Sadistically Sweet (Watty Awards Finalist 2012)

A Final Goodbye

Three Years Later

The wind whipped my hair around as I sat on the bench in the park. Glancing up, I watched the children play carelessly before I glanced back at the book that lay in my hands. The memories that the scrapbook held were hard to swallow, but I knew I had to gather my courage and read it.

Opening the cover, I flipped to where the newspaper articles were stored. Five pages held clippings of my dark past, each sending a chill down my back. As I read through the titles, memories flashed in my mind. Even years later Francis still managed to scare me.

Every title held a story, memory, and they were all about my kidnapping.

'Haitlin Brookes Found!' was on the front page of a newspaper from the morning after I was rescued. It was accompanied by a photo of me in the back of my father's police car. I hadn't realized what terrible shape I was in then until I saw that photo again. My skin was pale, eyes sunken, and my entire body huddled into itself.

'Kidnapped Teen Returns Home'. This one made the front page too, but it held a picture of me in the arms of my family, crying. Even today I could still feel the joyfulness that coursed through my veins when I saw my family again. 

Greg had picked me up and held me so tight that I thought my ribs would crack, my mom fell to the ground crying, and my dad would never leave my side. From the moment I was taken to the hospital to the moment I went to bed that night, he was there to protect me.

'Two Cops Kill Kidnapper, Three Casualties'. This clipping was issued two days after I was found, but it contained a side story about how my dad got his badge back. Apparently, he hit Chief and got suspended, but they got him back early because he helped save me. I give him a lot of credit though.

'Haitlin Brookes Reveals True Story'. By now I was getting sick of looking at picture of myself crying, but this story almost made me cry just reading it. When I was gone many people started looking for me, but once I told the media my story more people wanted to hear it. Lifetime even asked me if they could make a story about my experience, and of course I said yes. 

'Police Search Home of Francis Potts'. Unfortunately, along with national attention on me, it was also on Francis. People knew his name and knew what he did, but it made it harder for me to heal when I heard his name on TV everyday for a week. 

'Francis Potts Wife Found at Bottom of Lake'. Chills ran down my back as I reread this article over and over again. The police drained the lake while searching for Robyn's body, and they found it. It was only a bag of bones, but it was enough to tell. The poor woman was only twenty-six when she was murdered while being three months pregnant. Francis was such a monster.

The articles skipped several months, but once again my name was on the front page. 

'Haitlin Brookes Adopts Kidnapper's Daughter!'. The entire world thought is was insane that at eighteen I adopted a five year old, especially my kidnapper's daughter. People questioned me for months about it, wondering how I could stand her, but my family stood behind my decision.

Just because Olivia's father was a sadistic man who raped, abused, and attempted to murder me, does not mean she is just like him. Poor Olivia was bounced from foster home to foster home because no one wanted her. The police never even managed to track down this 'Uncle Ian' and he never showed up, so child services was going to send her to another state. 

I wouldn't let that sweet innocent girl have her life squashed because of her father, so I adopted her. She now lives with my family and I in our extra bedroom. Mom pitied her at first, but now she loves as if she really was her granddaughter.