Sorry for the delay, life has been busy.
Charlie POV
Monday morning comes around quickly, I am already on my way to school and I am feeling so relieved to finally get away from that house. I have been on edge ever since I heard Meredith on the phone yesterday and I have felt the need to be on high alert at all times. I let out a yawn, for the first time in a while I don't think I had any sleep last night.
The car pulls into the carpark at Anchor Beach and I hop out quickly to walk into the school, I don't even acknowledge my driver. Within a minute Lenas car pulls up too and the Foster family all jump out, Callie yells out my name and runs over to me. I feel her arms wrap around me and I instantly feel a sense of safety, I feel relief wash over me and I wrap my arms around Callie too.
"it's so good to see you Charlie, we miss you!" Callie exclaims.
"I miss you too.. so much" I reply, Callie looks at me with concern, "Everything okay?" Callie asks.
"Oh um yeah, everything is fine. It's just weird being with another family.. again. You probably know what it's like living with strangers.." my voices quietens at the end of my statement.
I look up to Callie who still has some concern on her face, "Yeah I know that feeling, it's not very nice. Remember you have me to talk to if you need to?" I nod my head in reply and give Callie a small smile, I wish I could tell her everything but I don't know enough yet.
The rest of the Foster family have now joined us and said their good mornings to me, the bell rings in the distance giving us our cue to head to our classes. I say goodbye to everyone but Lena decides to walk me to my first class.
Walking side by side I don't really know what to say to her "So you had a good weekend at the Montgomerys?" Lena asks.
My brain freezes and I don't know how to reply, Lena is someone who I struggle with lying to "I.. uh.. yeah, I guess".
"You don't seem very certain?" Lena asks further.
I open my mouth to talk but close it again, I have to lie, I have heard Meredith already making threats from the phone call I overheard and I am not putting anyone in danger. I guess if I give her a white lie it's not as bad "I mean, I just need to get used to living with them. I.. I have never lived with anyone like them before so it's a lot to get used to.. you know?".
Lena puts her arm around me "Of course it will be, you still need to get to know them but I know this is going to work out for you Charlie" Lena says with a smile. I display another fake smile for Lena, oh how I wish that were true.
Lena drops me off to my class before she heads to the office "Have a good day Charlie. We all can't wait to have you around for dinner. See you later". I give Lena a wave before I walk into class, thank god I do not have to go back to the Montgomery's until tonight, the longer I can stay away the better.
It's just after lunchtime and I am heading into English class, as soon as I walk through the door Timothy instructs me that something has happened to my brother and that I needed to go to the office right away. Horrible thoughts race through my head as I think but what has happened to Jude, my walk starts to turn into a run and I find I am at the office within minutes. I walk through reception in which I am instantly waved through, my heart is racing and I feel like I am about to burst into tears. I open the door and walk into the office, my heart stops as I instantly see the face of the one woman I don't want to be anywhere near. Meredith looks at me, she looks to be worried but I can sense that it's not genuine.
"Come sit down Charlie" Lena says to me. I slowly make my way to the chair next to Meredith, who grabs my hand, I instantly want to pull away but I restrain myself.
"What..What's going on? Is Jude okay?" I blurt out.
Lena looks taken aback "Oh honey yes, Jude is okay. Jude is safe in class" She responds.
"Then why am I here?" I remark, I don't mean it to sound rude but I only have one brother and Timothy said something had happened to my brother.
Meredith looks at me now "It's Cam" She says with a snuffle, "He had an accident at school today, he hurt his head and is at the hospital with Denny and Claudia. I was with him and he is in a stable condition but I thought we should tell you and bring you to the hospital too.. to be with your family" Meredith gives my hand a squeeze but I don't feel any kind of love from her gesture.
"That's good that he is okay now..and I.. I don't mean to sound rude but.. but do I have to go with you now. I mean I still have three classes left today and I'm already behind" I look to Lena for support who responds with empathy written on her face.
Meredith squeezes my hand harder and not in a pleasant way "I came all this way to get you Charlie, you have just joined this family and I think it is very important for you to be with us during this hard time. We would all really appreciate it, especially Cam" Meredith says.
Lena cuts in now "It's okay Charlie, I can collect up all of your classwork from your next classes and I can give them to you tonight at dinner".
"Oh Charlie won't be able to make it to dinner tonight. We are planning for a late night at the hospital, we want to all eat dinner together with Cam" Meredith replies sharply.
