Yes, I am alive!! :) You're like, wait what? This story is finally being updated? :P I'm sorry I haven't updated this in such a long time, but with college and me not knowing how to write the next couple of chapters for this story, it didn't happen. All that goes on in this chapter and for the rest of the story I knew was going to happen, but I didn't know how exactly to go about writing it. Now I have a much better picture, and will hopefully be able to update again soon! I'll stop rambling now, I hope you enjoy...it's going to be intense!

Chapter 14

Audrey

It was just one week until Christmas, and only two days until I was off from school. Already I was feeling the urge to slack off, but I just couldn’t. All of my college applications were due by January 1st or were rolling admissions, so I decided to submit them all at the same time. I was up to my eyeballs in schoolwork, and to add on to all the stress, I had out of school band rehearsals twice a week to prepare us for the upcoming trip to Virginia Beach. And I was still working.

Let’s just say I was ready to explode. And pass out from lack of sleep.

In addition, I hadn’t been able to hang out with Ryan or any of my friends outside of school for about a week now. It bothered me a lot.

I glanced over at Mia, who was listening to what our Spanish teacher was saying. She looked just as tired as I was; she was incredibly busy with student council, since they were holding their annual food drive for the holiday season soon. She was one of the main planners. From what I’ve heard, it’s a butt load of work.

I let my thoughts drift to Ryan. These past few weeks had been amazing, and I was enjoying myself immensely. He was so nice and sweet that I couldn’t resist him. And when he kissed me…I never wanted to let go.

Though he is acting a little weird lately, I mused. He had taken to looking over his shoulder all the time when we were outside the school, as well as flinching whenever someone touched him as if he were afraid they were going to attack him. When I asked him about it, he wouldn’t tell me anything.

It bothers me.

But I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I wanted to know what was going on, but I didn’t want to confront him and get into a big fight over it. At the same time, I didn’t want to be the girl who does everything her boyfriend tells her and never questions him. That is just not a healthy relationship.

I sat up straighter in my chair, suddenly struck with inspiration. Yes, I thought. Doing that would show him I care and want to know about his troubles, but give him the space to tell me on his own time.

I allowed a small smile to grace my features. Audrey, you’re a genius.

“Hi, darling,” I said to Ryan as I set my tray on the lunch table, sitting next to him.

He looked up at me and briefly smiled, taking my hand in his and squeezing it gently. “I haven’t talked to you in awhile,” he said quietly.

I grimaced. “I know. This time of the year sucks for seniors. We should try to go out this weekend.”

“Maybe,” Ryan responded, glancing down at his pizza moodily.

I took a closer look at my boyfriend and realized he looked terrible. He had dark circles under his eyes, was quieter than usual, and acted barely awake. I leaned over and cupped his cheek with my hand so he would look at me. “You look horrible,” I said softly.

He smirked a little at that before turning his head away. “I’ve been really tired, Audrey.”

I sighed. I could tell he was shutting me out again. “Ryan. Please look at me.”

He turned back to me almost immediately when he heard my voice crack a little. “What’s wrong, Audrey?” he asked, gripping both of my hands.

I gazed into his eyes before clearing my throat. “Nothing, Ryan, unless you count me being worried about you. You’re constantly looking over your shoulder. You flinch if anyone comes near you. Sometimes I think you act as if you’re going to be attacked. I know there must be some reason why you won’t tell me about this when you share everything else with me.”

I glanced away, studying the wall closely, a little embarrassed by the fact I showed just how much I care about Ryan.

“Audrey.”

I looked back at him to see a mixture of concern and something else on his face that I couldn’t identify. “Audrey, I don’t mean to shut you out. I just…”

I cut him off. “It’s okay, Ryan. The reason I bring it up is because I understand that you don’t want to share it with me right now. But I’ll be here for you when you’re ready to tell me. I want you to know I care about you and that you can tell me anything,” I said.

