Amy POV
The girl in front of me, could only be one person. All though I have never met her before, I knew who she was, because her features were simply too similar with Callie for then not be related. Robert Quinn has another daughter beside Callie - this must be her. Brown hair, brown eyes, same kind of nose, cheekbones.
"Hi. How may I help you?" I said, with a warm smile on my face
"Hello! I'm here to see Callie," She stated in a confident tone the moment the doors were fully open. Clearly, she came here for a reason. That being – meeting her half sister. By the looks of it, she won't leave until she has.
"And who may you be, sweetheart?" I inquired even though I knew, who she was
"Oh," she gasped, when realized how inappropriate she had been. Only now I noticed that she had been holding on to a small gift bag in her hands. The girl took the small bag in her left hand and held her right hand out "I'm Sophia Quinn. Callie's half-sister. My father is Robert Quinn."
I did not shake her hand, because I didn't want to pass all my germs to her. Instead I pointed to the napkin in my left "Sorry, I don't want to get you sick as well..."
"Oh!" The girl pulled her hand back quickly as she eyed me up and down, seeing my condition
"I'm Amy Scott," I introduced myself to her "Callie's mom."
"I thought her mom was dead," The girl replied back innocently
"Well...yes - Colleen is dead," I explained as I started to feel my throat itching "I'm raising Callie now. She has lived with me for 9 months now. Planning on adopting her." As soon as I was done explaining to her I started to clear my throat, hoping to get rid of the tickling feeling.
"Ah!" Sophia breathed out finally comprehending the whole situation "That's very nice of you, Mrs. Scott!" When she smiled at me, I noticed just how similar were their smiles.
I cough few times, but then took a step closer to the porch to have a better view on the street. Shivers ran over my body, when the wind blew. There were no cars parked, no cab on the street. That got me slightly worried as I started to wonder, how she got here. I doubt she lived a walk distance away from here.
"How did you get here, sweetheart?" I asked concerned, when I looked back at girl
"I took a bus!"
"Sophie," I watched the girl closely not wanting to miss a single micro expression on her face "Does your parents know you're here?" I had a bad feeling that she had come here on her own without her parents knowledge. Reason for that, her coming here unannounced and uninvited. If she had told either of her parents, I'm sure they would have first try to contact us, possibly through our lawyers. Knowing just how much a kid deciding to leave on its own head can scare a parent, I needed to make sure her parents were informed about her whereabouts. It was my duty as a parent and as a cop.
I noticed how Sophia averted her eyes briefly down avoiding mine right before giving me an answer "Yes, my mother knows. She said I could come." she shifted nervously in her stance and continued to avoid looking me in my eyes
"Sophie...I need you to be honest with me," I pressed on, sensing the lie. My tone wasn't threatening, but it was firm, so she would sense that I was not playing around and that I needed an honest answer from her.
When the girl finally glanced back to me, she admitted remorsefully "No."
I let out a sigh "Come on inside, Sophia!" When the girl was over the doorstep I added "I will need to call your parents and tell them where you are. Also, I need you to be quiet, because Callie is sleeping on the couch. She's sick as well, so please don't wake her."
Once the girl was inside, I guided her to the kitchen. Sophia gave me her mothers number so I could call and inform her about her daughters whereabouts. Safe to say, her mother had no idea that Sophia was not at home. While we waited for her mother to come get her, I washed my hands and made her two sandwiches.
While she ate, I talked to her some more hoping to pass the time.
"How did you know where Callie lived?" I questioned curiously as I clenched my hands together and pressed my forearms to the table
"I found some papers on dads desk," Sophia replied "It had all sorts of information about you and Callie."
"Oh, really?" My eyebrows raised up
"Yeah," Sophia nodded before taking a bite out of her sandwich. Once she had swallowed the food she had been chewing, she lowered the sandwich and said softly "I'm sorry about your family!" I tilted my head sideways, surprised to hear her say that "I can't even imagine how it felt, when you lost your son and husband the same day. Is it true, you got suspended for two weeks for attacking the man who was responsible for their death?"
I was left speechless for a moment because I had no idea that Robert Quinn had looked into my life. It was not a nice feeling - knowing that someone was keeping tabs on me. Investigating on me. While it made me feel slightly worried and upset about him doing research on me, I knew I shouldn't take it out on Sophia. She had nothing to do with it.
