Hola! Thank you SO much for all the amazing reviews! I am so humbled and blown away. You guys are seriously awesome! It is such wonderful motivation knowing that you readers are enjoying this story :)
I wanted to let you guys know that I am currently working two jobs, so writing is becoming a little harder, but I promise to update every chance I get. Please bear with me! I am loving how this story line is developing, so I plan to keep it going :) I appreciate all of your support!
Lastly, I want to mention beforehand that the end of this chapter contains a minor scene that alludes to abuse.
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Alex had passed by Amber's room a few times now. It just never seemed like the right moment to go in…the doctor was either putting on her cast, explaining things to her, or Amber and Meredith were caught up in some lively conversation that he didn't want to interrupt. But those were all just excuses. He was trying to put off what he inevitably knew was coming. The second he went in there, he'd have to truly face her and whatever story she had brought along with her. He was dead set on killing whoever was involved in this 'accident' of hers, but confronting her meant he'd have to come to terms with what he'd done in the past…leaving her behind.
As the doctor was finishing up fitting Amber with a sling, Meredith caught another glimpse of Alex quickly shuffling by the window for the hundredth time. Thankfully Amber wasn't looking in that direction and if she'd noticed his constant laps outside her room, she never acted like it.
"Hey, I'll be right back. I need to go check on something," Meredith politely excused herself from the room. She closed the door softly behind her, looking in both directions for the evader. "Alex," she hissed in a low tone, trying to draw him out.
At hearing his name, he popped his head from behind the corner. "What?!" he harshly whispered back, fearful that Amber might hear him.
Meredith rolled her eyes and stomped over to his current hiding spot. He stared at her, acting like he didn't know what she wanted. Then without giving it a second thought, she made a fist and punched him hard on the upper arm.
"Ouch!" he cried, grabbing onto his now-throbbing arm. She packed a mean punch for such a small person. "What was that for?!"
She folded her arms across her chest, clearly annoyed. "What the hell are you doing? Quit stalling and get in there with her."
Alex opened his mouth to defend himself and say some lame excuse, but when he saw her raise her first up again, he thought twice about his answer. "How is she?" he questioned.
Meredith turned on her heel and began walking back toward the room, his signal to follow along. "She's fine. It was only a hairline fracture, so they put the cast on already. They're just finishing up now actually." They paused outside the door, watching as the doctor cleared everything away to leave. Amber was staring down at her latest fashion accessory, slowly picking at a loose thread on the sling. "See? Perfect timing," she encouraged.
She had no idea what kind of relationship Amber and Alex actually had—or didn't have for that matter. He had never been one to sit around the campfire and share his past. So many things about this situation didn't add up and judging by his demeanor, he was obviously trying to put off talking to her. Knowing Alex was temperamental when it came to telling anything about his personal life, she had refrained from asking more, but she knew he needed an extra push to get the ball rolling on this one.
So, as the doctor and nurse opened the door to step out, Meredith grabbed a hold of it and with her free hand, gave Alex a rough shove in the right direction.
The sudden push threw him off balance and he stumbled into the room, causing Amber to turn and see his less-than-graceful entrance. Alex went to grumble something obscene at Meredith, but by the time he turned around, she was nowhere in sight.
Alex coughed awkwardly as he made his way over to her, rolling up a stool to sit beside her bed. His mind was racing with so many questions. Why was she here? Who did that to her? How had she broken her wrist before? Was their mom even lucid enough to realize she was missing? And not a single question seemed like a good one to lead with. So he said the only thing he could come up with. "Green, nice choice," he stated flatly, motioning to her cast. Her arm was resting in a blue sling across her chest, only part of her hand peeking out the side. She wiggled her fingers, taking it all in again. Before she could say anything, he got a sudden burst of courage to speak. "Amber…I saw something on the x-ray and I want…," he began but was interrupted.
The words registered instantly in her head. She knew exactly what he was referring to. She could lie and hide things from everyone, but there was no denying the truth an x-ray showed. Each one told it's own little story—or at least the ending of it. There were lots of blank spaces to be filled in, but this wasn't the moment. There was no way they could play catch up on the last years in a single conversation.
Attempting a comedic approach on him alluding to her multiple fractures, Amber cut in, "I figure I'll get blue next time so I can keep making my way through the colors of the rainbow." She let out a nervous laugh but was met with a harsh glare from her brother.
