Chapter 2
I looked at Carlisle after he had made the statement.
"You must love them." I whispered.
"How do you know?" He asked.
"You smiled widely when you say there names, and your eyes look deep in thought as if you are thinking of them." I answered.
"Well Edward, did you know what it was like to be loved?" He asked.
"No, I was beaten all the time, I was cursed at, I was told that I was a waste of space, my father was in a gang and he went out and shot people coming home as if there was no problem when there was. He shot Elizabeth on front of me, he told me that when I grew up I would understand why, but I don't understand why he hurt me when all I did was do good things for him." I looked at Carlisle and there was sadness on his face. "You're the only one that has ever shown me sympathy, you're the one who has actually hugged me, I haven't been hugged like that in . . . seven years." Carlisle looked shocked.
"That's awful." I shrugged.
"What's going to happen to me, where am I going to be sent?" I asked, my voice weak but scared. I didn't want it to be but I couldn't help it.
"You will be kept here for two or three weeks until everything starts to heal and your pain is managed, but I want you to meet my wife, she is flying into Chicago tonight. She is going to talk to you and ask you questions, is that okay?" I nodded and I soon found myself falling into a dreamless sleep.
When I woke up, I could feel the pain, my arm felt as if it were going to fall off. I looked around the room, in search of Carlisle. He wasn't there. I panicked, were was he, why wasn't he here? I began to sob, my tears streamed as I thought about yesterday, the shooting was awful.
I felt pain and all I wanted to do was hit something, I wanted to hit someone. I hated James for what he did.
There was a beeping noise and a nurse walked in, I sighed unhappily and remembered were I was.
"Are you okay, sweetie?" She asked, adjusting the monitor and the beeping decreased.
"I think so, where is Carlisle?" I asked her, wiping my tears.
"He is at his hotel with his wife, he will be here in an hour or so . . ." She felt my forehead and sighed.
"You have a temperature, are you in any pain?" I lifted up my arm and pointed to my ribs.
"Okay, I will get you some pain relief." And with that she walked out.
She came back a few minutes later, a bag of fluid in her hand. She hung the bag up on a hook and then took out the needle from my arm and stuck a different one in, it didn't hurt.
She left, leaving the door open. I watched TV for a while, I got bored and stated to hit the side of my bed with my fist, trying to release some of my anger. The same nurse walked in a few minutes later.
She looked at me, "The police are here, they want to ask you a few questions, is it okay if I take you to a conference room upstairs so they can talk to you?"
"Is Carlisle there?" She nodded.
"Okay, I will go, but I want to walk." She looked torn between my answer but nodded.
I slowly got up and noticed that I was dressed in clean clothes than yesterday, clothes that weren't mine.
I looked at the nurse for an answer, "Carlisle's wife Esme came by and dressed you in clean clothes last night."
I shrugged and walked to the door, the nurse behind me, holding my medicine bag. We went to the fifth floor and I knocked on a door that the nurse gestured to.
I heard a faint "Come in" and opened the door. Carlisle smiled, "Edward, wonderful to see you." He gave me a hug and I hugged him back tightly. "I would like you to meet my wife Esme . . ." He gestured to a women that was sat in a chair, she stood up and walked over, giving me a hug.
"Its nice to meet you sweetheart." She whispered.
"Nice to meet you too." I gave her a weak smile.
I sat beside Carlisle, with Esme two chair's down from him, she was writing on a notepad, I looked across the table, were two large men sat in police uniform.
"Hello Edward." They both said.
"Am I allowed talk to them?" I asked Carlisle.
"Well sure why not?" He replied, his face puzzled.
"James always told me not to, he beat me if I did." I told him.
"You can talk to them." He reassured me.
"Hello." I waved.
They smiled, "Could you answer a few questions for us?" I nodded, "Do you recognise this man?" They put a picture in front of me, it was the guy in my dad's gang. "Jay." I whispered.
"That's right. Did you know him?" One of the officer's asked.
"No I only saw him once or twice, but he was in my dad's gang." I sighed.
"And where did you last see him?" I looked down at the picture, my hands shaking.
I looked at Carlisle and he nodded his head for me to continue. "Well it was yesterday morning, my dad had asked me to steal bread and milk from a store, I was on my way through "Gang Land", as they like to call it. As I was walking past the basketball courts he started talking to me and asking questions, when I got back from stealing my dad was there with him, he yelled at me for talking to him, he told me I was to leave his gang alone, he pointed a gun to my head and burned my arm with his cigarette." I whispered the last part, scared.
