Hi,

So this chapter is from a different angle as in, it's not from Sandy's POV. I really hope you guys like it. I'm hoping to get the next chapter up by the end of the week. Plus, I have a week off next week so should be able to post a few more chapters next week.

Thanks for all your amazing comments. I am so near 100 comments! I can't believe how generous you guys are. I hope everyone's been getting their replies. I really appreciate every single one :)

Chapter 9

If anyone was sitting around on the benches, situated around the police station, they would have heard the clicking of Kirsten's heels on the hard floor as she determinedly made her way to the front desk.

Her blonde hair was tied back in a messy pony tail and her face looked firm, it was obvious she was not someone to mess with right now.

Inside, she was angry, so angry and she didn't know quite why she'd come. Sandy had certainly tried to stop her but she'd stayed firm and so she was here, marching through the entrance area.

"Hi, my name's Kirsten Cohen. I'm here to visit my father… Caleb Nichol," she tried not to spit out the name and to keep the venom out of her voice. She smiled at the stressed out looking man in front of her and hoped that it didn't come across to look too fake. She didn't want to be turned away because they thought she was going to cause problems. She'd planned out everything she was going to say and had practiced it over and over to a rather frazzled Sandy.

She had to do this; her father shouldn't be able to get away with what he had done. Ryan was merely the shell of who he used to be. He rarely spoke to anyone other than Sandy and Kirsten needed her dad to know that she was not going to let him get away with this.

She'd checked to see when visiting times were and knew that right now her father, who was used to her forgiving him for everything, would now be waiting behind a glass window for her.

She followed a chubby looking guard through a rather dull, grey corridor and tried to keep her face blank and her emotions calm as she was catcalled by various inmates.

Her father was so going to pay for this, for all of this.

The guard led her into a little room. "Thanks," she whispered as he stepped to the side to give her the illusion of privacy.

She didn't look at her dad at first. She looked past him to the guard on that side of the glass. She didn't want to meet the eyes of the man who arranged the kidnap of her son.

When her eyes did stray over to him, she saw a small, balding, frail looking man. She frowned and slowly picked up the receiver. He was already holding his to his ear.

"Kiki…" he began

"Don't call me that." she snapped and took a little bit of satisfaction at the way he recoiled at the tone of her voice.

Suddenly all the she had planned, all that she had recited to Sandy was gone. She peeled her eyes away from him and looked down at a stain that was on her jeans. She rubbed at it absentmindedly.

"Kirsten…" he tried again but again she cut him off.

"I can't believe you," she snarled and he bowed his head, nervously.

"Look, I..."

"No, I don't want to hear it. I'm the one that's going to do the talking. How could… how dare you try and rip apart my family. What the hell did Ryan ever do to you?" her blue eyes pierced his grey head.

He further slouched in his chair. She took his silence as a cue to continue.

"Do you know the torture they put him through? Did you plan it with them? Did you plan to cause Ryan to lose so much weight that he looks like a walking skeleton? He was living with rats dad, rats!" Her words tumbled over each other and she stared at the crown of his head.

Her voice was rising and she felt the guard coming in closer behind her.

"What were you thinking? Don't you think Ryan's been though enough in his life?"

"Kirsten…"

"Don't Kirsten me! You have no right to try and justify your actions. You're lucky that you're in here, Sandy's all set to put you in the hospital and these glass windows and you cell's bars are the only things that are stopping him." she felt a new ball of fury when she felt the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Kirsten! Listen to me… I didn't think they'd hurt him that much." Caleb said in vain, trying to defend himself

"So what, you thought that you'd get some burly gang members to nicely steal my son from me, lock him in a room and expect them to not hurt him. Oh God…. why am I even here? Everything is always about you. If something doesn't sit right with you, you'll do anything to have that thing removed. I just can't believe you'd sink this low." She hissed the words at him and a solid glare remained on her face.

She looked at him and was stricken by the anger she saw in his face.

"He's not your son, Kirsten! Seth is your son."

It took a moment for Kirsten to react, she just sat in a shocked silence, her face reddening with anger.

She didn't offer a response and when she was able to release herself from her shock, she slammed the receiver down and stood up.

She watched Caleb shouting at her from the other side of the glass, but couldn't hear what he was saying. She merely turned around and signalled to the guard to let her out.

It wasn't till she was out in the corridor that she allowed the tears to fall. She could feel her rage bubbling through her.

The guard waited patiently for her to gain control and looked away as she hastily brought a tissue out from her bag and rubbed it over her face.

She couldn't believe how selfish her dad was. She felt like screaming.

xxx

Outside of the jail, Kirsten got into her car. She waited a few minutes without starting the engine, trying to make herself calm.

She shook her head in disbelief at what her father had bellowed at her. There was no reason for her father's random hatred of Ryan. At first she'd just seen her dad's hostility to Ryan as purely disapproval like all of the other bobble heads in Newport but this was clearly much more than disapproval.

She tried to calm her trembling hands.

She jumped slightly when her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket.

"Hello?" she said, trying to keep the tears from her voice.

"Hi honey, how did it go?" the sound of Sandy's voice made her smile weakly and she sniffed, trying to keep control of her emotions.

"I'm coming home," she said quietly and she heard him sigh in response to the sadness in her voice.

"What did he say?" he asked, Kirsten felt her resolve melting from the concern and gentleness in his voice.

It took all of her will to stop herself from sobbing down the phone. "I'll tell you when I see you." she practically whispered.

"Okay honey, I love you and I'll see you in a few minutes."

"I love you."

She hung up the phone and stared at it a moment. She could picture Sandy, in their bedroom doing the same thing. She didn't know how Sandy would react to what her dad had said. She knew that he'd be angry and she was glad her dad was in jail. She didn't mind her dad getting punched, frankly she'd like to give him a good, hard slap, but she wouldn't be able to bear it if Sandy got in trouble.

Their family was barely making it through this whole ordeal altogether, let alone if Sandy wasn't there.

As she started her car and drove out of the parking lot, all she could think about was what her dad had said. She needed to talk to Ryan alone, there was a feeling of anxiety and unease settling in on her of what those men could have said to Ryan. She knew that Ryan had always worried about his place in the family and she'd been noticing how distant he had seemed since he had come home with her.

She'd thought it had been to do with the kidnapping but now she was worried that the reason was deeper than that.

tbc…