Starts with a flashback from Franny

It was a cold winters day, in the dead of december when it happened, I was 12, so frightened and shaken up sitting at my best friends house.

My mom had come home drunk at 12am last night and almost choked me to death, I could still feel her hands around my neck, Cornelius see's the red marks and wraps his arms around me in tears himself

"I can't just stand by and watch this happen anymore I-I just can't, I love you, She almost killed you, I don't want to lose you" He says.

"I love you too, I'm s-scared I don't know what to do, I can't just leave" I say panicking

"Hey, calm down, let's go downstairs, I have an Idea" He says

"What?" I ask worried.

"Just come on, don't you trust me?" He got me with that one

"Fine" I say trembling

He goes down to his parents who are setting the table for dinner.

"Mom, Dad can Franny spend the night please we need to study together?" He asks, what is he crazy? they'll never let me on a school night

"Now son, you know the rules, she can sleep over all she wants on the weekends but not on a school night" Bud says without even looking up

"What are you crazy? They're gonna notice!" I whisper freaking out

"Way to blow your own cover" He whispers as they look up.

I try to run but Lucille grabs me I flich blocking myself expecting her hit me but she hugs me crying

I can see the distraught, broken look on her and Buds face I just stand there in tears sobbing into her shoulder clinging to her.

"Please don't make me go home" I cry, They know now I can't hide it anymore

"Shhh, It's okay, you don't have to go back there again" She says trying to soothe me

Both of my brothers had stuck around the house to try to protect me, one of them was 17 the other one was 19 they managed to pull her off me last night just as I was about to run out of air, What's going to happen to me?

"Why don't you sit down and tell us what happened?" Lucille says sofly.

"And not just what happened to your neck, this thing doesn't just happen once we need to know all of it so we can help make sure you never have to go back to that" Bud says trying to hold himself together

So I sit down, Cornelius grabs my hand in effort to comfort me.

I tell them the whole thing, starting with getting locked in the basement, to my dad molesting me, to my mom throwing me away in the garbage and the constant physical, emotional and mental abuse

All the way to my mom nearly killing me last night, it's a horrible ugly story

"All this time and we never knew" Bud says in shock.

"Why did you think she's over here all the time, the second I found out what was going on I started trying to get her out of her house as much of possible" Cornelius says upset

"You knew and you didn't tell us? How long have you known?" Lucille says upset

"5 months, I saw the bruises one day, why do you think she won't take off her sweater?" Cornelius says

"You should of told us, Cornelius we've raised you better than that" Bud says unsatisfied.

"Don't blame him, I made him promise not to tell anyone" I say

"Even still, There's a time when promises need to be broken if someone's in that much danger"
Bud says

"Oh Bud, you can't blame him, you know where he grew up and besides it's Frannys parents that are to blame" Lucille says sounding pissed off.

"Now Franny, I don't want you to freak out but were going to have to call 911 and report this, only so you don't have to go back and so that you can get justice" Bud says I start shaking

Lucille wraps an arm around my shoulders "But you can stay here as long as you want ok? as long as you want, your safe here Bud and I won't try to hurt you" Lucille says soothingly

"Thank you, Thank you so much" I say burying my head in Corneliuses shoulder.

The cops came and I told them everything, Fortuanitly for me the marks on my kneck were enough to get both my parents arrested, I never had to go to court because with all of the evidence and my parents being drunks my parents plead guilty, there lawyers knew there was no way they were getting off.

I never went home again, I stayed with Cornelius and his parent's and it's been that way ever since

his parents have been so good to me and treated me as if I was their kid too, but they never adopted me because they knew Cornelius and I were in love, even at 12 years old they knew that the two of us were meant for eachother

2 days after I started staying with them Cornelius and I had our first kiss one morning when I woke up in his arms, it just felt so right.

I still crawl into Lucille and Bud's bed once in a while when I'm having nightmares

My brothers got a place together as the youngest one was almost 18, Cornelius and I went over there sometimes on the weekend, they eventually moved in with us.

Tonight I had woken up from an awful nightmare that I hadn't been able to get Wilbur out of there in time and he had died, I was having a heart flash and was terrified it felt so real

I slipped on my robe and went to go check on Wilbur, Cornelius was sound asleep as I quietly closed the door and headed to my sons room

I quietly opened the door, I saw Wilbur curled up in a ball shaking and crying he fliched as I shut his door.

"Hey, it's just me, Whats wrong Wilbur?" I lay down next to him and wrap my arms around him, I felt him hold onto me

"I just don't understand, how can people be so cruel?" He sobs into my shoulder"

"I don't know my sweet child, I don't understand it either. I hope you never run into anyone like that again. Always remember that your safe here though, none of us would ever hurt you" I say stroking his hair.

"I know mom, I know" he whispers softly