Ryan’s expression was completely unreadable for a couple of moments as he studied my face, and his eyes grew darker. Then he pulled me into a tight hug. I gladly put my arms around his neck and sighed into his chest. He turned his head and kissed my neck, sending intense shivers down my spine. Each time his mouth pressed against my skin, I felt hot all over, and I hugged him tighter to me. Finally, he turned my head with his hand and captured my lips in a slow, drugging kiss that was so gentle and sweet I shivered all over. He was kissing me like he had all the time in the world, and never wanted to let go of me.

Eventually, we pulled apart, and he leaned his forehead against mine. “You are the best girlfriend in the world, Audrey,” he said quietly.

I couldn’t help but smile at him, which he returned before his face turned serious again. “I do want to tell what’s bothering me, but…I just can’t. It kills me that I’m keeping this from you…”

“But you don’t think you can tell me right?” I interrupted.

He nodded miserably.

“Well, I promise not to be bothered by it, as long as you tell me when you’re ready,” I said, staring into his eyes.

“And I promise to tell you about it eventually,” Ryan answered back, taking one hand and running it through my hair.

I smiled at him again. “Deal.”

We spent the rest of lunch catching up on the past two days, and by the time the bell rang for us to go back to class, I felt much better.

Ryan

The rest of the day after lunch I was in a much better mood, considering all the shit that had been going down around me. The two periods before the end of the day flew by quickly, which I was very glad about. Audrey had made me feel so much better about a guilt that had been pressing on me for a good week now. I was so happy she somehow understood what my problem was. I never wanted to not tell her, but in truth, I didn’t want to bring her into it when there was a very good threat she could get hurt.

And I could never let that happen.

See, last week, some things happened, which led up to Monday, when the shit really hit the fan, and when Nessa came home for break.

The person that was following me around? Yeah, that was my dad.

My dad, the one my mom divorced and I never hear about. I still was having a little trouble believing it. Now everyone in my family knows he’s back in town.

I came home from school on Friday to see a note taped to my front door. It was folded and had ‘Emma’ my mother’s name, written on the front. I glanced at it curiously before stepping inside, locking the door behind me and walking into the kitchen, sitting down at the table. I opened it up and scanned it, for it only contained a short paragraph.

That short paragraph all but drained the color from my face, and I shook, hardly believing what I was reading.

Emma,

So I finally found you. All that running you did to keep away from me was worthless. Smart of you to remarry and shorten your name. But none of that matters now. I have you again. No one can protect you. I’m going to hurt you the first chance I get and do what I should have done years ago: kill you.

Anthony

I stared at the piece of paper in front of me as I shook all over. What the hell was this? Who was this out to get Mom? She had no enemies. She was one of the sweetest women I knew, why would someone want to kill her?

I scanned the letter again. Anthony, I mused. Who could he be?

Anthony….

My mouth dropped open in horror as I realized who it must be. There was only one Anthony, and I barely remembered him. He was a blur to me because Mom had left him when I was five…

My father!

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I swore, banging my fist on the table. My father wrote this? What the hell was wrong with him?

I dimly realized what Nessa and I thought about him was true. He must have abused Mom, and she left him. However, this note revealed there was a lot more going on…

The door slammed and I jumped about five feet in the air, cursing loudly. I turned quickly to see my mom, Rick, and Steph enter the kitchen. They must have come from picking her up from preschool…

I still must have looked as white as a sheet because my mom came over to me and stroked my head. “Honey, what’s wrong? You look terrified!”

My glance fell on the letter, and she followed it with her gaze. Her eyes widened and she gasped in horror. She picked it up with dread filling her face and read it. She started shaking and I could see her crying.

“Emma, what is it?” Rick asked, looking concerned, immediately taking the letter out of her hands and reading it. A mixture of comprehension and anger transformed his face, and he held her tightly. “Don’t worry, Emma!” he said fiercely. “We’re going to get this son of a bitch and put him in jail where he belongs, you got that? I am not going to let him get near you!”

My mother held onto him tightly while Steph looked confused, and soon she lifted her head and wrapped her arm around me. “I am so sorry, Ryan, that you had to see this,” she sobbed. “I knew you would find out at some point…”

“It’s okay, Mom, I understand,” I said quickly, still quite shocked. “You left him because he was abusing you?”

