondering if the next person walking through the door was someone trying to sneak in to see me to ask me about what had happened.
I was thankful that it was summertime and I wouldn't have to face all the students at my school just yet. Because I was dreading the first day of school even though I still had two months to get through before that happened, but I knew that those two months were probably going to fly by fast and the first day of school would be here in no time. I mostly just didn't want anyone to ask me about what had happened.
And I also knew that I wouldn't have Ben or Ryan there to keep anyone from asking me about what had happened because I knew that there was going to be someone who was going to be asking me about it. And it was none of their business what was going on with my family when I didn't know the person who was asking.
"Probably in a day or two. They just want to make sure everything's fine with you and that nothing else is going to go wrong. I think they're waiting for some tests to come back before they make a decision on when you get to home for sure," he replied smiling sympathetically at me. I think he knew I wanted to go home badly.
"I feel fine. Can't I just rest at home?" I asked whining a little bit. Hayden squeezed my hand and then said, "I'm sure you'll be doing that even after you get to leave the hospital."
"Well hopefully I'll get to go home tomorrow and not the day after tomorrow. This bed is really uncomfortable and I'm super bored," I replied sighing.
He squeezed my hand again, which he hadn't let go of since he had arrived at the hospital this morning. I think he had gotten here before visiting hours had started because he was in my room the minute the nurses had said visiting hours had started. Ryan was here too, but he was in the bathroom at the moment.
Hayden and I were both silent for awhile not really having anything else to talk about at the moment. I watched my oldest brother as he stared off at something in the room, even though there wasn't too much to look at in here. There was only one picture in the room and I'm sure he had already stared at it enough the first few minutes he had been here.
Other than that picture hanging on the wall, which happened to be a painting of a flower, there was also a clock and a white board with some of my information on it. It also had my nurses' names on it and an estimated time of when I could possibly check out of the hospital, which was three days from today. None of the nurses had changed it since I had gotten here, but I was sure it was wrong.
I focused back on my brother, who seemed lost in thought. I sort of had the feeling that he may be thinking about Mom. I knew I had been thinking about her when there was nothing else distracting me. Since yesterday none of us had actually talked about Mom. We seemed to all be avoiding the subject even though I wanted to know if there was anything going on since no one had really mentioned a funeral yet.
I was afraid to ask though because I wasn't sure how Hayden was going to react. We'd never really had a death in our family, so I wasn't sure how my brothers dealt with death, especially with a death of someone we all loved very much so I settled on talking about something else that was on my mind.
"Who am I going to be living with now?" I asked. Hayden turned to look back at me.
"Me and Natalie, of course. Ryan's going to stay with the Morgans for a little longer until we can find a bigger house. He at least gets a bed if he stays there, but I know he wants to be in the same house as us. That's why Natalie's not here right now. She's talking to a realtor and looking at some houses. When she finds one she likes, then she'll call me and I'll go check it out," Hayden answered. I couldn't tell if he was happy about me and Ryan permanently staying with him until we both could move out on our own. He was sad most of the time, so nothing was currently making him happy except maybe that I was okay.
I knew he didn't have a problem with Ryan and I living with him because he would do anything for the both of us, but that didn't mean he was happy about it. He and Natalie were still newlyweds so I'm sure that this wasn't how he thought that he would be spending his first year with his new wife. They were bound to get a bigger house though especially when they decided to start having kids. But I'm sure that was going to be a couple of years from now.
They only had two rooms in their house and if they wanted to have any kids before I moved out of the house, they were going to need a bigger house eventually. But things changed and finding a bigger house was coming sooner than Hayden and Natalie had expected.
"Did either of our grandparents say they would take me?" I asked since I had figured that was what both of our grandparents had wanted to talk to Natalie and Hayden about yesterday.
"Yeah, they both offered to let you and Ryan live with them, but I told them that Natalie and I would do it. We don't want you living with anyone else. And not just because I want to do my best and protect you, but because we both figured you would be more comfortable living with us than either of our grandparents. I know they're good people and we get along with them well, but I knew you'd want to live with us and not either of them," Hayden replied. I nodded my head since I agreed with him.
I definitely did want to live with Hayden and Natalie more than either of our grandparents, so I was glad that Hayden had told them that. It was nice staying with them and now that I didn't have my mother to go back to, I wanted to stay with Hayden and Natalie. I didn't want to live with my grandparents because I thought that they wouldn't be able to protect me. I just felt like I would be safer with Hayden and Natalie than I would with my grandparents.
