Broken Together

Chapter 14: Loving Through The Hate

The name itself makes me want to run and hide and never come back out.

"Thank you lads. I know this must be extraordinarily hard for you but if we are going to find this man and punish him accordingly making sure he gets exactly what he deserves we need to know everything that he ever did to you." I take a sharp intake of air terrified to talk about all the father did to us "you don't have to tell us all of it now but we need to know it all eventually the sooner you tell us the better" the officer informs us

"Was there anyone else who ever hurt you?" Greg shakes his head I hesitant for a second

"No" I tell them but I know it's not the truth

"Alright. When did the abuse first start?" And so the interrogation begins

"After our mum was killed" Greg tells them

"Did your father kill her?" Carol asks us

"No he wouldn't. He loved her. Before she was killed life was normal and our father and mother treated us well" I tell them recalling the memories of our once happy family though I was so young I only have very few

"Who killed your mother then?" Greg shakes his head and I close my eyes trying not to let the memory unfold in my brain

"I don't know these four men showed up to our house when I was nine Niall was 4 while dad was at work. They had guns and forced us all out of our small house and held Ni and us back as they" his voice cracks as he picks at the table

"Shot her" I finish for him "father got home and went crazy he blamed us saying we should have protected her we should have died not her...that's when he started..." I trail off

"How were you boys harmed physically mentally-" Greg cuts the officer off

"Both" he admits

"What did he um use?" The officer asks with a guilty look on his face you can tell he feels bad asking us these questions but knows he has to

"Anything he could find" I say quietly thinking about this all "his hands, his belt, he'd kick us, he had this board the was at one point attached to the condemned house that had nails in it, baseball bats...anything" I finish not being able to continue as a tear streams down my face

Greg picks it back up for me "All while telling us we were worthless, useless, unwanted, that mum should have lived. Basically anything horrible you could think of"

I watch as Maura and the officer wrote stuff down "I think we should give them a break now" Maura says after looking at me knowing I'm on the verge of breaking

"Okay 5 minute break then we'll start again" I practically ran out of the room breathing heavily leaning against the wall across from the room.

My mind is being plagued with awful memories and I can't take it. I grip my chest as I cry and breath heavily. "I can't...I can't...I can't" I shake my head

"Niall..." I look up to see Greg "are you alright?"

"Yeah" I wipe the tears from my eyes trying to calm down looking back down "I'm fine"

"I know this is hard but I have to ask...why would you talk Niall?" I look up at him trying to find some evidence of sarcasm in his voice

"Are you serious?" I look at him like he's crazy. This is the conversation he  wants to have now?

"Why would you Niall? I told you not to and honestly I didn't think you would!" I stand up straighter

"You're talking too Gregory." I glare at him. He has no right to yell at me about this