Brooke was lost in the sea of faces; many of the people her mother invited were older and were just being nosy about the girl who came back. A few were her age and were excited to hear about anything that happened. To her all of them should just mind their own business but it seemed to make Celeste happy to see her talking to other people than Bradley.
"Hey Brooke, I heard you don't remember much of before. So I'm Billy, we went to Pickensting together; well I guess younger people here did to. How have you been doing since you got back?" A blue eyed blonde younger guy asked her.
"I've been doing well, Pickensting did you say? What was that?" She asked obviously not remembering that either.
"Oh it was the prep school not too far from here, the best in the state." He explained. "So you don't remember about all the stuff we did together?"
She shook her head and he looked a little bit happier as he led her outside to talk and get away from the crowd. They made some small talk on the bench in the backyard farthest from the patio that held the people who smoked. Bradley who took note of Brooke's departure waited polite time before going to check up on his sister. Lucky for her he came up right as she was pushing Bradley away from herself to stop any more unwanted moves.
"Billy Dean, already tormenting my sister again. Get inside before I have to use some force to get you there I need to talk to Brooke." He told Billy with a menacing stance.
"Fine fine fine, we were just having a little bit of fun anyways. I'll see you later Brooke." He smiled as he left.
Bradley sighed and took the now empty seat beside Brooke; he cut her off as she went to thank him.
"Brooke listen, mom will be coming looking for us soon and I need to tell you something important. I'm not stupid I know you heard us arguing in the den before, I think you deserve to know what really happened to you. Mom and dad aren't your real parents; they adopted you knowing that company would take you when you turned sixteen. The lawyers are all just for show, you weren't supposed to escape, now this company wants you back and to get the money they were promised mom and dad are sending you back in two days. I won't let that happen though, the people at the mansion can save you and keep you safe. It'll be more of a home to you anyways." He gave Brooke time to process all of this information before continuing.
"Now when everyone goes to sleep tonight I can help you leave so they don't stop you, you can pack everything important and I'll send you anything else you want later. At your age they won't be able to force you to come back but I don't know what measures they'll go to keep you here for the money. So when everyone is asleep I'll come and get you, there's a suitcase in your closet, no one will notice if you pack in the dark. Now you have to look normal when we go back. Act as though nothing happened or else we can't get you out of here. Do you hear me?" He listened to her deep breath as he saw the panick in her face.
"Why would someone do such a thing, aren't they worth a lot of money already?" She asked tears in her eyes as her perfect life was taken again from her.
"Moms business has taken a lot of money lately; people have been having problems with the makeup she sells. But you need to understand, act normal tell them I was making sure you weren't being overwhelmed by everything so soon. Now can you do that?" He checked again, not wanting his little sister to go back to that horrible place.
She nodded with another deep breath as though to keep everything deep inside her to let go of later. She got up and went back to the house to face the crowds.