I scratched my temple "Yeah…yeah, that's true," I dragged out in a low voice. While I wasn't proud of my own actions, I didn't necessary regret it also. For me, it wasn't as simple as black and white. There were a lot of emotions involved, which always complicates things.
Sophia continued to speak, but I zoned out for a short period of time as my thoughts wondered on its on. I couldn't think about what I lost without thinking about what I gained as well. The loss I suffered was enormous, but somehow it was lessened a little by the young girl in the other room.
"So, uh, what made you decide to come here today?" I inquired as I pressed my cheek to my hand for I started to feel tired and would love to just catch some more sleep like Callie
Sophie averted her gaze down to the table, gave a small shoulder shrug before giving me a more honest answer than I had expected "My parents were fighting."
I became more alert after her reply, took my hand away from my cheek and straightened my back "They were fighting?" the image I got in my head at her words had been of the two adults throwing stuff at each other and her mother slapping Robert. I really hoped I was wrong.
Sophia tilted her head back and observed me for two seconds "Not like...fighting-fighting," Sophia said, when noticed how I had reacted "They weren't hitting one another. Just arguing." I let out the breath I had been holding while waiting for her reply "Very loudly."
"About what?" I asked, expecting her to avoid my question completely, because I was well aware, how personal this was
"About Callie," Sophia said while looking at me "Colleen, the adoption papers, about daddy cheating on mom..." she let out a sad sigh at the end as she averted her gaze down "Dad said it was a mistake, but I had never seen mom so angry at him. She even mentioned divorce and threatened to take me away from him."
"That must have been hard to hear. I'm sorry," I sympathize with her. I knew that whenever parents are on the path of divorce, it directly affects kids, who are left in between. Often, the kids think it's their fault their parents are divorcing. I'm not sure if Sophia somehow has come to the conclusion that it's her fault, but her parents arguing was enough to leave an effect on the young girl already. Her parents were so wrapped up in fighting one another that they both missed their daughter walking out of the house.
Callie POV
The moment I opened my eyes, I realized I still had the huge grin on my face from the dream I had had.
I had dreamed about a hot summer day. The Sun was hot and bright, but the wind that blew gave a nice refreshing feeling. I was on a beach, which was located next to a school. The same school Amy and I had rode by, when we had gone to our bike ride. I have lived in San Diego my whole life, but I never knew there was a school right next to the beach.
Standing with my feet dug into the sand, water washing over my feet, but never reaching over my ankles. There had been no worry on my mind. In my dream, I remember that the only feeling I felt was – happiness. Nothing but happiness. And at that point in my dream, I had no idea why I had been so happy.
When I looked up from the ground, I saw the Sun was already setting. The sky was starting to turn to yellow, red and orange color.
Out of nowhere, I heard my name being called. Looking over my shoulder, I tried to see whoever was calling me. Amy was standing next to a set up picnic area. She was waving me over. Asking me to join her. Without thinking much about it, I skipped over to her. Amy kissed my cheek, when she pulled me in a side hug.
The next thing I know, I saw Colleen walking along the beach. She was coming towards us, smiling and waving at us. Amy waved back at her. Finally, when Colleen was up to us, Amy and Colleen hugged, like old friends, who hadn't seen each other in a very long time.
The grin on my face slowly faded away, when I realized that the most important part of the dream will never come true. My moms will never meet each other. But the smile started to grow back as I remembered the sight of Colleen hugging Amy in my dream. It was the best sight I had ever seen.
I tossed the blankets aside and headed out of the living room, searching for mom. All I wanted to do right now, was tell Amy about my dream. I took it as a sign, that Colleen approves of Amy. That my birth mom knows I'm in good hands and that she no longer has to worry about me.
I heard mom walking around in the kitchen, so I started to speak to her even before I walked in "Mom! I had the greatest dream ever!" I felt all jittery as I couldn't wait to tell her all about it
I came to stop, when I saw my half-sister sitting at the kitchen table. Mom put away a carton of milk in the fridge and then turned to me.
"Hi, Callie!" Sophia jumped up and grabbed a gift bag that stood on the chair next to her. She now stood right in front of me with a huge smile on her face "I'm Sophie! Your sister!"