She nodded. “I want to tell you everything. You need to know, if you’re going to be safe. But I’m going to wait until Vanessa is home so I can tell you both at the same time,” she said, still crying.

I crushed my mom in a hug. “I’m just glad he hasn’t gotten to you yet.”

Just thinking about it made me want to shake all over. I can’t even begin to believe my father wrote that note…

It sickens me that I’m his son.

Things happened pretty quickly after my mom was able to calm down. Rick called the police and requested 24-hour surveillance on our house, which they gave almost instantaneously when the found out it was Anthony Cooper who was going after my mother. They brought in the fucking FBI! Apparently, he’s wanted in five states for going after women; in one state, he actually killed someone. Rick told me that little tidbit, and reminded me not to tell my mother.

Then the FBI agents told us that it wasn’t just our mother that needed protecting, but the rest of us too. They believed that I especially needed protection, but I didn’t quite understand why. Rick said my mom would explain, but in the meantime…

I was petrified my father would find out about Audrey, and that is why I didn’t want to tell her anything. Better not to involve her at all, I thought. Keep her safe from that bastard.

And to make my day even more, I told the FBI agents about the person who was following me, and they confirmed it was my father. Hence, I was looking over my shoulder a lot. I was really freaked that he would find me and get me alone somehow.

That had been Friday of last week, and on Monday, when Nessa came home, I found out everything else…

“Mom, Nessa’s home!” I said, jumping up from my perch on the couch and heading toward the front door. It opened before I reached it, revealing an anxious Vanessa in front of me.

“Ryan!” She hugged me close and I returned it just as tightly, being very happy to see her safe and back home. She didn’t seem too much different; her dark brown hair was still wavy and shoulder length, but she looked exhausted and glad to be home.

“Now tell me everything that is going on or I’m going to do something drastic and probably illegal,” she said, dropping the one duffel bag she brought in on the floor.

“That’s mom’s job, I don’t know anything either, sis,” I answered, just as soon as Mom came into the room.

“Oh, Vanessa, I’m so happy to see you!” she exclaimed, coming forward to hug her. Nessa returned it, but it was clear she wanted to know what was up. “Mom, what’s going on? Why did you sound so terrified on the phone?” she asked. “You scared the shit out of me, seriously.”

Mom smiled briefly before becoming grim. “Some things have happened, Vanessa, which has had me worried about your wellbeing.”

“What?!” Nessa looked from me to Mom. “Explain.”

I opened my mouth but Mom cut me off, explaining about the letter from our father. Nessa’s face grew paler and paler until it was hard to believe she had a natural tan, and her eyes were wide with shock.

“Oh my God, Mom…” she trailed off, hugging Mom tightly. “No wonder you were so scared. Was…Was this why you left him?”

My mom sighed in resignation. “Here, kids,” she said, gesturing to the couch. “Please sit. This is going to take awhile.” She herself remained standing, folding her arms over her body and pacing back and forth in front of us. We obeyed and sat next to each other, leaning forward.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, as if getting reading for the plunge. “I’m sorry I never mentioned him before. It has just been too painful for me to talk about,” she started, her eyes bright.

Vanessa immediately said, “We understand, Mom. It’s okay.”

Mom looked at her before continuing. “Your father, Anthony, was the first boyfriend I had in college. We met my sophomore year at a party my roommate threw, and he was her cousin. We eventually started talking and found we had a lot in common. At the end of the night, he asked me out to dinner, and I accepted.

“After that first night we became very close, and we were steady in about two weeks. I was very happy with him then, and thought he couldn’t be more perfect for me. We stayed together all through college, and when we graduated, he asked me to marry him. I of course said yes, and we were married the following year in August.”

She stopped, smiling at the memory for a moment, before her mouth dropped into a frown again. “A year after we were married, I became pregnant with you, Vanessa,” Mom said, smiling at her. “I was very excited and started to spend most of my time preparing for your coming and on the nursery.”