"What!? No!? I need to go for dinner. Lena has to go over my English assignment. You said I could go there every Monday!" My heart races and my hands begin to sweat, I have to go to the Fosters tonight, I can't wait another day. I don't care If i'm getting snappy or rude at this point.
Lena stands up and walks around her desk, she comes over to me and wraps me in a hug "Honey it's okay, we will organise another day for you to come over for dinner. Right?" She looks towards Meredith for confirmation.
Meredith smirks "Yes, right. Once Cam is feeling better we can sort out another time".
I know that Meredith is probably struggling with what has happened to Cam but all I want to do is run away from her, I want to run into Lena's arms and never let go but I know that isn't going to solve anything. Meredith is not going to let me avoid this 'family time'. "Okay" I say to Lena before Meredith stands up next to me.
She walks towards to door "Come on then, we need to get back to Cam. Bye Lena, talk soon", I stand up and walk towards the door too. Lena's voice sounds behind me "Don't worry Charlie, we will see you soon okay? I promise".
I turn and give her a nod before I leave the office and follow Meredith to her car, that's the first time that I don't believe what Lena has said to me. I know thats a promise she probably won't be able to keep if mental Meredith has anything to do with it.
We have been in the car for five minutes now and I haven't said a single word to Meredith, sure I feel bad that Cam has hurt himself but I am currently feeling absolutely despised by this woman next to me. She has pulled me away from my family once again, my real family. I don't want to go to the hospital and I am certain that Cam doesn't give a shit about if I am there or not, it is just Meredith trying to take control. I look out the window and notice that we are not going even remotely close to the hospital.
"Where are we going? The hospital is that way" I say pointing towards the opposite direction in which we are driving.
"Denny messaged me and Cam is at home now. So we are going there" She says to me.
"Oh okay, then why couldn't I stay at school then?" I respond.
"Charlie! Don't you start to be rude with me. I don't appreciate how you snapped at me in front of Lena before and if you start again you will be sorry. You hear me?" snaps Meredith.
My heart starts to race again "I was just saying how I felt" I remark under my breath.
"What was that Charlotte?"
"Nothing, it doesn't matter" I say. We go through the rest of the drive in silence as Meredith angrily swerves through the many roads that lead to the Montgomery mansion.
Lena POV
"I know, I know Stef. This is disappointing but what was I going to say? I couldn't make her let Charlie stay or come to dinner" Stef is communicating her disappointment down the phone line. I called Stef as soon as Meredith and Charlie had left, she needed a heads up as she was looking forward to tonight all weekend.
"Yes I told her we would reschedule for another day soon, she wasn't happy but what else can you do" I say.
"Your right love, I know that we can do dinner with Charlie any other day. I'm just disappointed. I will send Charlie a message later this evening and maybe i'll pop by the school tomorrow to say hello since I wont be seeing her tonight" Stef says to Lena.
"That would be nice, I think she would like that. I have to get some more work done but I will see you tonight. Love you" Lena replies.
"Love you too" Stef says before I end the call, I put my phone on my desk and look to the chair where Meredith was sitting just a few moments earlier.
I think back to when she first entered my office in distress, she quickly rambled about Cam's accident and said that she needed Charlie to come to the hospital with her straight away. I had instantly picked up the phone and called Timothy to tell Charlie the news and to send her to the office as soon as she made it into class.
It took Charlie about ten minutes before she made her way to us and in those ten minutes I found myself watching Meredith intensely, she went through various stages of emotions almost like someone who suffered from bi-polar. For those ten minutes I felt as those I was watching a show, Meredith would be pacing the room, answering phone calls, over enthusiastically crying and she even let out a few smiles and laughs. It was all very unusual but I guess it was her way of dealing with what had happened to her son. I mean if anything happened to any of my children I might act chaotic too but something just didn't sit right with me. I'm not sure if it's the way she was acting when she was alone with me, or the way she acted around Charlie but whatever it was I will be mentioning it to Stef this evening.
Charlie POV
We pull up to the house and I notice Denny's car sitting in the driveway, Meredith makes her way inside and I quickly follow. When inside the house I notice Denny sitting in the living room with multiple brown files over the coffee table.
"Come in here Charlotte" He announces loudly. I walk into the living room with Meredith just ahead of me, Denny gestures his arm towards the seat "Sit". I sit at his stern instruction.
