The Silver Lining - A Brayleigh Connor Story

Chapter 6 - The House With The Red Chimney

It’s been eight years, two months and three days since the day they took Brayleigh and her identical twin away from their parents.

She’s kept track every day, secretly in her light blue journal so that Mrs Hewey won’t catch her doing it.

She will scold her and take it away for sure. Brayleigh also kept it from the other children in the House with the Red Chimney.

That’s what everyone called the local Orphanage and described it as such.

Brayleigh hated it there.

Ever since that day she and Brona arrived with the social worker, she knew this would change their lives for the worse.

Brayleigh and her sister were only three years old and she could remember how confused she was when the social worker left them there with the words, “This is your new home for now. You’ll be safe.”

She didn’t understand what she meant back then, and today still doesn’t know.

Brayleigh certainly didn’t feel safe here. Mrs Hewey, who referred to herself as everyone’s new mother, was never nice. She always yelled and punished someone who dared do something wrong.

Brayleigh was, ever since that day, the one who constantly got into trouble. Mrs Hewey even called her names such as brat, selfish twit and cockroach.

She never liked Mrs Hewey to begin with and, for some reason, she decided to focus her attention on her and not on the other children.

Brayleigh never understood why she got scolded so much. It must be because she tended to be late for dinner, and didn’t like to wake up early in the mornings. She just didn’t like these senseless rules.

Her twin sister Brona, was the complete opposite. She never got into trouble, in fact, she was practically never seen anywhere. She also never talked to anyone, ever. She had this kind of atmosphere about her that kept everyone disinterested and distant.

Even Brayleigh herself stopped interacting with her simply because she forgot about her existence.

Also, they might have been twins, but they might as well not have been. They were practically estranged from the very beginning.

Brayleigh found herself sitting on the side of her bed near the window.
She had her little blue notebook with her, acknowledging that in two days she will turn twelve years old.

Usually, everyone’s birthdays are acknowledged but to the minimum. Mrs Hewey would bake the same mouldy cake every year.

There were also never any gifts, except for one child here who everyone knows is Mrs Hewey’s favourite… the show-off little boy who always gets away with everything, Dougie. 

Brayleigh believed that on her birthday everything would change at last, their parents would come back for them. She still didn’t really know why they were just taken away from them. No one ever explained to them the reason.

Sudden noises interrupted Brayleigh’s thinking.

Reacting instinctually, she hid her notebook underneath her bed covers, as she knew what was coming.

The door, to the shared bedroom by nine girls, opened with a loud thud and force.

A large woman came into view, with that known angry look, “Here you are, you little brat! Late again for dinner, I see, doing whatever you want once again. It seems a punishment is in order; you will clean all the bathrooms until there is not one speck of dirt! Is that clear?”

Mrs Hewey rushed over to the bunker bed, grabbed hold of Brayleigh’s ponytail and forced her out of the bedroom, pushing her hard down the stairs, following.

Having not noticed her twin sister’s presence a moment before, Brona sat quietly at the far end of the room on her bed, reading a children’s book about the human body, minding her own business.

********

Brayleigh sat with her hands in her hair on the cold, hard prison floor.

What was she going to do now? What was awaiting her?

Luckily the hangover subsided, and now she could think straight and without pain. 

Being intoxicated wasn’t doing her any favours in proving her innocence.

It was all Bradley’s fucking fault! The asshole.

She had been a forensic therapist for quite some time now, and never in her life would she have imagined herself being on this side of the prison bars.

It was freaking terrifying!
She had always been good at having compassion for all her clients but never really considered how tough it really was to be in their shoes. Being locked up, accused of some serious crimes and not being believed was incomprehensible. However, as a therapist, she always hoped that she could help her clients restart their lives and redo what they did in the past. To give second chances. What was saddening, was that most of her clients never knew anything better than the alleged crimes they chose to commit.

But as a trained mental health care professional, she knew that all choices had consequences.

Was that going to be her fate? Only she was paying the consequences for someone else’s wrong choice, however, in this case, her sister’s?

What did you do, Brona? I’ve never understood you, not once.

“Inmate no. 245, ahh the famous Brayleigh Connor. Get up! It’s time for your psychological assessment. Show your hands!” A loud voice suddenly said, booming through the prison cell. It was another cop. This time, not Detective Murphy.

What are your theories thus far? Do you believe Brayleigh is innocent? Let me know in the comments! Also give this chapter a vote if you liked it!