"What questions did he ask?" An officer said.
"He asked if I was "James's boy", he asked me about stealing and said he would like to talk to me again." They both nodded, writing down the information.
"Is this the weapon your dad pointed at your head?" I looked at the picture and shoved it away, it slid across the table, the gun was black and had spots of blood all over it. I felt angry tears in my eyes but nodded.
"He's not my dad." I stated.
"Why not? He is by blood, well that what the tests say?" The officer with black hair asked.
"He may be by blood but defiantly not by love, he made me steal, he beat me so hard that he would knock me out cold, he pointed a gun to my head, he told me I was nothing, he made me watch him shoot my mother, he hurt me so bad that I would pray to god at night and wish I was dead, because I watched Elizabeth get high on crack all day, I watched James slap her and abuse her, they told me that if I didn't do as they said, they would kill me in my sleep." I cried, letting it all out as Carlisle held me.
"Did they do drugs?"
"Yes, James sold them. He made me deliver needles to room 111 but I never knew why." I said.
"Okay thank you. I think we are done here for the moment." Both officers stood up and left, Esme taking there place on the other side of the table.
Carlisle got up, "Where are you going?" I asked.
"I cant be here while you answer these questions, but I will stay right outside the door, promise." He whispered, while closing the door.
"So Edward, how are you feeling?" Esme asked.
"Emotional." I said, it was the easiest to say.
"And what emotions are you feeling?"
"Fear, Anxiety, Pain, Love, Happiness, Anger . . ." I said.
"And what makes you feel fear?" She asked, writing things down in her notebook.
"I feel that James is going to come back and kill me and that this is all a dream." I stated.
She nodded. "What makes you feel Love and Happiness?" She asked.
I smiled, "Carlisle. He makes me feel loved, he hugs me, he tells me that's things are going to be okay, he doesn't break his promise's, he explains thing to me and he…" I trailed off.
"And he, what?" She whispered.
"He doesn't hurt me." I smiled.
"When you saw James kill Elizabeth, how did you feel?" She asked.
I hadn't really thought about that, "Um . . . It made me feel as if I had lost everything, watching her be strapped to a chair and her crying out for help made me feel angry with him, made me feel as if I hadn't done enough, I sat there my eyes open wide and watched that bullet hit her head, I watched as the blood ran on the ground towards me . . . I . . ." I couldn't continue, my tears were streaming down my face.
"Did you love Elizabeth?" She asked.
" . . . deep down past what she did to me, yes, but only because she was my mother." I said, looking at her, her eyes were sad but focused.
"Did you love James?" She asked.
" . . . no, I hated him." I answered, my tone flat.
"Why did you hate him and not Elizabeth?" She looked into my eyes.
"I hate them both . . . But Elizabeth did nothing to me, she may have gotten high on drugs all the time and slapped me around sometimes, but she didn't do it constantly like he did, she didn't care about me but she still didn't make me go out to dangerous places or point guns at my head." I sighed, and looked down at my beaten hands.
"How did it make you feel when the gun was pointed at your head?" She wrote down some things on her pad of paper.
"Nervous, you think that your life is going to be over and you think about the pain and what you care about most." I sighed nervously.
"Do you go to school?"
I nodded, "It is about a mile from were I used to live."
"Did you have friends?" She looked at me, a weak smile playing on her lips.
"James told my classmates to beat me up and I used to get bullied a lot, I ate lunch in the toilets and I came home everyday with a bruise somewhere on my body." I told her.
"Did the principal not do anything?"
"Outside of school the principal was in my dad's gang." I sighed, annoyed.
"Okay, I am going to talk with you a little later I just need to talk to the sheriff, Carlisle and a few nurses, so is it okay if I come by your room at about five today." I nodded and stood up, a nurse came in and brought me back to my room.
I lay on my bed, watching Tom and Jerry, I laughed at a few parts but didn't think it was funny at some.
I heard a knock on the door and saw Carlisle and an officer walk in. "Hey Edward." they both said.
I hadn't realized it was four-thirty.
"Hi." I looked at them.
"Edward after a four hour meeting, we have decided that you are not going to be put back into the care of family members but up for adoption."
"Who's adopting me?" I asked.
"I am . . ."