The Pain of Silence
Chapter 11
Meanwhile, Tony arrived at the Comfort Inn, hoping to find Brooke. When he went to the front desk, he got some unexpected news.
"Sir, the young lady and her mother checked out today. I'm sorry. They never said anything about a visitor," the clerk informed him.
"Oh." Tony was surprised to find them gone. "Okay, thanks anyway." He turned and left the motel. Walking to his car, he pulled out his cell phone. Good thing I got her number. He sat inside his car waiting for her to pick up.
"Hello?" Oh, thank goodness. "Hi, it's Tony…""Oh my gosh!" He heard her say something, but couldn't understand her. "Tony, I am sorry! I should have called you earlier. We've been really busy!"
Now he was getting confused. "Where are you? I came to the motel to find you and the clerk said you left. What's going on? I was beginning to think you both left again."
"Um… we're at Vanessa's. We're staying here for the time being. I am so sorry I didn't call you. It completely slipped my mind. Can you come over here? I would like to see you."
He could tell something was wrong by the tone of her voice. "Is everything okay?" He started up his car and got ready to go.
There was a long pause. "Well, not exactly. Come on over and I'll tell you what's going on. Is that okay?"
"Yeah, you bet. I'll be right over."
"Thanks, see you soon."
He drove to Vanessa's house – wondering.
"What am I gonna tell him?!" Brooke exclaimed as she started pacing in the kitchen. Vanessa was finishing up the dishes and watching her.
"I'm sure he'll understand. You like him, right?" Vanessa asked.
"Yes! I have no clue what to say. I don't want him to think—""Brooke! Be honest! He's your friend. He'll understand what you're going through and want to help. Trust me!" Vanessa smiled at her. "I know you're worried he'll get scared off, but Tony won't. It'll take much more than that to scare him off."
"Scare who off?" Morgan walked in the kitchen and saw Brooke pacing. "Honey, stop that! What's wrong?"
"Tony's on his way over and I have to tell him everything. I forgot to call him to tell him we're staying here. I'm nervous!" She sighed and slumped against the counter.
"Honey, from what I saw in that boy's eyes earlier, you have no reason to be nervous. He was very happy to see you back here. Trust me, it won't be bad. I'm sure Vanessa here said the same thing." Morgan looked at Vanessa who nodded.
knock knock
Brooke's eyes widened.
"I got it!" They heard Joe yell from the other room. "Hey Tony! What's up man? I didn't know you were coming."
"I just got off the phone with Brooke. She said she wanted to talk to me." Tony and Joe walked into the kitchen.
"Hi guys, hello, Mrs. Tyler," Tony said, greeting everyone and his eyes settled on Brooke who was turning pink.
Vanessa gently nudged her. "It'll be fine" she whispered, trying to give Brooke some encouragement.
"So, what's going on?" Tony asked, looking around. "It seems like everyone knows something I don't"
"You could put it that way. Come with me. It's a long story," Brooke said. Her tone was serious and that made Tony worry.
Brooke left the kitchen and Tony looked at Joe questioningly. "She needs you right now." Joe said quietly, knowing the talk between the two would be hard for her.
Tony glanced at Mrs. Tyler who gave him a weak smile and nodded. He immediately followed Brooke who was waiting for him in front of the stairs.
"Sorry everyone is being so secretive. Let's go outside. I'd rather talk in private if that's okay?"
He followed her outside to the backyard and she sat on the steps. He sat down beside her.
"So what's going on?" he asked. He began to think it had something to do with him. "Is something wrong between you and me? Have I totally missed something?"
"Huh?! No!" She almost laughed. "I'm sorry if you got that impression. There's nothing wrong with you, in fact, you're the only good thing to come out of this, along with everyone else here in Bayport."
"Okay, now I am confused." Tony leaned forward, even more puzzled than before.
"Okay, let me start at the beginning. This has to do with when we moved to North Carolina. It's why we left and why we're back now. It's not easy to say, so just bear with me."
She took a deep breath and began to tell him everything. From her mom getting hurt, to her father abusing her, and how she could never tell anyone for fear of getting hurt, or her father hurting her mom.
"Basically, I've been holding it all inside all these years. It's been the hardest thing for me to do. Tony, when we left, I was scared to call or talk to anyone. He told me he'd hurt Mom if I said anything. I don't know what happened to him." She paused and wiped away a tear that trickled down her cheek. She pulled up her sleeve. "You see this?" she showed him her scar. "This is from him pushing me. I fell through a glass table and sliced my arm. My mom said I nearly bled to death."
When she said that, he stood up, and started pacing around the yard. She wondered what he was thinking. "Tony?"
"Testa di merda!" he exclaimed in Italian and looked back at Brooke. "Sorry, I had a moment. I can't believe the—" He took a deep breath.
She stood up too. "Every bad word in the dictionary huh? Yeah, tell me about it."
"I can't believe all this time he's been hurting you like this! I'm sorry, but it was one thing when you left but to find out that he's abused you and nearly killed you!" He let out an angry sigh of frustration. "I wish I could have been there for you."
