Adopted by Chris Evans

Chapter 2

Warning: There is talk of rape, abuse and knife and gun wounds but it is all in the past.

The twins had been living with Chris for a month when it happened.
It was a Thursday and they were all sitting eating breakfast in Chris's House when he suggested a beach day.
The twins shrugged and agreed.
They all went to the beach.
At the beach Chris said, "Okay, guys, what do you want to do, walk, swim, sandcastles or eat?"
"Eat." Adrian responded.
They ate and then went for a walk with Dodger. Chris decided that it was time for swimming.
"Okay then I think it is swimming time." Alistair turned pale and both twins quickly shook their heads. Alistair put his arms around himself and his breathing sped up a bit.
Chris put his hand on the boys shoulder and spoke gently. "Hey, Alistair you don't have to. We can just stay here and build sand castles." He nodded his head gratefully.
They spent the rest of the afternoon building sandcastles and playing with Dodger, the twins slowly relaxed and began to play fight with the dog.
They all headed back to Chris's house and the twins went to their room.
Alistair sat on his bed and Adrian sat next to him. "Ali?" His brother looked up, "I think we should tell Chris. He should know why we didn't want to swim."
"But what if he decides he doesn't want to adopt us?" Alistair's lip quivered slightly and he clenched his fists. Adrian pulled him into a hug.
"He will, I know he will. I trust him Ali, do you?"
"I-I guess."
"Okay, we'll tell him after dinner."
They all ate dinner and afterwards Adrian broached the subject.
"I guess we should just tell you about earlier." He took a deep breath.
"You don't have to if you don't want to." This time Alistair answers.
"No, it's fine. We can tell you. It isn't pretty though so here's your warning." He sighs. "I guess the story starts when we were born, our father loved our mother very much. He was a billionaire business man and she was a model, but she died giving birth to us. We look just like her so our father could not bear us because we were too like her. We had an older brother, Alex, he was the main reason Father kept us. Alex wanted to keep us and Father would do anything for him, you see." He stopped for breath and Adrian took up the story.
"Fast forward five years and you have two young kids with an abusive, billionaire as a father. That was when we were kidnapped for the first time. Father payed the ransom and we went home, shaken and a bit roughed up but not too bad." Alistair took over.
"The next time we were kidnapped was when we were six, Father sent in a man so he didn't have to waste more money, there was a shoot up but neither of us were hit. A year later another of Father's enemies kidnapped us. This guy was bad, he wanted a ridiculous amount of money which meant Alex took a long time to convince our father that we were with it, in that time the man-" He took a shaky breath, "-he did things to us, things that do not bear repeating." A single tear ran down his cheek but he took another shaky breath and continued. "Fast forward another six years and we had both been shot, bullied, beaten up and nearly died. Our brother, Alex did die. We were thirteen at the time and our father dropped us off at the orphanage. After six months there they realised we were both very ill. We were sent to a mental hospital and kept there for 18 months. Then back to the orphanage for six months and you walked into our room." He wiped his face with the back of his hand and exhaled.
"Wow." Chris spoke softly. "So, if it's okay, why didn't you want to swim?" The boys nodded and shared a quick look. Adrian pulled off his t-shirt and Chris tried not to gasp. Across the boy's pale torso were scars of various shapes and sizes. Chris hesitantly reached out and touched one, a long line on his side.
"That one was a knife wound, I think I was eleven." He pulled his top back on and looked expectantly at Chris.
"Okay, I think you guys should go to sleep, and tomorrow I don't have anything on so we'll stay here and watch TV, okay?" Both boys smiled and nodded, Alistair suddenly hugged Chris, he returned the hug before pulling away. The boys went to bed and Chris sat down, sighing.