Never Say Goodbye

Part Four: Better Together

Chapter 31

I have been nothing without the girl standing in front of me. I was only half of a soul with out Allie. This beautiful girl that has stolen my heart and taken me with it, hook, line, and sinker. Standing in front of me is the girl that I love and will love until the day I die. 

I embrace Allie, her touch the thing I missed the most. Her smell floods my nostrils, taking me back to the days at her house with her and her father. I feel a wet droplet on my shoulder, and I hear Allie sniffle a sob and whisper my name. She pulls back and stares into my eyes.

"Tanner, I can't believe that it's really you," she says, her eyes flooding with more tears of joy. She turns around and sees jim and her face goes grim. "Who is this?" she asks. 

"This is Jim, mother's ex-boyfriend," I tell her. She nods, and I take that as her telling me to tell her the whole story later. I already planned on that, though. 

"Come in! Come in," she says, motioning us with her hand, and she leads us into the living room of the house. It is a pretty neat house with knick-knacks on shelves and picture frames of pictures of Allie and Doug and Jane everywhere. It seems like a house of a close relative or grandparents or somebody. "Dad, come in here!" she yells to Doug, who comes into the livingroom. 

"What is it Al-" Doug's face is dumbfounded, to say the least. His face goes through a whole different variation of emotions, going from confusion to happiness, then back to confusion. "Tanner?" He questions, then he walks up to me and gives me a hug. 

He releases me, and turns to Jim. "Hi, I'm Doug, Allie's father." 

"Jim," he replies, "Tanner's... gaurdian." He smiles when he says the word 'gaurdian', and that makes me feel good inside. "I have some news that I would like to run by you, Doug." 

"Oh? And what is that?" Doug replies, and Allie turns to me and gives me a questioning look. I just give her a slight smile and grab her hand, intertwining our fingers. I completely forgot about Jim's news. 

"I am taking Mary, Tanner's mother, to court. For two reasons: one, child abuse. I put cameras around Mary's house towards the end of our relationship and got footage of her physically abusing Tanner and not allowing him to eat anything." That is news to me. I didn't know that Jim had set up cameras. "And second, I have evidence that she was stealing money out of your bank accounts.

"I work at the bank, along with Mary. One time I saw her on the computer on records that I have seen her on before. She memorized your password to the savings account that you uphold. She would fill out a false withdrawl slip and would withdraw money out of your account to support her gambling habit and to spend money on more alcohol.

"Anyways, I made copies of each withdrawl slip that she wrote up and we keep on record who comes in on certain days and who has not. I have access to those records. So, if we take her to court for theft and also take her to court for child abuse, there will be no possible way that she comes out not guilty.

"So, Doug, what do you say?" 

Chapter 32

Allie looks at me and her eyes light up. "You won't have to be in your mother's custody anymore," she says. 

Doug is thinking hard, and his face is reflecting so. "It seems like we have some flaws here. Who will be the lawyer? Are we sueing her for the house, money, or what?" 

"That is what I came to talk to you about, Doug. You can be my lawyer for this case. And we would sue her for everything that she has, and with the charges and proof that she broke the law, there is no way that she would not be prosecuted."