"Tony, it's okay—""No it's not, Brooke! I'm gonna be very honest with you, even though I was pretty young, I liked you. A lot. When I found out you were gone, I was devastated. Actually, at first I was mad at you, but then it occurred to me that you would have said something if you could. You were the first girl I ever liked." He thought for a moment. "Actually, when you came back, I realized quickly how much I did miss you." He walked over to her and ran his hand through her hair, then leaned down and kissed herHe felt moisture on his fingers and pulled back. "Please don't cry. I'm here for you."
"I can't help it. You make me so happy." She wiped away the tears, then took his hand and they sat back down. "You have no idea what it's been like. To come back here after all this time. It's been the worst two years of my life, until now."
She smiled and continued with her story. "We finally managed to leave. We packed some of our things, mostly clothes and stuff, and came to the place we missed the most." Her emotions were starting to overwhelm her and he moved closer, wrapping an arm around her for comfort. "Tony, when we left, all I could do was keep to myself. I didn't make any new friends, nothing. I went to school and worked to save money. I'm so sorry I never got to say goodbye—" She cried even harder and buried her face in his shoulder.
He put his other arm around her, still trying to take in all of the information she had just shared with him. He gently kissed the top of her head, and caressed her back. "It'll be okay. You have nothing to be sorry for. I wish I had been a better friend and knew what was happening. I should have been able to tell." As he thought about her father abusing her, tears stung his eyes.
"I couldn't tell anyone. You had no way of knowing. It's my own fault." She turned her head and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry. It's just been so long, and finally being able to say something about it. It's just—" she couldn't find the words.
"Shh, everything will be fine. With everyone helping you, I'm sure he'll be caught soon. We won't let him hurt you again."
"He found us once before. That's what scares me. I'm worried he'll find us before the cops locate him."
"Well, we're all here to protect you. We'll make sure someone's with you at all times. Then when he's behind bars, you won't have anything to worry about."
Brooke's head jerked up. "Behind bars?" As much as she knew he deserved it, she didn't want to see her father in jail.
"What? You don't want to see him in jail? Brooke, he could have killed you—"
"Yeah, but I'm sure there's something that can be done for him. Maybe we can get him some help. I want him to be the way he was before this all started happening."
Tony smiled. "You're amazing. You know that, right?" She blushed. "Why is that?""Because you're the one who's been hurt the most, and yet, you still want to see him get help."
"He's my father. I honestly miss him. I just don't want him to hurt us any more. My mom was devastated when she found out. I don't want to see her heart break again. The man she married, going insane, and then finding out I've been keeping those secrets from her." She frowned. "It's like I was living some big lie."
"Well, you're here now. That's what matters. We're all here for you and we won't let anything bad happen. Do you want to go back inside or do you want to talk some more?" he asked, not wanting to rush her.
"Can we stay out here for a little bit? I like your company."
He smiled. "Sure."
"This is what I missed the most. I missed my friends and you…"
"We missed you too. I missed you." He kissed her forehead and she smiled.
"I can honestly say; these last two days have been the best of my life."
"Same here. Maybe once this is all over we can go out," he said softly.
She looked in his eyes. "I'd love to!" She leaned forward and kissed him. When she pulled back, he had a big smile on his face.
"Did I ever tell you that you have the cutest smile I've ever seen?"He shook his head. "I don't seem to recall that." He leaned forward and cupped her face in his hands and kissed her again.
"I'm so glad I told you everything."
"Me too. It answers a lot of questions."
"You know what's funny?" she asked.
"What?"
"I was actually really nervous about seeing you again," she admitted.
"Why? I would say it went rather well." He laughed as he remembered her pushing the napkin holder onto his head. "I mean, what could be better? Me being a klutz and you hitting me on the head…"
"No, not like that. Actually, that was pretty funny. I'm talking about me, and you, and how things just ended the last time I saw you. You were just seventeen and I would have been turning seventeen in December, but I—" Wow, you'd think telling someone you've cared about them for a long time would be easy! She sighed in frustration. "Never mind."
"No, finish what you were saying. Do you mean how you kissed me in front of everyone?" he asked and her cheeks turned a deep shade of red.
She nodded. "That was me trying to hint to you, that I liked you," she admitted.
"Well, honestly, I think everyone knew we liked each other. When Frank, Joe and I went to your house, I was – upset, I guess you can say. They tried cheering me up that day and I just went home. I felt like I'd lost one of my best friends, not to mention the first girl I ever liked. And still do."
She felt butterflies in her stomach. "I thought I'd never see you again. I guess I'm lucky." I can't believe I said that! I'm babbling. Shut up Brooke!"
"Well, once this is all over we'll have to catch up on those two years we missed."
knock knock
They turned and saw Joe peering through the sliding door. He opened it and stepped outside. "My dad and Frank will be here around nine. They're done talking to Brooke's uncle. They said they have some interesting news. I just wanted to give you a heads-up. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah. Everything is great." Tony smiled.
"Okay, we'll be in the living room. We're putting on a movie if you wanna watch it with us." Joe turned to leave.
"We're coming. Come on, let's go." Brooke stood up and the threesome made their way inside, patiently awaiting Fenton and Franks return.