Songwriter

Chapter Eleven

Destiny's POV

I sat quietly in the corner, racking my brain for inspiration as Shawn, Ian, and Andy went back and forth. Shawn kept trying to get in Andy's face, screaming at the top of his lungs. Well, I assumed he was. My hearing aides were turned off so I could tune them out. Anyways, Ian was trying to push Shawn back to keep him out of Andy's face before things got drastic. I never knew what they were arguing about. I looked away from the scene in front of me, trying to come up with something. Anything to reflect what happened with Shawn this past year. The twins would be six months old soon, and he would be starting his tour. That means in six months we have to have an entire album written and recorded. We've only gotten the duet done. I don't even have the first verse done. I dropped my pen, covering my mouth as the loud sobs threatened to spill from my eyes and lips. I felt my shoulders bounce as I sobbed as quietly as I possibly could. While Shawn has every distraction in the world, all I could think about was how I lost my niece. As the world focused on Shawn and how he lost his daughter nobody knew about how I lost my sister and my niece. Shawn didn't even like Sydney. Now I'm left to only focus on Angel as I write this song about her for him. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I looked over to see Tia kneeling down next to a baby stroller. I looked around the room, seeing everyone staring at me. Tia turned on the hearing aids before helping me move everything away from me and helping me up. "Come on, I think we need to talk." She tells me, and my mind begins to race. Does she know? I wonder, and we begin to exit the room with the twins. The yelling had stopped, and now everyone was staring at my wet, swollen, and blotchy face. Tia guides me outside and down the street until we find a river. Why are we here? But I didn't have to wonder and worry for long. "I have a sister." She tells me, and I freeze. "I had... have... I have a niece." She tells me, and I see tears in her eyes. "She would be about a year and a half old today." She keeps going, and I listen as Tia begins to tell me everything. "My sister, her name is Aria. Before my dad and step mom got married... honestly it was even before they met, we lost them both. Aria is about a year and three months younger than me. When she and my best friend were in eighth grade they began dating. Honestly, they were the cutest couple I'd ever seen. Which is saying something... especially since he was my ex, and she's my little sister... Aria and I, you'd think we were twins. We aren't though, and... Nathan and I both went a little crazy after she left. There were a couple firsts there that shouldn't have been, but that just completed our lists together I guess. Nathan... he's not the point right now. It's Aria. Aria and Nathan were the it couple for their grade. She was Ms. Popular dating the bad boy everyone was scared of. He was older, bigger, stronger. He was dark and shady looking, but not with her. He smiled, he laughed, he was gentle. Well, the gentle part was only outside of school. He had a reputation to uphold, but he wasn't rough with her. Everyone knew he took care of her, but he still somehow held that image." I cut her off, not really sure where this was going. "Tia, I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me, but you seem to really love this Nathan guy, and I'm glad you do, but you're with Shawn, and I work for Shawn, so I need to get back to work." I tell her, standing back up, but Tia grabs my arm, pulling me back down on the ground. "Wait... I'm sorry, I just miss him. He's my best friend, and I haven't seen him in six months." She apologizes, and I sit back down. "Come nonetheless grade, and there was this senior... his name is Jackson Boyd. He was obsessed with Aria instantly, and she didn't return his affections. It started small, Jackson would pass her in the halls, see where she was going and coming from. Then he started trailing behind her and trying to walk her to the classes Nathan couldn't. It got worse after that, and he started doing the same to the classes even Nathan walked her to... Aria kept telling him to leave her alone, but he wouldn't. She was scared of him, he was a senior, and he was even bigger than Nathan. Then it got worse, and he started watching every cheer practice and gymnastics practice. Gymnastics... that wasn't even at school. That was halfway across town. He was everywhere. He started leaving notes in her locker, and finally... Aria told the principal. She showed him the notes, and told him everything. They suspended him, and that just pissed him off. Jackson began to follow Aria home, and so Nathan began to follow Aria everywhere to keep her safe. That just pissed him off. Jackson would sit on the gutter outside of our house. He knew that it was public property, and so he couldn't be told to leave. You could see her room from where he sat, and so she began to keep her blinds and curtain shut. Our dad finally went to the police and got a restraining order, but that didn't do any good. He just ignored it." Tia cleared her throat, sniffing, and I handed her a tissue. "One day Nathan was out sick, and so he cornered Aria in the parking lot on her way to the football field for cheer practice... H-He... He..." she chocked back a sob, and I told her I understood. She didn't have to say it. "Several weeks later... Jackson had over heard her talking to Nathan and her friends, and he cornered her... he told her that she had two options...she either had to give him the baby or abort it... Aria told him that we didn't believe in abortion... and that he wasn't mentally stable enough to care for a baby...after cheer practice  that day Nathan was waiting by the field to take her home and... Jackson kidnapped her, he took her to another state. She was forced to pose as his wife, and he worked at an abortion clinic. Aria went to the doctor regularly, and she had no idea... The day that she found out that she was having a girl was when she was six months and three weeks pregnant... she came home that day, and... he killed her baby... and beat her half to death... and let her go... Aria never told us how she got home... I came home from school one day, and she was laying in the front yard with my niece in her arms... She told me before she passed out that the baby's name was River Grace, and to make sure that the baby didn't have her father's last name... I was handed her baby, and she passed out... Aria was let out of the hospital for River's funeral, but we never found her after... We think she ran away... I found a girl that looks like her working at a daycare up here as the hiring manager... Anyways, my point is... You aren't alone in your loss. I've lost my sister and my niece too." Tia finishes her rant, and I look at her with tears in my eyes, and she has tears in her's as well. "Do you... Do you... Tia, you can go find her... You should go find her..." I take Kai from her, putting him in his carrier before I take my car keys out of my purse and shove them in her hand. "Go find your sister." I demand, and she smiles gratefully at me. "Thank you." She tells me, and I hug her. Why must you make it so hard to hate you? I wonder, and she hugs back.