A few years later George married Nora and Edwin's family increased by three. Nora, Casey and Lizzie joined in, the girls now outnumbering the boys. Marty still considered herself a Venturi more than a McDonald.
Edwin's scars had also nearly faded into oblivion. Sure, he was still bullied by Derek but Derek had never hurt him again. Edwin had also never cut himself again, even if George still didn't trust him with the kitchen knives. Only George and Derek and Edwin knew why. It was too sore of a subject to touch upon.
Edwin had gone to a councilor for a year or so, but it was nothing serious. Edwin had been more cooperative than most patients which made the "healing" process as the doctor said easier. Edwin just wanted to put that part of his life behind and get on with his life. And after counseling, Edwin just went on.
Even if his father didn't trust him. He could only be in his room for half an hour at a time with the door open and had to do homework in the kitchen. George had altered his hours the best he could to be home more when his kids were. Edwin couldn't go anywhere alone or just with Derek. George didn't want anything more to happen.
He found a bit of a kindred spirit in Lizzie. They would sometimes ally together against Casey and Derek when they started having one of their quarrels and tried to draft their younger siblings. They would also talk. They would talk about math, sports, how messed up the world was and things like that. That's how Lizzie discovered Edwin's secret.
"Did you hear about Kyle Matts?" asked Lizzie. The two were sitting across the table from one another doing home work.
"Isn't that the boy that was beat to death by his mom?" asked Edwin.
"Yeah," said Lizzie with a bit of a sigh and set her pencil down. "Isn't it sad that one human being could be so mean to another? And even one that was more defenseless than itself?"
"It is sad but it happens all the time. That's just how the world's divided. Those who hurt others and those that are hurt. It's the sad reality. What's worse though is the ones that are hurt will look for ways out. Suicide, running away…" he trailed off. "The ones that hurt end up well off and those that are don't." Even now, Edwin still had very few friends and wasn't trusted by his own father while Derek was the school's hockey teams' star.
Lizzie gave him an odd look. "I have a secret to tell you. You seem like someone who would understand it."
"Okay," said Edwin, him finally setting down his own pencil. "What is it?"
"You write a secret on a piece of paper and I'll write mine down," said Lizzie, starting to write on a scarp piece of paper.
Edwin followed suit and both folded up their papers and handed them to the other. They read what had been writ. "No way," Edwin breathed as Lizzie stared at him.
"How'd you get it to stop?" Lizzie demanded, staring at Edwin and then the paper then back to Edwin.
"I…" he hadn't written that he'd been a cutter. But that really wasn't what made Derek's abuse stop… had it? "Derek and I got into a fight at school. That's how it all came out…" he trailed off. "How dad found out... What about you?"
"Well… I…" Lizzie stuttered. Then, she pulled up her sleeve and stuck out her arm. There were scars on it. "Mom found out about this, put me in counseling. I told the counselor the truth and she told my mom."
Edwin stuck out his own arm and used his own finger to trace where his own scars had once been. "I was told to by a girl online," he said. "She said it helped. Her username was SoccerGirlAbused."
"Your… your him?! Your that guy I told to cut!?" Lizzie yelled, standing up,
An innocent Marty came wandering into the kitchen wearing a tiara and held a fairy wand. "Cut what?" she asked walking over to the fridge and opening it up.
"Nothing," Lizzie said glancing over her shoulder at her younger step-sister.
Edwin looked at Lizzie. "Yep," he said, pulling his sleeve down.
"I'm sorry," Lizzie said softly, sitting back down. "I told you that before I was caught. And once I was caught… my mom wouldn't let me get back on the computer. George was the same way I suppose…"
"Yeah," said Edwin. "Parents just want the best for us I guess."
The two sat there and Casey came down the stairs, followed by Derek who was being dragged along by Casey.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Nothing," Lizzie said quickly, flipping over the piece of paper that had Derek's note written on it. Casey walked over and picked it up and read it once. Then twice and once more for good measure.
"Derek," Casey said turning to said boy. "How could you do something like this?"
Marty wandered out of the kitchen and up to her room with some apple slices and a cup of milk.
"Seems your not much better," said Derek, waving the piece of paper with Lizzie's note on it in front of her face. "Face it. We're both controlling asses who couldn't accept the fact that we had competition when our younger siblings came along. Of course, I was luckier and had a smart brother to do my homework in elementary and most of middle school."
"I-I'm not," Casey stuttered not wanting to face reality. Casey knew what she had done and why but just wanted to forget it. She wasn't like that anymore.
"And then our dear little siblings got fed up and started cutting and then one thing led to another and our parents found out and the little duckies ended up in counseling," Derek continued, ignoring Casey's protest.
"Wait," said Lizzie. "How'd you find out about me cutting?"
"Your sleeve is up," said Derek motioning to Lizzie still bare arm. "But you mostly wear long sleeves so I just guessed."
Lizzie turned her head, a bit ashamed.
"Okay, so we now know all about everything that happened," said Edwin. "Let's just put it behind us and start over. Deal? Dad and Nora will never need to know that we know the whole truth and Marty never needs to know about any of this."
Marty was never told about what had happened between Edwin and Derek.
"Fine, deal," the others said.
"Okay, just go back and do whatever it was you were doing."
Each wandered back to what they were doing.
And no more was ever said.