Escape chapter 3B

Kelly was nervous about going into state custody. She had heard horror stories about bad fosters and unhappy kids. She didn’t want to end up with that kind of life. And she was incredibly comfortable with the Wilsons, especially Garrett. She wanted to ask his father if there was any way she could stay with them, but she didn’t have the nerve. Instead, she spent the day cleaning and making herself useful. She hoped he would see value in that and come to the conclusion she would be good to have around.

“You’re making me look bad, Kelly,” Garrett said as he walked into the kitchen. She was standing in front of the sink, finishing the dishes.

“I’m sorry, I was just…” she said.

He saw the worry in her eyes. “It’s ok. I was just kidding.” He smiled and she felt that warmth once again. “You don’t have to do this. You’ve been through so much. How about you let me take care of you.” He wrapped his arms around her.

She pulled in his energy as he held her. She breathed in his scent. To her it meant safety and security. She’d never felt like this with another boy. If he didn’t let go of her soon, she thought she would never want him to let go of her. Then panic started to set in from feeling trapped. She pushed him away, then gave him a wan smile.

For months her life had been full of upheavals. She had to leave the boarding school she’d been attending. She didn’t have a lot of friends, but the ones she had were all there. And when her mother lost her job, they couldn’t afford the expensive school any longer. When she got home, her father had found out he was losing his job, too. She’d gone from thinking her parents would buy her a brand-new car for her sixteenth birthday to them selling her mother’s car so they could afford regular expenses.

Then, things were looking good and her father had been offered a giant opportunity in Meridian and they had dropped everything to move halfway across the country, leaving behind anyone she had a connection to, aside from her family. But things were looking up… until the accident and her abduction.

“Garrett,” she said, tears starting to build in her eyes, “a day and a half ago, I was praying that I would die. I’d been raped and beaten. I was terrified and in pain. I just wanted the pain to stop and thought the only way that would happen was to die. I wanted to give up.” She was unconsciously rubbing her wrists.

“I don’t know how it happened, but I ended up being able to slip my wrist out on one side and untie myself. That was enough for me to get away.” She wanted to blurt out that she then murdered the man that had taken her. “Again, I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t move another step. I thought I would freeze to death right where you found me. I had actually gone beyond the pain… I didn’t feel it anymore. I gave up… and then I saw you. I was scared. I knew that if I died, the pain would stay away.”

“Kelly,” he said, “you…”

“Garrett, I need to say this out loud. At first, I was scared that you were one of them… that you were going to take me back. I was scared to trust you… more scared of anything in my entire life. But you showed me that I could trust you. I do trust you. And I don’t want to leave.”

“Thank you for trusting me, Kelly. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

“I know.” She pulled him into a hug.

Bill walked into the kitchen and saw Garrett loosely holding Kelly. She held onto him like he was the only thig keeping her from falling into an abyss. He knew that look. He’d seen it in his wife. He knew the look he saw in his son’s eyes, too. He’d seen it in the mirror when he was trying to protect his wife from her own demons. Ultimately, he couldn’t protect her, but he would have given his life if it would have made a difference. Karen’s demons were too strong.

How strong were Kelly’s? Could she overcome them, with or without Garrett’s help? And if she couldn’t, what would that do to Garrett? For Bill, losing his wife, Garrett’s mother, had almost killed him. He wanted to protect his son from that, but he was enough of a realist to know it might not be possible.

“Kelly, you don’t have to do all of this,” he said, seeing that she’d cleaned everything in the kitchen. As he glanced around, he realized it might actually be cleaner than anything had been since Karen passed away. Maybe even cleaner than it had been when she was around.

“It’s ok. I don’t mind. I clean when I’m nervous. The meeting with the case worker tomorrow has me a little scared, I guess,” she said as she nervously released her hold on Garrett.

“That’s understandable,” Bill replied. “Let’s go watch a movie. Maybe that’ll take your mind off everything.”

She took Garrett’s hand and followed him into the living room. Bill popped Casablanca into the Blu-Ray player and started popping some popcorn.

***

Kelly finished her shower. Garrett had left for school and Bill was downstairs drinking his morning coffee and reading the news. As she dressed, she heard a knock at the door. She assumed it was the social worker. She really didn’t want to go, so she took her time getting ready. Garrett had left another outfit on his bed for her to wear.

She came down the stairs as saw Bill sitting in the living room talking with a man. He mentioned his name… Steve… and she guessed it was his friend the detective.

“Hi, Kelly,” Bill said as she got to the bottom of the stairs. “This is Steve Tower. He is a Detective with MPD. He wanted to talk with you for a few minutes.”

“Hello Detective,” she said, her nerves rising. She knew she hadn’t done anything wrong, but he was a new person to her, and she had always been nervous around the police.

“Hi, Kelly,” he said. He had a warm smile, but his eyes were sharp. She felt like he was looking through her… seeing any secrets she might try to keep. “You don’t need to be nervous; you haven’t done anything wrong. I just wanted to let you know where everything stood.”

Had he read her mind, she wondered.

“We think that the man who kidnapped you is also responsible for your family’s accident. He can’t hurt you anymore. His brother is also in custody. You’re safe now. But I am going to need to get a statement from you… so you can tell us everything that happened, ok? To do that, I’m going to need you to come into the station. Also, because you are a minor and your parents can’t come with you, we will be giving you a lawyer-advocate, someone that will look out for your best interests. Do you understand all of that?”

“Yes, Sir. Thank you, Detective,” Kelly said, pulling back into her shell again. “I know what a guardian ad litem is.”

“There are a few things we need to be ready for, Kelly,” Tower said, both to Kelly and Bill, “school, living arrangements and retrieval of Miss Armstrong’s family possessions. The Social Worker should be here any time to go over those.”

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This is the middle of the third chapter of an ebook available on my blog at LaneBailey.info. Subscribers have access to download the full ebook for free.