The Way That I Love You(Book 2)

Open Sleigh

Colin

"Aw that's not fair, you cheated!"

"You saw me hand out the deck of cards; how did I cheat?"

"You had some cards up your sleeve!"

"No I didn't, you're just mad you're not winning!" Morgan giggled as Devon and Grey went back and forth.

The kids were put down early and their parents had gone upstairs only a little while after them. So everyone left was playing cards; or at least trying to since Greg was getting a little jealous that the girls team was winning.

"Aw come on babe it's not that bad. I'm sure you guys will win...eventually." Brittany laughed and stuck her tongue out.

"Next on E News: the parents of singer and designer Morgan Kaepernick speak out on their estranged daughter.

Jason is here to give us the scoop on the breaking news...."

Everyone sort of quiets down at the same time and stares at the TV set on the kitchen cupboard.

"She's always been a troubled child. It's something we've had to deal with since she was a pre-teen. Then one day she sort of just up and joined a band and left. We didn't see her for a while before she just up and called one day." There they are; her mother and father sit; right in front of Jason Kennedy for the interview. Everyone is practically eating it up.

"And what did she say?"

"More or so things like don't worry about me, I'm somewhere else doing better and things like that. She called for a little while and we all learned to get along again. We learned to be a family."

"But things didn't take long to go bad again..."

"Right."

"At what time would you say they started to go differently again? What happened?"

"Well we thought everything was okay. She was in California and she told us she settled down with Colin. We went to their wedding and even went there to visit after she had Knox. I would say around the time she was pregnant with Darlene is when things started to get rocky again. She told us she didn't want us around Knox or Colin's family...told us that we wouldn't see Knox or the new baby. She basically shunned us."

"And what did the rest of the family do?"

"They ignored us too...we were the outside while they lived happily amongst each other. We went up to visit and to try to talk it out but she wouldn't answer the door and told us she would call the police of we didn't get off the property."

Then the TV cuts out and they all look to see Joseph has gotten up to turn it off. What seems like a while of silence passes through before they turn to look at Morgan. She's staring at her hands on the table; avoiding everyone's gaze.

"I...excuse me." She scoots her chair out abruptly and gets up; but instead of going up the stairs she goes through the kitchen door and out toward the foyer.

And they're all still sort of stuck in their silence as the mood changes. It feels awkward with little fits of electricity going through the room every once in a while.

"What...just happened?" Devon mumbles.

"Looks like her parents just drug her through the dirt..." Greg.

"For...what?" Brittany. They all looked to him then and he sighed.

"For an interview like that? Probably thousands..."

"Her own parents?"

"They know what she's going through but here we are." He felt like punching something.

"So they decide; instead of coming to see her they just go and sell a story to the highest bidder?"

"I'm going to go see if she's okay." Devon went to get up but he shook his head; stopping her.

"I should go...might be a little easier to swallow."

"Tell us if she needs anything..." he nods solemnly before walking the way that she had. When he got there though; she was nowhere in sight and her shoes and coat were gone.

Now he was ready to panic.

He hurried back to the kitchen. "Morgan is gone."

"What?"

"She's gone. Look around the house for her; I'm gonna look outside." He rushed back out and put on his things before going out.

It was freezing cold outside and kind of dark. He circled the house and she was nowhere to be found. So he started to go farther toward the woods. The snow wasn't as bad at the moment; but it was still falling lightly and the wind was kind of blowing.

It felt like he was walking forever before he came to small frozen river. He didn't get too close but he stared at it a few moments in wonder. When he turned to continue walking; he spotted a small figure. He squinted a bit before deciding to walk closer; when he realized what it was.

He hurried up on the bridge to see Morgan standing there. She had her hands stuffed in her pockets as she stared at the water below.

"Morgan..."

"I want to be alone."

"You took off..."

"Wouldn't be the first time apparently..."

"It's not true..none of it."

"How could they do that? Sell stories to the paparazzi?"

"I know just..."

"When was the last time I talked to them?"

"Morgan I don't-"

"Tell me...tell me when..." she looked up at him with tear filled and angry eyes.

"When you were five months pregnant with Darlene." He confessed and she nodded. "Listen that doesn't matter because-"

"It does Colin...they said all of those things..."

"We're going to fix it."

"Did I really ignore them? Did I really do all of those things to them? Tell them they couldn't see our kids?" He pulled away to look down at her.

"No, they just disappeared. One moment things were fine and the next they just stopped wanting to be involved. You were hurt and you tried to talk but it didn't work out that way."

"They hate me don't they?"

"I don't know. Does it bother you if they did?" He leaned against the railing next to her.

"I don't know...it's just I don't know them but I feel hurt by it."

"Maybe it's better that way...maybe that's what was supposed to happen."

"You think so?"

"It's not impossible. They hurt you so much before your accident...maybe it's a good thing." She bit her lip.

"This is confusing...I don't know how to feel."

Before he answers he hears a sort of crunching sound break through the air. It's like metal; only not so much. Like something is breaking.

Then he is airborne; and somewhere in the back of his mind he realizes that the railing broke. He's falling.

Then he feels the sting.