Two Sides Of An Experiment

Chapter 6

*Sherlock's POV*
As i walked towards their door, i could not help but wonder what the Knights were hiding. It did not seem like a coincidence that Donatella ended up in a hospital and less than two weeks later, she gets kidnapped.

I knocked at the door, and Lilian Knight opened the door with puffy eyes. Well, she did not seem like the same woman i met today at the hospital. She appeared more heartbroken.

As she ushered me to the living room, i found the whole family seated waiting for me. It was good that they were cooperating.

"May i get you something to drink?" Lilian asked

"No, i am fine. I prefer going straight work, the sooner we finish, the sooner we get closer to finding your daughter. Now i would like to start by telling me everything about Donatella." i answered

"Well, Donatella was a good girl. She never got to trouble at school, always got straight A's she was pretty amazing." John answered with glassy eyes as he talked about Don. He looked regretful for what? I did not know.

"How was she at school?" I asked as i faced Dave and Vicky. Vicky looked at me nervously and then looked at her parents who nodded to her and then she started talking.

"Well, Don was a good student who always performed well and never got into trouble. She did not have friends at school..........," she said.

"May i ask why?" well she seemed like a nerd, but even nerds had at least one or two friends.

".......um ......she did not have friends because everybody hated her and bullied her," she said looking away

"Why was she bullied? Did you try helping her?" i asked well i had expected this.

"No, i did not help her because i was one of her bullies.....Dave and i started bullying her and others joined in," she answered. Well, i feel like slapping her. I mean it's her sister we are talking about her freaking twin.

"When did this start?"

Dave spoke up this time "Since the first day she started school. being a nerd made it hard for her, and when we started bullying her, the rest of the school joined in."

"How far did the bullying go? Did it go as far as being physical?" they both nodded "Jesus Christ did you ever hit her? they both nodded," why didn't she inform your parents?"

Mrs knight is the one who spoke up.
"We did not know that Vicky and Dave were bullying her, and well, things were not any better with us. We did not treat her right. When she was a baby, she had some complications that also affected me, and i almost died giving birth to her. The doctors said she was okay, so we came home after a day or so. Somehow things were not okay. While Vicky behaved like an average child, Don was different; she refused to breastfeed, she never cried, no one held her because she hated it. We went to all the doctors, and nothing was wrong with her. With all the frustrations we let her be because we did not know what to do, and somehow this made us give much attention to Vicky, not like Don minded. All Don wanted was a diaper change and being fed, and then that was it. As she grew older, we ignored her more and more. Don would stay in her crib and stare at the ceiling and be content with that. She never showed any interest in toys, and at six months, she could sit on her own, and one month later, she was learning to walk while Vicky was still struggling to crawl. She just grew up too damn fast she never needed us, and that was the worst thing a parent can go through, watching your child grow up without needing your help.
At eight months she was walking, and then she scared the shit out of us when she started reading books on her own hahaha you should have seen her eight months old with a book at her lap with her face clenched in concentration. It was so scary, and we did not understand her at all. Anytime she got the remote; she would watch anything other than what kids her age were supposed to watch. One day John found her watching COSMOS and tried changing the channel, and she smacked his hand and said 'don't dare' i remember John fainted....hahaha....i almost did. She was only one year old, and she had never uttered a single word and her she was saying the freakiest thing without stammering. We were afraid of her. We were fearful of what people would say, they would think she was a freak, and that was not good for......umh our reputation. So every time we went to family dinners, we left her behind and always made excuses that she was sick. Nobody would understand why a baby was acting like that, and she would be a lab rat if anybody knew. They would keep her in labs for observations, and i did not want that, so we learned how to ignore her.
When she started getting older, she started being rebellious. She started stealing Dave's and Vicky's toys and destroying them. And when she asked why she did that she would pretend to be confused and that got us so angry. She thought we were fools, and when she went to time out, she never complained as if she loved getting punished. And after time out, not one trace of regret would be seen on her face. So we started thinking that somehow she was crazy or was turning to a psychopath. We tried everything we could to turn her to a normal child, but nothing worked. We took her books away, forbid her to watch television, and even that did nothing much. We tried drastic measures like threatening her but somehow that never got her to stop or confess what she was doing. We did not want her to influence Vicky, so we moved her to the attic since there were no spare rooms and then we had to take drastic measures as she got older and the habits continued like refusing to buy her new clothes and not furnishing her room and not buying her a car while the others got one, but her behavior continued.
I know i should have loved her even through all that, but i was so angry. I almost died giving birth to her, and all she could do is be a rebel and be ungrateful.

"What kind of habits did she have?" i asked. This was a lot of information to process. I felt a migraine coming on. anymore surprises and my brain will explode.

Mr knight spoke up."Well it started with little things like destroying Dave's and Vicky's toys, hiding our phones, then she started stealing Lilian would lose her jewelry and somehow they always ended in Don's bed tucked away somewhere then one time she burned Vicky with hot tea and also pushed her around every single day Vicky had wounds that were caused by Don. And the worst thing was that she always denied everything even when all the evidence led to her. "

"Did you ever think that she was telling the truth, that somehow she did not do any of that." everybody looked at me like i was crazy except Vicky who looked away afraid and guilty. Bingo

"No, that is not possible. Vicky always witnessed her doings," Dave answered.

"Let me guess, Vicky is the only one who 'witnessed' all her doing?" they looked at each other and nodded."Vicky, i know you have something to say as i see all this has your dirty hands signature to it so please do us a favor and speak up." i said i knew this was her fault. It did not take a genius to see it.

"What are u talking about? Why would you accuse Vicky of something like that? Did you plan this with Don to get Vicky to trouble? I won't allow you to make her the suspect while she is the victim. Tell him, Vicky, tell him you are innocent, Vicky?" Lilian turned to her daughter and from Vicky's expression, i know she realized that there was some truth to what i was saying.

" I'm sorry...i...i did not mean to hurt anybody....... it's just that she was so perfect she knew everything, you always looked at her with this fascination even though you gave me more attention Don always made you proud she was perfect, and so i had to do something. I did not mean for it to get out of hand, but after i did all that you finally started looking at me like you used to look at her and i did not want that to end, so i kept on scheming to get her into trouble. I am sorry it got out of hand. I am so....so....s..s..sorry." Vicky cried as she fell on her knees.

"You are only sorry you got caught," Dave said as he walked out of the room, i know he was hurt and betrayed.

"Before you do anything rush i suggest you think things through. You already lost one child i don't think it's fair if you lose another. I will come later to continue with the investigation. That's enough information for now."

This information just made things worse for the Dons. If the media gets to know about this, then the whole family doomed. I don't think they were responsible for Donatella's disappearance, but my opinion does not count in court. I do wish they have alibis for where they were yesterday night.