The smile quickly faded as they sat there in silence. Clearly she didn't want to talk about the things Alex wanted, but he wasn't about to just accept that. The air grew thick with tension as one sibling came to get answers and the other was dead set on keeping as much of it a secret as possible. She had showed up at his workplace and that demanded some explanation at least.
"Amber," he tried again, taking a deep breath before continuing, "How did it happen?" He nodded toward her most recent break.
She avoided meeting his eyes, preferring to stare at the counter in front of the bed. She'd known he would want answers, how could he not after she'd shown up out of the blue, but it had never been in her plans to tell him any real details.
"I fell down the steps at school," she explained stoically, not elaborating any further. "You may not know this, but I'm pretty clumsy." Of course he wouldn't know that…because he had to know her first, which was why she figured this story was a good cover.
Alex's eyebrows rose in disbelief that it'd been something so simple. But a "fall" didn't explain one thing. "Then why did you have marks around your wrist?" he countered.
"What marks?" He wasn't supposed to have seen those. She'd tried to hide them, but obviously the too-short-for-her sleeves on her jacket didn't help before.
"The bruises," he insisted. "Like fingers," he added as an afterthought. Because someone had grabbed her, that he was sure of. His mind began to race with every possible scenario that he'd lived through himself and his stomach cringed at the near thought of her experiencing the same thing.
Amber paused as she looked down at her wrist, like she had x-ray vision to see through the cast. "I don't remember seeing any bruises like that," she lied. Much to her relief, it was really her word against his because the answers were buried until layers of plaster.
Displeased with her answer, he narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, forming a slightly hostile barricade between them. "Why did you even come?" he spat in a low tone, deeply frustrated that this wasn't going anywhere.
She sighed heavily as she mindlessly picked at the same loose thread on her sling. She became determined to rip it out and her attention was fixated only on it, blocking out any other thoughts.
The slow steady clicking of the clock hanging on the wall echoed throughout the room. As each second passed, he grew increasingly impatient. Unable to control himself at seeing her so indifferent to this whole conversation, he yelled, "Amber!"
Abruptly pulled from her task, her head shot up and she met his eyes. They were hard, pressing her to give him any information. He opened them wider, silently demanding her to speak. She'd wanted to keep things from him, but he wasn't buying the story she was dishing out. Nothing was going as planned. If she didn't give him something real, he would be kicking her out of here and shipping her back to Iowa in no time. And that would create a whole new set of problems for her. No. She needed him to understand why she was here…why she had run away…why she needed him to take her in.
She cleared her throat before stating simply, "Your checks."
Alex stared at her, lost in confusion. "My checks?"
"Your checks came every month…like clockwork. Mom used to say that you were the responsible out of all of us." A small smile tugged at the side of his lips. If he hadn't been responsible, none of them would have eaten back in the day. "Those checks were probably the only reliable thing in my life." She paused to take a deep breath before continuing, "For as long as I can remember, before Mom would cash them, I always analyzed your signature—seeing if you'd signed it differently. I used to make up all these silly stories." She laughed at just how stupid it sounded out loud, especially saying it to him.
"Stories about what?" Alex prompted. He still had no idea where this was going, but he was grateful that at least she was speaking something truthfully.
"Sometimes your signature was very sloppy, like you were in a rush. So I'd invent this elaborate story and tell Aaron about how you were signing it when someone rushed in and needed you for an emergency brain surgery on a dying baby, so you hurried to finish signing it," she explained.
Alex couldn't help but smile. "You know I'm not a neurosurgeon, right?"
Her grin matched his. "I do now." She hesitated a moment before continuing, "Over the next couple of years, some of your checks would go missing. I'd tried to confront mom about it whenever she was in a coherent state, but she'd always assured me she'd cashed them. Turned out that was a lie and more than one of her 'boyfriends'," she air quoted, "made away with the check."
He let out a frustrated sigh as he ran his hand along his firm jaw. He leaned in closer, resting his elbows on his knees. "If I'd known…"
With a reassuring smile, she replied, "Don't worry. We can't change the past." That was something they'd both have to learn to accept. He nodded apologetically before urging her to continue. "Finally, Aaron helped me convince mom that I should be in charge of the checks. So starting about a year ago, I'd take the checks to the bank and deposit them, but not before taking a small amount out for myself...never anything big, maybe $20 or so every time. Last month I'd finally saved up almost $300. I had already planned on how I was going to use it." Alex nodded, wanting her to continue. She felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment as the words hit her lips, "The SAT and ACTs are coming up. And then there's college apps and everything."
