Acquitted Love

Chapter 3

ABI

Sighing I climbed into the Jeep and started the engine before pulling out of the drive and back onto the street. I didn’t want to leave Jack alone already, it just felt plain wrong. I can tell he’s not quite right but I guess it’ll take some time to get himself out of the mud he got dragged down into.

This is why I hate small towns and always will, people know everybody’s business, you find yourself not being able to breathe and poor Jack is going to have a rough time trying to rebuild a life again.

It makes me so angry that he’s got to try, he had a perfectly good life before the people here became delusional enough to think Jack had anything to do with that, incident.

I know he’s innocent, I just do. There has never been a doubt in my mind and how his own Mother could believe it I will never understand or shamefully be able to forgive her for. Although she’s never been an excellent mother, all because of how much Jack looks like his Dad or did anyway.

Jack’s Dad was a soldier, he died when we were ten, not in battle but by getting hit by a car when he came home on leave; the driver was intoxicated and drove straight on and Jack’s Dad didn’t make it through the night in hospital.

His Dad was one of the nicest people I ever met. He was kind and understanding in a way that never made you think the man wasn’t a genuine saint, despite him fighting in the war. He was a good man and in many ways Jack is the same which is why I could never believe him capable.

Jack was devastated when his Dad died, hell the whole town was including me, he was more of a Dad to me than my own Father.

The whole town was a swarm of outrage at the nature of John Thorne’s untimely passing and was never given the closure of finding and imprisoning the culprit, a person who’s selfish actions brought about the death of a person so much more than life and snuffed him out like a candle light.

I thought about it for years, how Mr Thorne died, so undeserving, so unfitting for a man who was so much to so many people, mown down like some animal.

My thoughts had carried me the whole way to the Thorne house and I couldn’t help but glare at it a little bit. Once I parked up I got out of the car and walked up the concrete path before knocking on the door.

Within seconds the door opened on Rachel Thorne, pristine as ever in a dress from the fifty’s and an unnaturally clean apron tied around her waist.

To say she was surprised to see me was an understatement, we didn’t talk once Jack got sent away. I never liked the woman, she was cold and unforgiving, the opposite of her late husband and when he was still alive they balanced each other out perfectly but now, she’s just intolerable to me.

“Abi, what a surprise! Is there something I can do for you?”

“Yes actually, Jack’s clothes, can I go and pack them?”

Her eyes bulged in her sockets, she obviously didn’t believe that Jack would come back here when she turned him down.

“...I suppose, I’ll show you to his room –“

“I know where it is, thank you.” The only reason she got the thank you was because I spied a picture of Mr Thorne behind her head on the wall, his signature smile in place.

Brushing past the woman I walked through the kitchen; the first room from the side door which is where I came from – through the hallway and then a sharp turn left and up the stairs.

Turning right I opened the first door I came to and walked in, it was a mess – exactly how he left it. I shook my head with a wry smile and knelt by the bed, made difficult by this tight skirt I had on. Peering under the bed I pulled out the two duffle bags I could see and unzipped them before tossing one onto the bed and carrying the other with me to the dresser.