Lilac

Chapter 16

It's been a couple of weeks since New Years and I haven't seen or talked to Audrey, but it's nothing new. My mom had told Olivia and I that our dad did love us, he was just "sick", and took whatever anger he had out on my mom and I. I never understood why he did what he did, but I just knew that I never wanted to see him again.

*Flashback*

It was official. They're divorced. He's gone. He can't hurt us anymore, at least physically.

Mom came home that day, Audrey was gone to a friends house, it was just my aunt, Olivia, and I. Olivia was only four at the time so mom had to try to explain it to her as best as she could, that our dad wouldn't be living with us any longer or be around us. My mom didn't tell authorities that we were being abused, she was scared to tell anybody anything. She told the family that new about the abuse to to keep it hush hush because she didn't want anymore trouble. My mom was terrified of my dad, we all were. He'd have some good days and we'd cherish them as much as we could but of course there were more bad days.

Olivia and I were in the kitchen when we heard the door open, mom finally returned home from signing the papers.

My aunt got up from the kitchen table and hugged my mom, Livy and I followed her acts and did the same. When we heard our mom cried, we cried, it felt like this sad type of freedom. Yeah he was gone and wouldn't be able to hurt us anymore but in my heart my dad was gone forever, he had turned into someone we couldn't recognize; he turned into a monster. It all just hit my at this point, I didn't want this for my family, I wanted a happy fairytale family but it just didn't end up that way.

We pulled away from one another "Girls can you go into another room while I talk to your mom?" My aunt asked

I nodded my head and grabbed Liv's hand to take her to our room.

Audrey should be here, why did she leave?

I sighed as I sat on my bed, my body felt numb. I didn't understand how to control my emotions, or deal with them.

"Autumn?" I looked over at Liv "Are we gonna be okay? Is daddy going to be okay?" Livy asked

"We'll be okay sweetheart, but I don't know about dad. I'm not sure if I even want to think about him" I said

"Yeah, I don't want us to be sad. Especially mommy, but at least you guys won't get boo boos anymore."

I hated that Olivia had to witness or even have to be around the situation, she's four. She should be worried about different things, not whether or not daddy will end up hitting her next.

"We have each other now. We'll be each others medicine." I hugged her

*End Of Flashback*

Alex had kept checking on me a lot, to see if I needed to get out of the house or if I needed anything. It was nice but it started to be a little too much, I felt bad for telling him to calm down but I didn't want him to walk around eggshells with me.

All my friends were really worried about me, especially Grace. She didn't want me to hurt myself so she'd check my arms more often. But she didn't check my hips or my legs.

I've felt terrible about myself the past couple of weeks, I think i've hid it well, no one seems to suspect anything. But deep inside, I was hurting.

Alex was coming over today, he was gonna take me to the treehouse to get some air.

Him and I have started to open up a little bit more with some more "serious" topics. But not too serious to where he knows about my self harm, although he knows more about my dad and what he did, along with how it makes my family feel. He started to talk to me about his mom, how some days it's really hard but other days it's easier to get through; and go about his day. He misses her, a lot, i'm not sure what i'd do if my mom wasn't in my life.