Plus, I had already missed living with Hayden and having him around a lot more than the past couple years ever since he had moved out. It's been nice seeing him more often than I usually did. And I didn't want that to quite to end now. Although I didn't like the reason that I would now get to see him more often, it was nice to know that seeing him more often wasn't going to end.
"Did I miss anything?" Ryan asked as he came back into the room and walked over to the opposite side of the bed that Hayden was sitting on. He sat down in the empty chair on that side and took my hand. I can't remember the last time I had held either of my brothers' hands, but it seemed like it was happening a lot more since I had woken up.
And it wasn't just my brothers who were holding my hands. Anyone who visited, held my hand while they were here. I wasn't surprised that Ben was holding my hand all the time since he was my boyfriend and we did that a lot before this had happened, but I was just a little surprised that my brothers were and maybe a few other people. It didn't mean I didn't want anyone to hold my hand or that I didn't understand why they were all holding my hand. I totally understood that they all had been scared that they were never going to see me again, but it was just a little hard getting used to my hand being held all the time.
"Nothing really. She just wanted to know when she was getting out of here and who you two were going to be living with from now on," Hayden replied looking over at him.
"I'm surprised she hasn't asked when Ben is coming to visit her," Ryan said looking over at me.
"That was my next question. Although I do have a lot more questions than just when Ben is coming to visit," I replied smiling at him. He smiled back and then said, "I'm sure you do."
"So, when is Ben coming to see me?" I asked my brothers since neither of them had mentioned when my boyfriend was coming back to see me.
I hadn't wanted him to leave when visiting hours were over yesterday. Actually, I hadn't really wanted anyone to leave me here in the hospital overnight. I didn't want to be alone because I was afraid that my father was going to show up and finish what he started, but Hayden had made sure that there were policemen outside my hospital room at all times or else I don't think he would have left me alone here. Neither would have Ben or Ryan. I knew they were all worried about leaving me here without any of them to watch over me, but I think they felt a little bit better that there were a couple policemen standing outside my door, watching for my father or anyone else who wasn't allowed to see me.
"He should be here soon. He took an earlier shift so he wouldn't have to leave later in the day or get his time with you cut off by visiting hours ending," Ryan said. I nodded my head.
"Ryan and Natalie are pretty much the only ones who got time off, but Natalie's actually taking care of the restaurant for me so she really isn't getting time off of work, just time off of her work to take care of other things while I take care of you," Hayden said as I looked over at him.
"Does Natalie actually know what she's doing while running your restaurant?" I asked him.
"Yeah, if she has a problem then she just calls me and asks me what to do. She's a quick learner and I know she wants to take as much stress off of me as she can so she's happy to do it even though she doesn't really know how to run a restaurant like I do," Hayden said.
I smiled at him and he gave me the same small smile back. It was the most any of us could manage during a time like this. Our conversations weren't like they used to be before Mom died. We were all avoiding trying to talk about her. And I think if one of us mentioned something that reminded us of her, then that would be the end of the conversation for awhile. I don't think any of us had really accepted that Mom was dead. And even though I had actually seen her dead body, I was still having a hard time accepting that I was never going to see her again.
She was just gone and that was unbelievable. I was hoping that every time someone walked through the door, that it was going to be her, saying that she was alright and that I had just been imagining things. But she never did.
"How long are you off of work for?" I asked Ryan, looking back over at him.
"Two weeks. That's all my boss would give me, but that's okay. I have to go back sometime and I'm just kind of glad that it's not longer than two weeks because it's just going to be harder to go back if I had more time off," Ryan replied.
I nodded my head as Hayden said, "We talked to your boss and she gave you as much time as you needed, which is understandable since everyone is going to want to ask you about what happened. I think she wants you to come back when everyone had settled down a bit about what happened."
"I don't think that's going to be for awhile Hayden. Murders don't happen that often in this town, so people are going to talk about this for months, but it's nice to know that Kayla doesn't have a set time for me to come back. I'm not going to take advantage of that though. I'll probably go back to work before school starts," I replied.
"Just take your time with it, alright? You don't need to go back to work if you're not ready. Kayla understands that. And I know people are going to be talking for awhile, that's why you need to be ready when you go back to work. So, you can handle all the staring and people trying to ask you questions about what happened. If you go back too soon, then things will just get harder because you weren't ready to deal with nosy people," Hayden said.
