Promise

chapter 21

"Avery" I shout, walking into the house, knocking was the least of my concern tight now so I didnt even bother. "Shes in here" nathan said coming from the kitchen. I ignore him and quickly go into the kitchen. What I see breaks my heart. Avery is sat crying her eyes out. I quickly go to her and crouch down so I'm in front of her. "We will give you some space" beth says and I nod. Both beth and nathan leave. Once we are alone I speak "avery hun what happened" I ask but all she did was cry harder. I decide to let her cry  so it would be out of her system, instead of asking anymore questions,  I pulled her into a hug which she quickly returned. I dont know how long we hugged and she cried into me for but I suddenly heard her whisper  "Dont leave me elijah" fuck. I hope she knew I would never leave her. "Never" I whisper and look down to see she was falling asleep against me. Cute. I gently pick her up and take her to the living room, where I see nathan and beth folding blankets up. I had to find out what happened.  I laid her down on the sofa and turned to the 2 kids who were watching me. "Is she ok" they both asked simultaneously.  I didnt know how to answer though because I had no idea if she was. "I hope so. What happened" I respond. They look to each other before nathan speaks "we were having breakfast when some unknown id called her, beth told her to put it on speaker. Anyway it was a guy, it seemed like he knew her, fucking peodo talked about how she asked for it when she wore shorts, sick bastard. Me and beth told him where to go but he called her his little flower and thats when she really started hyperventilating" he explained. During the middle I had clenched my fists, how dare he. I will hunt him down and kill him with my bare hands. I figured after what she told me about her previous foster homes, it had to be one of them. "Ok I'll handle it, I'm gonna take her home" I say not wanting to scare them with the anger that's building up. "You're alot calmer than we expected" beth suddenly said. "Oh believe me, I'm far from calm. Nobody touches my little girl and gets away with it" I say, even I could tell how menacing my tone was. I grabbed her bag and slung it over my shoulder and picked avery up. That fucker will pay when I get my hands on him. I'll tear him apart piece  by piece. 

As I drove us home, my anger got worse. I wanted this man found. I wanted him dead. "Elijah" she mumbled, I looked over to see she was waking up. I masked my anger with a smile "hey, you ok" I ask and she nods as she sits up more. Shes quiet for a minute before she looks wide eyed "oh god, beth and nathan must hate me now, i probably looked pathetic crying like that. I shouldnt have gone" I couldnt help but feel sad, her first thought was her friends hating her. "Hey, they dont hate you, nathan told me what happened" I say and she looks at me  with a worried look "I'm to much trouble for you arent i" I shake my head. "No but let's get home and we can talk properly" she nods in agreement and I take a right turn. We were only 5 minutes away and I didnt think talking in the car was the best idea.

Finally we got home and we took the elevator up to our floor. We got inside and I watched as she went to her room. "We need to talk" I say and she turns "I know, I just want to get some paper just in case" I nod and go to the kitchen. It was early in the morning still  but I knew icecream was needed.  It was a one off, I wouldn't be allowing her to eat it every morning. I also made myself a coffee.

After the coffee was done I went back to the living room, she was sat waiting  so I sat and handed her icecream with a spoon. "Its a one off" I say but the smile on her face told me that if she asked for it I would have a hard time saying no. I took a large swig of coffee and set it down on the coffee table.  "It was like he was in the room, he spoke as if he was looking at me" she said and I patiently waited for her to continue. I knew rushing her or pushing her was not a option. "He said that I had grown since our last encounter, do you think he knew where I was, was he watching me? When beth and nathan spoke he knew they were my friends, they could have been anyone, passers by anything but he knew" she said and a feared look passed her face. Fuck. The way he spoke certainly made it seem like he had been watching her. "Dont worry hun, you are safe here, he cant get you" I tell her. "He was the worst one" she mumbles. "Worst what" I ask even though I already knew. She didnt say anything, instead she moved closer to me and I took this as a sign she wanted my comfort and so I pulled her into a hug, luckily she hugged back. "Foster parent, him and his wife, they lived in this little cottage with flowers,  it was pretty. One day I was in the garden doing the lawn, it was one of many chores, anyway he came onto me, he called me his little flower. He told me if I told anyone he would kill me, i didnt want to die and it had happened before, no one did anything even when i told someone. Nothing got done so I just had to put up with it. He would t...touch me every day, at night he would watch me, I heard him enter my room. Sometimes he would p....pull my shorts d..down and t...touch me, one day he did it, h...he r...raped m..me. I promise I always tried to stop him. He continued doing it and he beat me. H..he caught m..me talking to a boy from class once and b..beat me hard that night and did so many stuff to me, he told me I belonged to him, and I wasnt allowed to talk to anyone but him, I guess that was good though, the talking bit I mean. I took his threats seriously,  I didnt want to risk what happened that night happening again.    Because I never spoke, the school got child welfare involved and I got taken off them. He tried to convince them to stay but it didnt work" she explained.  Tears were running down her face and I noticed tears run down mine too. If only I looked harder, if only sarah never left, if only I had been a better man. I was a useless father, I couldnt protect her when she needed me the most.
"Avery hun I'm so sorry" I say and tighten the hug. "Its ok, nothing you could have done" she tells me, but there was something I could have done. I could have tried harder to find her, not that I didnt try hard but I could have done better.  "Thank you for telling me all that Avery, I promise this man will not get to you again. I promise you"