Wars and Lies

Chapter Nineteen

The sound of the cage door locking filled the air. Once again we're locked away. Malcom gets brought in and is completely covered in bruises and cuts. He has a black eye and his clothes have gone from clean and smart to filthy and tattered. "I tried talking to Sinead but she won't listen. She's lost it." Ashton slumps against the wall and collapses to the ground. He brings his knees to his chest, buries his head in his hands and balls his eyes out. I rush to his side and wrap my arms around him. He's shaking so much. I brushed his hair. Stephanie faces away and does her best to pat his head, it's amusing watching her struggle to do it with the cuffs on. Emily dropped to the other side of Ash and stroked his arm. Brandon got to work on trying to free Stephanie but is having very little success. "I'm so sorry Ashton. I never in a million years thought he'd do this to you." I apologized.

"I hate him!" Ashton screamed, infuriated. "I hate him so much. Mum loved him so much. She became so depressed, when he supposedly died, that it made her sick. He makes my blood boil. I hate him. He is not my dad."

"What happened? Who's your dad?" Malcom wondered.

"Douche-dad Christopher Cox." Steph answered.

"He's your dad?" Malcom said.

"You know him?" Ashton asked.

"He's Sinead's boyfriend. I've known him for years. I had no idea he was your dad. Sinead was in charge of each person's profile." Malcom said.

"He said he was trapped as Sinead's slave but instead he lied and betrayed us." I responded.

"This is all my fault." Malcom cried.

"Yes. It is." Ashton stated.

"Ash." Me and Emily said in unison.

"You can't blame him. He didn't know his daughter would turn into a psycho." Brandon shouted.

"He didn't need to cheat but he did." Ashton said.

"When did I cheat? I've never cheated. You must've found Sinead's diary. " Malcom said which confuses everyone. "I never cheated on my wife. The women Sinead saw me sneaking around with was my wife's doctor. My wife was very sick. We decided it was best to tell Sinead that I was cheating instead of the fact that her mother was dying. When Sinead was young she struggled to handle death or anything relating to pain and we didn't want to upset her."

"My how times have changed." I stated.

"Sinead loved her mum more than anything and I didn't want to break her. There were high hopes of my wife surviving but I didn't want to get Sinead's hopes us. Without warning her illness got worse and she passed away." Malcom never cheated, he was just trying to save his wife and protect his daughter. He can't blame himself. He did what he thought was best. He could never have thought his daughter would turn into the monster she is. He was being a good dad and looking after his family. "Maybe try telling her the truth?" Ashton asked, hopeful.

"I doubt it'll change anything. She's too far gone." Malcom said.

Suddenly, Max marched in and unlocked the cage, "come on. Hurry. Before someone comes." We all remained still due to how confused we are.

"Who's this?" Stephanie asks.

"This Is Max, he's a guard for Stone Tribe. Max this is Stephanie and Ashton."

"Nice to meet you." Max said.

"You to." Steph and Ash responded.

"What's going on? Why you doing this?" I asked, confused.

"Were you serious about helping my sister?" Max asked, hopeful.

"Yes."

"Good. I hate working for Sinead and having to watch innocent people be slaughtered. She's evil and I can't stand by any longer." Max explained.