"Half-sister," I corrected her, because I didn't feel close enough to her to take that first part off. Jude – he was my brother. We grew up together. I knew Jude - all his flaws, his weaknesses, his strengths, his fears, his quirks. We both had suffered the same way: we our lost a mom, we both got hurt by Donald, we both got placed in foster care. Sophie – I knew nothing about her that made me feel close to her. We weren't similar in any way, except for our looks. It could be my grumpiness came from me being sick and not wanting to do small talk with anyone. I simply did not feel like having any guests right now.
I saw the girl sadden at my words. She took it to heart.
"What are you doing here?"
"Came to visit you!"
"Uninvited?"
"I wanted to see you...meet you," she reasoned back, but then raised the small gift bag up "Brought you a present."
"Uh..." I dragged glancing quickly to mom, who stood aside, watching us interact without interrupting "T-thanks," I took the bag recurrently. Sophia was waiting for me to open it, so I reached in and pulled out the gift. It was a jacket. Exactly like the one she was wearing right now. It looked maybe a size bigger.
"Oh...wow..." I forced myself to say as I held the cloth up to examine it. This was not something I would walk over to in a store. I hated the color, hated the style, hated the half sleeves and the fact that it didn't have even one pocket. In fact, it didn't look like anything I could afford as well.
"You like it?" Sophia asked, eager to her the answer. She pulled on her jacket "It's the same as mine! See"
"I ,uh, well...yeah. It's great!" I faked a smile just to please her "I'm never going to wear this! It will be tossed to the very back of my closet and never be pulled out ever again." I thought to myself the same time. What was she thinking when buying me this? Giving presents, in a form of a clothing, to someone you just met is a horrible idea. There's almost no way of knowing the persons size. Of course, the gesture was nice, but still.
"Callie, why don't you go show Sophia your room?" Mom suggested as she walked over to me and took the jacket out of my hands as well as the gift bag
Even though I didn't feel like it, because of how sick I still felt, I took moms advice and gestured to the hallway "It's this way."
"Your home is so small compared to ours," Sophia commented as she followed me upstairs.
While I didn't say anything back, I couldn't help but to take that comment to heart a bit. Something in the way she said that, made me think that she was saying her home was so much better than mine. I saw a picture of Robert's house on the internet, when I looked him up – he was living in a mansion. It had a pool, two garages. The building itself was only two stories high, but it was indeed a five times the size of ours. If you would put the two next to each other, ours would look like a shack. But while it may be so, I loved this house and how simple it was. It reminded me of the old house I used to live it. Living in a huge house like that was not something I wanted. To me, when I looked at their house, it seemed like people living there were lonely and not talking to each other. Big rooms, too elegant and uncomfortable furniture that didn't make the rooms feel and look cozy. The distance between each family member in the house seemed too far. I remembered how I used to hear music coming from Markus room. While we did not share the same taste in music, the sound certainly didn't bother me. In fact I liked it. Or the fact that if I'm being silent up in my room, I can hear the TV playing downstairs at the night. I can smell the coffee moms make in the morning. This house is filled with life, while the mansion the Quinn's lived it, seemed cold, lifeless and dull.
"Your is a mansion," I replied in a low voice as I started to climb up the stairs dragging my hand along the banister
"My dad...or should I say our dad, built it himself," Sophia sounded proud of him
"Like all the construction work?"
"No, he hired people to do that. But he did design everything. Most of the construction materials came from his own store. It took almost 2 years to build."
"Where did you live before that?" I asked curiously as I just couldn't imagine them living in a house like ours or even an apartment
"We had a colonial house type in Mission Hill," She explained, when we had ascended the stairs
"This is my room," I said walking inside it
"It's a nice room. Kind of small, but nice," Sophia said as she looked around "Did you decorate it yourself?"
"No, it was this way, when I got here," I replied as I remained standing by the door
"My dad allowed me to decorate my own room. Pink is my favorite color so I incorporated it in my room a lot!" She said walking over to my bed "I could even choose my own furniture. Without any limit! I have a king size bed in the middle of my room, but yours is okay as well." Sophia added, when she turned back to me
"Lucky you," I said indifferently as I watched how she walked over to my guitar that stood propped up at the wall by the end of my bed
"Do you play?" Sophia asked lifting the guitar up
"Yeah..." I said sniffing as the cold came back. While I found my napkin in my pockets and blew my nose, Sophia had sat down on my bed and started to strum on my guitar, without my consent.
