Siobhan walked into the meeting room; she was 5 minutes early, but that didn't mean she was the first one there. She only briefly made eye contact with Marjorie as she sat down. Her eyes darted around the room; so far it was herself, Marjorie, Autumn, and Reece. She dared not to look at the siblings.
Roger was their father at the end of the day. He was there every day of their lives. He raised them, but he shouldn't have been blessed with the right to. He didn't deserve those children. Siobhan imagined that Reece used to be carefree and adventurous, from what she knew about him. But he grew up to be bitter; she was glad his bitterness was subsiding. He had developed new passions and found new loves. His father's impact wasn't so clear to those who knew him. Roger got his claws into Reece, leaving him with wounds that would eventually scar. The wounds weren't forgotten, but the people that surrounded him could see the beauty in such deep hurt.
Autumn, on the other hand. She grew up to be angry. What once was bubbly sociable and oblivious to the badness and hurt in the world was forced to take all of the hurt and bury it deep inside of her. She had every right to be angry; she spent her life recovering from things that should have never happened to her. She was too young to become a ghost full of grief; she was a child after all. Siobhan wasn't that far apart in age from rogers children. If they lived in the same area as children, they would have gone to the same schools at the same time. This thought made Siobhan's skin crawl. She was younger than Reece and a mere 18 months older than Autumn.
Every nerve in Siobhan's body felt as if it were on fire. She nervously scratched at her hand, desperate for something to offer her release. She felt as if she had bugs crawling under her skin with how much anxiety had pent up. She wanted to go home and get out of here. She wouldn't have a home after today; she wouldn't go back to Roger. And despite this being a good thing, it made her more nervous than expected. She wouldn't have a physical home, but even then, her 'home' wasn't a house but rather a person. She tried to pry away bad thoughts with thoughts of Vivian. She was excited to see where this would go.
Marjorie was conversing with Reece and Autumn as Siobhan zoned out. Siobhan couldn't register the conversation taking place; her brain was already working overtime. She caught pieces of the conversation. She knew how important this was to the three of them, but they wondered if they knew what was riding on this going well.
"Marjorie?" Siobhan asked quietly, "Do they know?"
"They know as much as I do, my love; is that okay?" Marjorie responded, causing Siobhan to nod.
"Please don't screw me out of my own freedom," she whispered to those in the room with her.
Reece instinctively reached out his hand to offer the blonde some support. She pulled herself away from him, whispering a quiet no. She knew that Reece wasn't his father and wouldn't want to hurt her, but she couldn't quite get over how similar they looked. And she was entirely aware of what Roger was capable of; she didn't know if Reece was capable of that. But the way that Reece respected her 'no' settled something within Siobhan. She was safe around one man's presence.
Reeces heart broke for the woman. He had seen what his father was capable of. He watched his mother be abused in—what he believed to be—a similar way to Siobhan. His mother lost her loving touch along the way; she lost the energy she would pour into her children. She was never abusive; it was clear the woman was just tired. He could see that; it was a different story for autumn though; she was far too young to understand why her mama was unwell all the time. Autumn needed that love, and Reece tried his best to fill in that love. Despite his father's wishes and beliefs that "a real man wasn't supposed to be loving and nurturing" and that Reece should just leave it to the women.
But which women? The woman Roger would bring home every weekend, every time his "needs as a man" needed fulfilling? Or the woman that Reece had to watch him destroy? His own mother. He wasn't strong enough to protect his mother or Autumn from his father's abuse. He would insert himself into dangerous situations as a young teenager if it meant that autumn wouldn't bear the majority of their father's abuse. Reece had a deep, burning hatred towards his father, even twenty years later. And his father hadn't changed; this was evident by Siobhan's clear depression and change in characteristics.