Her face clouded over then. “But Anthony was not excited as I was for the baby. I thought at the time maybe he believed it was too soon for us to have a baby, because he got very moody and suggested I get an abortion.”

“What?!” Vanessa said, looking stunned. “He wanted to abort me?”

Mom nodded. “He wouldn’t stop bothering me about it. One night we were arguing about it, because no way in hell was I going to give up my baby.” I smiled at this, feeling a rush of pride for my mom. “Suddenly it got heated, and he hit me. Right across the face.” She touched her left eye, remembering. “I was shocked, and he was in disbelief. He couldn’t believe he hit me, and apologized repeatedly. I forgave him, even though the bruise around my eye didn’t start going away until a week had gone by.”

Both Nessa and I winced, and I was beginning to see what was going to happen next.

My mom took a breath before starting again. “He didn’t press me anymore about getting an abortion, but he still wasn’t very excited for the baby to come. Then he would say things like, ‘You better not spend a lot of time with it when it’s born’ or ‘I hope you still think of me as someone special in your life.’ It made no sense to me; he was the father of my child, of course he meant something to me!

“You ere finally born and I was really happy. Your father was a lot better after that too, and I put the hitting incident out of my mind. He seemed to be going back to normal, and I relaxed,” she said.

“But what happened when you found out you were pregnant with Ryan?” Vanessa asked, looking apprehensive.

“Nothing, really,” Mom answered. “Ant was excited about having a boy. It wasn’t until after you were born, Ryan, that there were problems.” She closed her eyes tightly and put her head in her hands, stopping her pacing for a moment.

“Mom?” I asked, getting up to touch her.

She lifted her head and opened her eyes, sighing. “Come sit on the couch with us,” I urged, and she complied. I brought her over, and she sat in between Vanessa and me, taking our hands in hers.

“He had no problems with you Ryan, when you were born,” Mom said finally. “But he was starting to have problems with me. He said I was spending too much time with the children, that you didn’t need all the attention. I thought that was bull and told him so. ‘Babies need lots of love’ I said to him. ‘And toddlers too.’

“He didn’t like that at all. Soon it got to the point he got mad at me for spending a lot of time with you two. He would actually physically take you away from me. I didn’t understand it at all, but he said he needed more quality time with me. I told him, ‘I spend plenty of time with you.’ This went on until you almost four, Ryan, and I began to notice he was rougher when he was touching me. He would jerk me around a lot, and grabbed my arm so hard once when he took me away from Vanessa that it left a nasty bruise. Then that just became commonplace. I had bruises all over from where’d he hit me.”

At this point, I had a disgusted expression on my face, and Nessa looked like she was trying to control her temper. What kind of psycho was my dad?

My mom’s eyes had teared up significantly suddenly. “Some time had passed, and it was two weeks before Ryan’s fifth birthday. I wasn’t sure what to do; leave him or just stay, hoping it would get better. Then one night, around eight or so, he came home from being with his friends, and he was really drunk. I was playing with you two, and the TV was on. Ryan was watching Blue’s Clues, I think, and I was reading to Vanessa.

“Your father came in and went completely berserk. He started throwing plates and cups at me and yelling very obscene things. I told Vanessa to take Ryan into her room and lock the door, as I had no idea what was going to happen, and God help me if I ever got one of you two hurt.” She squeezed our hand tightly.

“You two were gone and he rushed at me, pushing me into a corner. He yelled, ‘Every time I turn around I see you with those stupid kids! Give me some fucking attention, woman!’

I swore silently under my breath and clenched my fists. God, if I ever got my hands on him…

“He…he…started…punching me. I pleaded at him to stop, but my voice only made him angrier. Then he kicked me, on my side, and in my belly. He just wouldn’t stop,” My Mom sobbed.

We clung to her even more tightly. “What happened after that, Mom?” Vanessa whispered.

I picked the Kleenex box off the coffee table and pulled out a tissue, giving it to her. She dabbed her eyes, and continued.

