Stargaze Lovers (Romance novel)

First Encounters

"What the hell happened Alannah?" I'm fuming as I ask this question.
"I- no, nothing, I'm going to upstairs okay, I really don't feel like talking about it" Alannah says in an nonchalant way as if everything that happened didn't matter. It did. Why didn't she understand that she's an adult now and there will be much bigger consequences in the future.

"No! Talk to me Al, what happened!?" I ask adamantly, wanting to help but feeling clueless how to.
I grab her arm as she begins to head upstairs. We're gonna finish this once and for all! I can't keep having her in and out of the police station.

"Your not my mother Amy, I don't have to tell you anything!" She screams in my face. It's like a blow to my heart, I'm hurt and I don't think about what I say next.

"Yes you do, because for some reason I adopted you and took you out of the care home system, something I never had. And you have to answer me, I'm your guardian now for christ sake!"

"Why did you adopt me! You didn't have to. I never asked you to! And NO I don't have to answer ANYTHING to you, I'm an adult now and I've done it all on my own since I was eleven, you weren't there when I needed you most, you weren't there when I got adopted and my new 'parents' would hit me every day behind closed doors for years!" She says this with tears streaming down her face.

My heart breaks. I never knew...

"Al..." I say, reaching out to her, but she runs upstairs before I have a chance to say anything. I hear the door lock and I know that now would not be the right time to talk to her, I know she won't open the door even if I went to knock; she just needs space right now.

I head towards the balcony of my first storey apartment. As I look at the cloudless sky I wonder how did my life end up like this? In and out of foster care, always abused, and then in charge of my sister?
Well I know the last part, I had always dreamed about taking Amber out of that hell, if she wasn't adopted. Now I've adopted her and I don't know what I'm doing. It's been a year and a half and I'm still clueless as to what happened to her, other than what she told me today about the horrors she had to face.
She would always bruise and hid in little corners when she was little, and countless times I promised her I'd be there for her: always.

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"It's okay Al, you can come out from there now, mums left" Alannah still cowers further into the wardrobe.

Damnit if only my teacher hadn't made me stay behind class to talk about the bruise on my face. I lied and told him I fell.

I put out my hand which Alannah takes tentatively. She rushes into my arms and begins to sob;

"A-Amy when you wer- weren't here m-mum...." she sobs into my shoulder, burying her face in my cardigan.

"Shhhhh, it's okay, I'm here now, I'll never let anyone hurt you" I whisper into her hair as I stroke her back trying to soothe her.

I'm so mad because I can guess what happened, Alannah was really ill the past two days and she couldn't even go to school, so I had taken out money from her stash for some medicine. It's was my fault, I should have know better than taking her alcohol money.

" W-Why does she keep h-h-hurting us?" She asks with childhood ignorance. Why does anyone do anything?

"It's okay, I won't let anyone ever hurt you again. I promise" I say as I wrap her in my embrace. Eventually she calms down and falls asleep on my lap. As I look at her my heart swells and I vow never to let anyone hurt her again...