Reason

Chapter 12:

I was on the couch, twirling the ring on my finger. I still wore it after twelve, painful years without my sister. Whenever I looked at it, I thought of her. How she always smiled and could bring me up when our dad was at his worst.

"Aubrey?" Tony asked from where he was sitting. I looked up at him. He was half-smiling and drinking a glass of water. Claire was talking to the detectives at the moment.

"Yes?" I asked, wiping the tears from my eyes.

"Still up for shopping?" He asked. I shook my head and got up. I looked for Brodie who was in the rocker. I picked him up and cradled him in my arms. Tony got up too and walked towards me. He pulled me in for a hug and I took a deep breath. Brodie cooed from in between us. "I wouldn't be either. That Mr. Collins was not a very nice man."

"No, not at all. If he makes Claire cry, he is going to get it." I said, looking at the closed door. Tony started laughing.

"He's going to get it?" Tony said, laughing.

I narrowed my eyes at him and bounced Brodie. "Yes and you are going to get it if you don't stop being naughty!" I laughed at my choice of words. Claire had used those earlier this morning.

"Naughty?" Tony said.

I nodded and walked over to Allie. I sat down next to her and put Brodie on my lap. Allie looked down at Brodie and laid her head on my shoulder.

"Allie?" I asked.

"Yeah?" Allie said, moving her head.

"How come you managed not to be in the house last night?" I asked.

"I got called into work right after we left." Allie replied. "It actually saved me from hearing from Ian." I nodded and looked at Tony who was walking into the kitchen.

"He called me a slut when I told him I didn't want to be with him anymore." I said.

Allie sat up and looked at me. She shook her head and laid back on the couch.

"He was so mean. He never cared." Allie stated, looking out the window.

I looked down at Brodie who yawned. He had jeans and a shirt with an anchor on it. His blue eyes were looking up at me and I smiled down at him. "How did you meet him?"

"I met him in college actually. He was liked by most of the kids there and was quite the ladies man. He didn't act like he wanted to with anyone but when he saw me, it was like he saw right through me. He knew I was depressed even though I didn't show it. I had just become of legal age so I didn't need to visit foster homes anymore. I had given up. Ian started to eek his poison through me and I never saw through it. I never had the bravery to leave him either because of the fact that he was the only stable thing in my life. He created my bad reputation. He started the lies and scared me." Allie explained, shaking her head and her eyes tearing up. I put a hand on her arm to soothe her. "How about you?"

"We went to the same high school. He was the first to notice me as the real me and he seemed like the only person that actually cared. I clung to him because he was stable too." I answered, leaving out a ton of my story. I still didn't trust anybody. How could anyone begin to understand that I had to use an accident to get away from my father? If I ran, he and his idiot brother, Anthony would have found me and hurt me or even worse have killed me. Anthony also never liked me anyways. He hated me, mom and Quinn more than my dad did because he believed that we had taken his brother away from him. He loved having his brother around due to the fact that they both had similar personalities. They were cruel and abusive and liked most of the same things.

I used to think that Anthony put something in my dad's drinks to make him the way he was. He was always worse when he was with Anthony. Anthony was pure evil. He would hurt his dog for enjoyment because he didn't have anyone else.