I nodded my head but didn't say anything. My brothers took that as a sign that I didn't want to talk about the subject anymore, so we all grew quiet until Ben showed up in my room. I saw both of my brothers get up and say that they were going to go get some lunch. They told me they'd be back in about an hour or more unless Natalie called and said she had found a house and then left my room as Ben came over to me and sat down in the chair Ryan had been sitting in, which also happened to be the same chair Ben had been sitting in when I had first woken up. He smiled at me as he took my hand and then kissed.
"Hey babe, sorry I wasn't here when visiting hours started. I had to work. My boss can't afford to give me time off that involves more than a couple days straight, but he is letting me have all the earliest shifts so I can have the rest of the day to spend time with you and be there when your brothers have to go do something else," Ben said squeezing my hand.
"That's okay. I know you'd be here earlier if you could be, but I'm glad you're here now. I've missed you. I wish you could spend the night here," I replied. He smiled at me again and then said, "Me too babe. Me too."
***
The next day in the afternoon, I was able to leave the hospital. And just like I thought, there were people waiting outside for me. It was mostly the media trying to get me to do an interview with them or to answer a question, but there were some curious bystanders who wanted to see me for some reason. I seemed to have become famous for all the wrong reasons because it looked like there were people who didn't even live in this town that had come to see me. There had been some familiar faces that I had seen before, but didn't really know, and then there had been some unfamiliar faces.
I didn't get to talk to anyone though, not that I would have if I had gotten the chance. My brothers, Ben, and Ben's brothers were all surrounding me as I exited the hospital and not giving anyone the chance to come near me. I didn't mind though since I really just wanted to go home and not talk to anyone who I wasn't close to. Talking to people who didn't know me was not on my agenda at the moment.
Some of those people would be just too pushy and wouldn't know when to stop. And I didn't think I would be able to handle any pushy or nosy people at the moment. I wanted people who knew when I didn't want to talk about something and would change the subject so I wouldn't have to talk about that something anymore.
When we were all safely inside Ben's house, which I was told where we were going after we had gotten into the car, I sighed a breath of relief. I hugged Kate, her sister, and her mother before joining all the boys on the couch. Sitting in between Ben and Hayden, I was curious to find to find out what Mr. Morgan had to tell us, which is the reason why we had come here instead of going to Hayden's house. We still had to wait for Mr. Morgan to arrive, as well as Natalie, my grandparents, Nick, and I'm guessing Brooke since I'm sure Ryan had called her to tell her to come over to Ben's house.
"How are you doing?" Ben asked me after Hayden had gotten off the couch and went off into the kitchen, most likely to talk to Mrs. Morgan. I took my head off Ben's shoulder to look up at him before answering with, "Okay. I'm glad that I'm no longer lying in a hospital bed."
"I'm glad about that too. I'm just glad in general that you're okay. And by okay, I mean alive. I know you're not really okay, so just know I'm here if you want to talk about it," Ben replied. I knew he was talking about my mom.
I had talked about her with him a little bit, but eventually it got too hard to talk about her after a while, so I had to stop. Thinking about her in general was kind of hard so actually talking about her aloud was even harder and wasn't something I could talk that much about. I didn't really say much anyways when Ben had asked me about her. He had just wanted to know if I wanted to talk about my mother or what had happened in that basement, but I really couldn't say that much. Even though I had talked about what happened in that basement, I had only given the basic facts, stuff that everyone needed to know about who my father really was.
I hadn't really talked about how I felt while I was down there. Or what I was thinking about when I realized my mom was dead. It was hard to talk about all those things right now even if I was talking to my boyfriend. Ben seemed to know when I had enough of talking about Mom though since he always changed the subject at the perfect moment.
"I know. I appreciate it Ben," I said smiling at him, even though I don't think it was one of my real smiles. It was hard to smile and be happy when my mom had just died. He smiled back and then said, "I would kiss you if there weren't so many people in this room."
"I'm sure we'll have time for that later. We're probably going to end up eating dinner here since you and I both know your mom isn't going to let us leave her house without putting food into our stomachs. So, after your dad is done telling us whatever he has to tell us, we can escape to your room and hopefully do some making out before Brooke and Ryan join us. I know you're sharing your room now so we're not always going to have it to ourselves when Ryan wants to be around me," I replied leaning in close to him. We were close enough to kiss, but the fact that his brothers and one of mine were still in the same room as us, was the reason we weren't.