“He finally stopped and went out the door. I was bleeding all over the place and called 911. I asked that you kids be brought to the hospital with me, because I didn’t know if your father would come back and take you off somewhere. It turned out he broke two of my ribs and my stomach was severely bruised. And…” Her voice became tiny. “I was pregnant again at the time but I didn’t know. All the kicking he did caused me to have a miscarriage. That’s why there was so much blood.”

“What?!” Nessa and I both shouted. “Mom, that’s awful! I hope to God you didn’t stay with him!” Nessa cried.

“I couldn’t have had another brother or sister?” I said to myself. “Stupid fucker...”

Mom shook her head vehemently. “Oh no, I knew by this time I was taking you kids and leaving. I was in the hospital for a week while you two were with my dear friend Justine. I knew I had to go back to the house too, to get my purse, money, and other necessities for us to live on. And our records. However, I was terribly afraid he would be there waiting for me, wanting to finish me off.

“I knew I had no choice though, I had to go back. So I took you two and a police officer and went. You guys stayed in the car while we went in. The cop went first and got knocked over the head by a baseball bat that was meant for me. Then Anthony came for me, but I ducked into the kitchen, got a saucepan and whacked him over the head with it before he could get me.”

“Nice job, Mom!” Nessa said. “I’m glad you smacked him good.”

She tried to smile, but couldn’t. “It certainly felt good,” she admitted. “But once he came to he was furious enough to come after me.”

“But weren’t you already long gone?” I asked.

“I was at Justine’s’. He followed me there. Luckily, I got out. I decided I had to get to my mom’s in Massachusetts. It was across the country, I knew he wouldn’t expect me to go to her, seeing as we didn’t have a good relationship at the time. And as you know, I left you two there.”

“What did you do after you left us at Grandma’s?” Vanessa asked.

“I helped the FBI find him. And I figured I could keep you two safer if you were farther away from me,” she answered.

“So you did find him?” I said.

“Yes. They stuck him in jail.” She smiled at us. “It was one of the best days of my life, seeing him being led away by the FBI.”

“How is he coming after you now?” I asked.

She grimaced. “He broke out of jail when there was a fire. The agents told me he’s been looking for me ever since.” She looked at us seriously. “That’s why you two have to be very careful. He’ll use you to hurt me. I wouldn’t be surprised if he put a gun against your head in front of me.”

Vanessa blanched. “Are you kidding me? Put a gun against his own kids?”

“I’m afraid so, sweetie. That’s why you’re both getting an agent assigned to you,” she replied, and then sighed. “I wished it wasn’t this way.”

“Great, now I find out my dad is a psycho,” Vanessa muttered.

“Mom, do you think I should tell Audrey about him?” I asked.

Nessa perked up. “Audrey?” she said, looking interested.

Mom was hesitant. “I don’t know, honey…I’d rather you’d not tell her, unless he follows her or something like that. The fewer people that know, the fewer people get hurt.”

“Okay, Mom,” I said, hugging her. “I’m glad you told us, even though it was hard for you.”

“Yeah,” Nessa chimed in. “I think it’s better knowing.”

“Well, that’s what I thought,” she said, smiling. “I’m gong to start making dinner now, I think. All that talking has made me hungry. And you know what?”

“What?” we asked.

“I love you both so much,” she answered, giving us both a kiss on the cheek before going into the kitchen.

I turned to Nessa. “I can’t believe all of this. Mom seems so calm about everything.”

“I bet she feels a lot safer this time around,” she said. “With the cops and Rick…but anyway…” She leaned forward, pinning me to the couch. “Let’s talk about something less depressing. What’s up with Audrey?”

I laughed at her before filling her in with the details.

Audrey

So I was a little creeped out right now. This guy in a green car was following as I walked the dog. I had already turned home and was just two minutes away, but it was freaky.

I glanced over my shoulder again. He had stopped, and was staring at me. With a shock, I noticed his and Ryan’s eyes were almost identical.

What the hell?

I looked forward again as I came to my driveway, practically sprinting down it. Only when I was in my house and I had the door locked did I feel safe.

Please review, I would really appreciate it, especially on this chapter!! I was wondering if it sounded plausible. Until next time!

bandgeek1688