"You want to go to college?" Alex asked, his voice a mixture of pure shock and pride.
Amber shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "Aaron used to tell me that I could do it, be like you. I don't know, it was just an idea. But one story at a time, okay?" Alex scooted his stool a little closer to her as he waited for her to continue. "So like any classy person, I hid the cash under my mattress. Then one day last week, I came home and as soon as I opened the front door, I heard a bunch of loud noises…"
Amber stood motionless for a moment, trying to decipher which room all the noise was coming from. She inwardly cringed when she realized it was coming from hers down the hall. What would it be this time? Amber walked down the short hallway, glancing into her mom's room and not surprised to find her sitting there, rocking back and forth in a chair, staring mindlessly at the television, seemingly oblivious to everything that was happening under her roof. She was mentally checked out for the night.
"Son of a bitch!" a man's voice bellowed from inside her room.
Amber neared the door just in time to see her mom's latest boyfriend Greg throw her lamp across the room, shattering into a million pieces on the floor. He suddenly turned, noticing her presence in the doorway.
"There you are!" he accused loudly, reaching out to forcefully grab onto her wrist and yank her into the room. "You fucking thief!" It didn't take long for her to smell the alcohol reeking off his breath.
Her eyes danced between Greg and all the broken objects behind him. Her drawers had been pulled out and thrown carelessly in a pile, clothes hanging out everywhere. She felt anger slowly build up in her chest at seeing the chaos in her room. He had no right to even touch so much as a sock of hers. She scoffed, "What are you talking about?" She pulled her arm from his grasp and instinctively took a step backwards, but there was nowhere to go and she found herself pressed up against the wall.
"You stole from me!" he shouted, raising his hands up in the air.
Amber shook her head. This really couldn't be happening. Greg took a step to the side and she was able to get a full glimpse of her bed: sheets ripped off and her mattress laid at an awkward angle, half resting on the bed, half on the floor. And then it hit here.
"No," she begged quietly before shoving past him and over to her bed. She ran her hand underneath the remaining part of the mattress, devastated that she didn't find anything. "Where's my envelope?" she demanded.
He let out a small laugh as an evil smile spread across his lips. "You mean my envelope?" he countered, pulling it out of his pocket and holding it up in front of her.
Amber stood up straight, staring him right in the eye. "Give. Me. My. Money," she commanded between clenched teeth. When he didn't show any signs of replying, without even thinking, she reached out to grab the envelope he was parading in front of her, but her hand was intercepted as he strongly wrapped his fingers around her wrist.
"You think you can steal from me and get away with it?" he growled, taking a step closer to her.
Panic started to fill her body. This was happening again and her mother was in another world and her brother was away working a job and wouldn't be home for days. There was nobody here to save her and the only option she knew was to ride through the storm, but she wasn't going to do so quietly.
"You lying bastard," she seethed, struggling against his grasp.
His grip tightened and a small cry of pain escaped her lips. "You're going to regret saying that," he threatened, his voice laced with rage.
He squeezed her wrist tighter, pulling her in closely before roughly throwing her body backwards. Before she knew it, her arm smacked harshly onto the corner of her dresser as she went tumbling to the ground. Unable to stop her tumbling body, she crashed onto the floor, hitting her head on the metal frame of her bed. The last thing Amber remembered was seeing his wicked grin as he turned on his heel and walked out of the room and their house…with her money.
"And then everything went black. I came to in the middle of the night. I shoved as much as I could into my bag, grabbed the $20 bill I'd taped under the sink, and ran like hell," Amber finished as she wiped away a few stray tears that had fallen.
They both sat in silence, neither knowing what to say. Alex's throat had become increasingly tighter with each sentence of the story she'd just told. What kind of dick hurts an innocent, defenseless teenager? Who did he think he was, making off with his money? Alex wanted to scream, to vow to get revenge on this sick bastard, to hunt him down and rip him limb from limb. But none of that was the right thing to say in that moment…when his sister's watery green eyes stared back at him, pleading for him to make things better, to assure her that she was safe here…that nobody would ever send her back there again…that the past wouldn't repeat itself again.
And he said the only thing he could think of…the one sure way to guarantee that she'd be protected. He reached out and rested a hand on her knee, trying to comfort her in his own way. Then he announced, "You're never going back there. You're staying with me now."