𝐍𝐎 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘, 𝐍𝐎 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄 - kiara carrera²

𝒙𝒙𝒗𝒊𝒊𝒊. 𝒃𝒚𝒆, 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚

"HE TOOK THE BABY."

Standing in front of a badly beaten-up Heyward, Tatum Quinn clenched her jaw in fury as she heard the whole story. Apparently, her uncle had decided to pay a visit to the lovely man who took it upon himself to raise an orphaned infant - her little TJ - and beat him until he was numb over wanting some key. And the horrible fucker then had the audacity to steal TJ.

"I'm so sorry, Tatum," Heyward went on with guilt as Leroy Quinn and Sarah Cameron patched up his wounds. "I did everything I could, but I'm normally not a violent person, so..."

The girl shook her head. "It's not your fault; we should've known the Limbreys would come back," she assured him with a shrug, too tired and washed out on her prescription meds to do anything about it just yet.

Leroy, however, was practically shaking with fury, desperate for this Renfield man to come back so he could shoot him himself.

Getting straight to the point, and more than worried for his father, hating himself for letting his dad get put into this position because of him, Pope Heyward said, "Pop, what happened?"

"Oh, I should've known better," the man stated, shaking his head as he begun to tell the story, the rest of the teenagers sitting down around him so they could get a proper listen. "He came in just as I was about to lock up. Caught me by surprise." He looked up to meet the dangerous eyes of the Quinn siblings, who had grown strangely civil over the last few days - they weren't yet close, but a bond was growing somewhere, somehow.

Before his dad continued to talk, Pope noticed Tate's anxious fingers nipping and scratching at her hands, and took them into his own, doing what he could to take the sickening amounts of anxiety away from his sister. Heyward nodded at his son in respect, glad that his kids were finally getting along again.

"Once he had me down, he put his knee in my chest, and he asked me about that...that...that key from that...that drawing you showed me," the man went on as the small group of teenagers and their big brother listened intently, taking in and annotating every single word.

Kiara's eyes kept flicking between the man and the girl sitting opposite him, her eyes filled with worry and concern, internally fighting against her main instinct to go over and comfort Tatum. It killed her to know that there was nothing she could do to help. It killed her to know that, at this point in time, Tatum didn't even want her help. Because all Kiara wanted to do was cradle the girl into her arms, run her fingers through her glossy locks and tell her everything would work out in the end. But she knew that wasn't what Tatum wanted. Tatum wanted to do it all on her own. She wanted to deal with her own shit before jumping back into the relationship, and while Kie was happy for her and proud that she was becoming independent, she couldn't help but worry that this would slowly kill her. Nobody had never known Tatum Quinn to not rely on the validation and comfort of Kiara Carrera, and the outcome of it scared the shit out of everybody. They couldn't watch her crash down again.

"And in case you were wondering, I ain't tell him nothing, so he took TJ" said Heyward, still angry that these kids - all of his kids - had done nothing but lie to him for months. And because they told him nothing, because he knew nothing, his newborn baby was ripped out of his arms. Sue was going to fucking kill him. He looked up at Pope again. "Now did you track it down?"

Pressing his lips together with guilt, Pope dug his hands down his pocket and took out the golden key, handing it to his father.

Nobody really knew what to say about the whole TJ situation. Each and every pouge loved that baby to bits. In the last few weeks of non-stop pain and drama, that kid had been the only bright light in any of it. He came when they had nothing, and one giggle from his mouth snatched the frowns from their face. The thought of him being in danger struck all the pouges into deep, red rage. However, nobody was more affected by this than his big sister, Tatum Quinn, who had swore to protect him forever the day she broke the two of them out of that hotel.