"How's Cam? How is he feeling?" I ask looking at Denny. He looks at me in confusion "At school where else would he be" Denny states.
My blood boils and I look towards Meredith who has a evil smirk on her face "You.. you said he was in the hospital. You said he had an accident! That's the whole reason why you ripped me out of school!" My voice raised.
Denny looks at Meredith with one eyebrow raised "What? Well you told me to get her here, so I did" Meredith responds with a smile and a shrug of her shoulders.
Anger is boiling throughout my body and I feel like I am about to explode "Why.. why did you need me here so badly that you would make up a horrible.. horrible lie? You must be a monster to do this!" I say through the grit of my teeth.
"Now now Charlie, what did I say about the way you talked to me? but it's okay once we have finished talking i'm sure this will stop. Over to you Denny" Meredith says with a smile.
Denny lifts up the brown file that is closest to him "You are a lucky girl Charlie, we chose you because we knew that you would help us and make this family proud. It has been a big process to find you but with the help of our close friend Tim we were lucky to come across your file". I sit in stunned silence, i'm guessing I am about to find out about that phone call I overheard now.
Denny continues to ramble about how important I will be to this family before he starts to spill some more intricate details. "Now you are going to be Claudia's partner in our business. You will have two specific jobs in which Claudia will help to train you up in" Denny continues.
"What job? What are you talking about? You need to be a bit clearer on this one.." I say through gritted teeth.
"Well I guess your official titles will be packager and traveller. Your job is going to be to package the goods and once ready you will deliver the packages to our clients. Some people prefer to have their deliveries done by younger woman as it's less.. conspicuous" As Denny tells me my 'jobs' I begin to realise how dodgy this family is, maybe even criminal by the sounds of it.
"What if I don't want your stupid job?" I blurt out. Meredith lets out an evil laugh "We knew you wouldn't sway straight away" She says in her now familiar evil tone.
Denny opens up that brown file onto the table which is full of photos of Callie, Jude, Stef, Lena and the rest of the Fosters family. My heart drops as I look to all the faces I have grown to trust and love.
"If you don't do as we say then we will have to take matters further, now I know you don't want anything to happen to your brother, sister or the rest of the Fosters so we have trust that you are going to do as you are told" Denny says matter of factly.
I gulp, I can't believe I am getting blackmailed. "What are the goods?" I suddenly ask, I guess i'm not getting out of this so I may as well get the full details.
"Once you sign a few forms then we can tell you that" Denny opens another brown file which has a few pieces of paper which look like agreements. He pushes the papers toward me "Have a read through these and once you are done we will get down to business. You will be starting work this afternoon" Denny says before he stands up and pours himself a whisky.
I look through the papers, the first one talks about expectations, they expect me to attend school get good grades and participate in one extracurricular activity alongside working. I must show Meredith, Denny and Cameron respect at all times or there will be consequences. Work hours can be anywhere from twenty hours a week depending on stock and how many orders have been made. How do they expect me to do all this without crumbling from exhaustion, this is crazy.
I look to the next piece of paper which is all about confidentiality, it says I must not say a single word about this to anyone, police, friends or strangers. It continues to mention what Denny has already said to me about the safety of the Fosters just in written form.
Now the last piece of paper is about payment, saying I will not get paid for the hours I work but paid in material items such as clothes, living in the mansion and upholding the Montgomery lifestyle of events and dinner in which I have to be on best behaviour at all times.
I finish reading the final piece of paper "This is ridiculous, do you really expect me to sign these. This is exploitation, this is so wrong. How could you do this to me?" I say towards Denny.
"Yes Charlotte I do expect you to sign these, you see I have people on call 24/7. Do you want to me pick up this phone now.. maybe Stefanie could have a car accident today or what about a school shooting? It can all be done at the click of a button Charlotte and I know you will not let anything happen to the people you care about. Am I right?" Denny states.
I want to scream, I want to shout. I hate these people so much and I hate Tim, he obviously knows what these people are up to and he has put me here. For what, money I suppose. I feel heat rising in my cheeks as Denny hands a pen to me, I grab the pen and sign the papers in front of me.
I have just signed my entire life away. Once again any control I have over my life is gone and this time I have a feeling it is gone for good.
I'm so sorry this took for ages but I hope you have enjoyed this chapter! Let me know.