brenton's girl

fifty two

Leah's pov

"I told you everything I know," Adyn said picking up her mug, she took a sip and looked around the cafe. "If I knew anything else I would have already told you, Leah."

I nodded and chuckled, I pushed my hair away from my face and picked up my phone. I went straight to the photos and showed her a picture I took of the receipt from the doctors.

"Do you want to change your answer?" I asked.

"Where'd you find that?" She asked stunned.

"That doesn't matter." I snapped. "What else arent you telling me?"

"I was eleven." She said sitting back against the red bench. "I had no clue what was happening; mom and dad just took me to a building, next thing I know I'm under the knife. They didn't even have enough decency to take me to an actual hospital."

"Do you remember where this building is?" I asked her. "Waysides trying their hardest to bring down dad and the Jacksons."

"Mom is just as much to blame, Leah. Do not go one sided on this."

"She didn't want-"

"She may not have wanted it to happen, but she definitely didn't try to do anything to stop it." Adyn's fists were clenched on the table, and by the way that her whole body was slightly bouncing I could imagine she was shaking her leg vigorously.

"There was nothing she could have done, Adyn."

"You're shitting me, right?" Adyn said loudly, I watched as an old couple turned and looked at us with curious eyes. "Shes a jackson. She has power. She could have easily said no and they would have let it slide."

"Wouldn't the leader-"

"There is no leader, Leah. The Jacksons are all equal, no one has more power than the other. They know what they need to do, so they do it. The family name gives them power, they do with it what they please."

"What if one of their own goes against them?" I asked finally able to get a full sentence out before she interrupted.

"You mean like you're trying to?"

"Or like you did."

"Then they get banished from the Jacksons. They legally change their name and they either move out of state out of country." Adyn looked down at my phone that was resting on the table. "That receipt and whatever else you found, that's the most evidence you'll find on the Jacksons. I've looked for years. They cover their tracks, they burn everything."

I was curious why dad kept those specific papers then. If the Jacksons burn all evidence what convinced him to keep these?

"So the cops don't get involved?" I asked and Adyn nodded.

"Never." She said.

"Is there anything else?" I asked. "Anything at all that you know that could help us bring them down? All of them."

"Just remember that the cops do not get involved." I nodded and picked up my phone. I tossed a five dollar bill on the table and stood up. "Be safe, Leah."

"You too."

—

I parked in front of the well known house and honked the horn once. I looked at the window that overlooked the whole front yard and sighed, no matter how long I was gone that ache was still present. It was my first home and now it feels like I was completely casted away. It felt foreign.

My thoughts got interrupted when Sam pulled on the door handle, the door didn't budge. I smiled at her and quickly unlocked the door.

"Hey." I said. She smiled and climbed in, she sat her purse on the car floorboard, right beside her feet.