"This is fun!" she exclaimed as she continued to play the strings on random "I will have to ask my dad to buy me one! I have always wanted to learn how to play an instrument. Music is so amazing. What kind of music do you like?" she played the guitar so off beat, that the random bunch of sound, gave me a slightly headache. That probably was more because I was still sick than because of her inefficient guitar skills. It was actually hard to look at how harsh and merciless her fingers were with my strings. Especially the high E string.
"All kind of," I shrugged my shoulders as I continued to blow my nose
"I love One Directions and Jonas brothers! They are super awesome! I have signed posters of both of those gro-" she stopped suddenly in the middle of the sentence as she froze. The sound of guitar stopped as well. Slowly she tilted her head up to look at me. I saw some fear in my half-sisters eyes, when our eyes met.
"I'm...I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to!" Sophia stuttered back, her eyes briefly averting down to the broken string "I was just...I didn't-" she stood up, holding the guitar out
"It's fine," I replied trying to calm her down as I walked over to her. While I was not happy that she broke the string, I wasn't going to make it a big deal and go all ape on her. The string was easily replaceable.
With shaky hands she handed me back my guitar "I will buy you a new guitar!"
I laughed back at her "I don't need a new guitar. I like the one that I have right now," I said as I put it back down where it stood before
"But I broke yours," guilt was pouring out of her every pore
"You only broke the string," I assured her that no big damage was done
"You can change it?"
"Yeah. No big deal," I sat down on my bed, leaned my back against the wall and pulled my legs up on the bed as well
"Oh thank gosh...I really thought I broke the whole thing!" Sophia's eyes still eyed the guitar "I was so scared!"
"Yeah...I could tell," I chuckled back "So, do you have any hobbies?" I asked hoping to show that I'm curious about her as well, even though all I wanted to do was curl up underneath two blankets and fall back to sleep. I barely had any energy despite the fact that I had woken up from a nap not 30 minutes ago. The mix of temperature, sore throat and cold was draining the life out of me.
"I like to ride horses and I participate in competitions with my horse Sunchaser. I won the first prize the other day, actually!" She hurried towards me as she pulled her phone out "I have a picture. Let me show you!" Sophia jumped on my bed, pressed her side up to me and held her phone out
"This is my horse - Sunchaser. He turned 4 this summer," Sophia said pointing to a picture of a white horse, whose fur was shiny, his tail and mane braided.
"Wait...you have your own horse?" I paused wanting to get the details right
"Yes. Daddy bought him for me. He has lineage. He was born a champion. Both of Sunchaser's parents are champions."
"Where do you keep him?" I asked perplexed unaware how silly my question truly was
"In our ranch!" Sophia said swiping to the next picture "Look, that's us after we won!" In the picture Sophia was sat on her horse, holding what looked like a gold trophy with a blue ribbon. She was dressed in an Equestrian clothes – white pants, black jacket and high boots. I can't deny how professional she looked. Her eyes were glowing.
For the following minutes Sophia continued to tell me all about her horse, the school she goes to, the family vacations they go together and every other details from her life that she could think of. I didn't do much of talking as my half-sister was speaking most of the time. It felt like she hasn't talked to anyone her age for weeks. And during this whole time we spoke, she never mentioned a friend, which seemed odd to me, because she clearly wasn't an outcast like me.
If it was true – that she didn't have any friend - I understand why she came here unannounced to day. She's is or should I say, was an only child growing up. At least I had Jude the first years. Yes, sometimes he was annoying and irritating the hell out of me, but growing up, I was never alone. I always had someone to play with, someone to talk to, someone to do mischief with. No friends meant she spend most of her time alone. And judging by the way she was telling me about her life, it seemed like her parents might not want to let her out of their sight, not wanting for her to go off tracks in her life. The only time her eyes truly had glowed, was when she was talking about her horse. The girl was lonely. More lonely than I ever had been while in foster her. And money and expensive things couldn't change that.
And the girl was spoiled. Clearly. Newest technologies, expensive clothes. Her dad bought her everything she had ever wanted. All she had to do was blink her eyes at him and he would buy it. Robert might be doing it, because he felt like a bad father for not being with her as often as she wanted to be. The job has it's faults.
I felt sorry for her, which was not something I had ever expected.
"Sophia!" Suddenly a loud male's voice echoed throughout the whole house
"My dad!" Sophia exclaimed jumping up from the bed
"How did he knew you were here?" I asked not understanding why he was here or how he even knew where here was
"Your mom called him...I kind of came here on my own, without their knowledge," the girl added in a more quieter voice
"Sophia, get down here, right now! I'm not going to tell you again!"
"Keep your voice down!" I heard Amy retort back to him
"I should better go..."
"Yeah," I agreed, following my half-sister out of my room. When we made our way downstairs, I saw both of Sophia's parents standing in the hallway with my mom right next to them, looking not so pleased with them. Not wanting to get too close, I remained standing on the first step, my elbow resting on the banister.
"Finally!" Robert muttered as Sophia took the last step down
"Sophia, come on! We have to go," her mother extended her arm towards the girl, waiting for Sophia to go over to her "What were you thinking!?" Her mother scolded, when she had her arm around Sophia's shoulder
"I came to meet my sister," Sophia replied in a small voice
"You can't leave like that!" Her mother scolded "You scared us! And you should have asked us first!"
"You didn't even notice I was gone until Callie's mom called you," Sophia replied challenging her parents back. Her mother didn't say anything back.
"Bye Callie! Bye Amy!" Sophia managed to call, before her mother guided her out of our home
"Bye!" Mom and I both called back to her. I saw a glimpse of smile on Sophia's face, when she glanced over her shoulder to me.
What surprised me was that Robert remained standing inside our home, glaring between me and mom. Once Sophia was out of earshot, heading towards their car, which was parked in front of our home, Robert took a step closer to us.
"Let me clear this out for you – you are not my daughter! You will never be!" He declared as he pointed his finger at me "And you are not Sophia's sister!"
"The DNA test said otherwise," mom replied casually "Sophia has a half-sister whether you like to acknowledge it or not. It's not something you can change."
"Why do you hate me so much?" I questioned taking the last step down "I haven't done anything to you! I barely know you...you barely know me!" This was something that has been bothering me ever since I first saw Robert in the elevator. He hasn't shown even the smallest sign that says – I want to get to know you. How could it be that he loved one of his daughter and gave her everything she ever wanted, but hated the other. I don't know what I have done to earn that kind of treatment. Colleen loved me, why can't he? I didn't need for him to be parent, to raise me. All I wanted was to get to know who my birth father is. What kind of music he likes, what is his favorite food, do we share any quirks. I wanted to hear the stories about Colleen. That's all I wanted from him.
"You exist!" Robert hissed back "Spending that night together with your mother was the worst and biggest mistake I have made in my entire life, which I regret more than anything! I never wanted you!" I wish I could have kept the tears away, but I couldn't. My eyes got watery at his answer. Hearing that I was a mistake, hurt. It hurt bad.
"Screw you, asshole!" Mom barked back at him losing her serenity "Get the fuck off my property! And never come back!"
"With pleasure!" Robert retorted, but before he left he added "Don't ever think about contacting me, my wife or Sophia! I don't want anything to do with you. The same goes for my family! You got the papers, now leave us alone!" With that Robert left, slamming the doors hard as he walked away
"Asshole!" Mom muttered under her nose again, before turning back to me
My chin was now whimpering as I was trying hard not to cry because of him.
"You are not a mistake!" Amy wrapped her arms around me, pulling me close to her chest "Your mom did not think of you as a mistake. You meant everything to her. And Colleen loved you so much...so much!"
I sobbed out "Why does he hate me so much?" I tasted the salty liquid on my lips as the tears just kept pouring down
"Because he's an idiot and an asshole, that's why!" Mom's answer was almost instant as she leaned out of the hug a little bit so she could see my face "Forget him! He's not worth your time, baby!"
"I just...I don't understand," I sniffed out as I tried to stop myself from crying so hard over someone who doesn't care about me at all
"I don't either," Mom shook her head lightly as she stroked my hair with one hand, but other rested fondly on my cheek "And I never will. Because I love you to pieces and getting to know you was the greatest experience I have had. He's going to miss out on so much. But that's his problem, not ours!"
I raised my hand and started to wipe away the tears on my cheeks.
"There is one amazing thing that comes out of him being the ultimate asshole."
"What?" I asked clueless, without having any idea what she was thinking about.
"I get to keep you all to myself!" A huge smile appeared on moms lips before she leaned closer and placed a kiss to my cheek. Smile changed the tears on my face, when mom pulled me back to her chest.
AN: I wanted to give you one last update in 2016.
Also, I want to wish you all a Happy New Year! May you have an amazing year.