"Nathaniel Stafford." Sam spat, his voice dark and cold. "He goes by Nate. He's my mothers latest squeeze. Hes a drunk, a junkie, and a pervert. I have spent the last three months living under the same roof as the bastard. He started by just challenging me and smacking me around a little which was no different than the other ones that she brought home. Then he started to smack her around, then when she would complain about the pain he would get her high to shut her up." Sam paused for a moment.
Violet was listening to what he was telling the cop, but it just seemed like a plot to a bad movie to her. Violet guess she was sheltered more than she had originally thought." People like that couldn't exist in the real world, could they?" Violet thought to herself. "People like that were only on late night crime shows. Violet's stomach started to turn as she thought about all of the shows that she watched and that there were people out there that actually committed evil acts that the episodes had depicted.
Sam let out a loud sigh then he looked at Monroe and continued. "I thought that he had calmed down finally and just stuck to drinking, but that was until my sister came home from her fathers."
"Her fathers?" the officer asked looking at Sam. "She's your half sister?" Sam nodded. "Ok so she came back from her dad's to live with your mother, then what happened."
Violet could see Sam's face harden, "Jessica came in to see Nate beating our mother and me getting in the middle of it. I quickly took Jessica up to her room and told her to lock the door, I figured with him being drunk he hadn't seen her yet. To my knowledge my mother never told him about her." Sam took another moment then continued, "My mother had started to complain about the pain that she was in from him beating her, then Nate had gone into the kitchen to set up her fix and to give it to her. He went back to drinking after that. Around six thirty that night my mother was still blitzed out of her mind. Nate realized that dinner wasn't made yet. He started to beat her again, but she was too high to feel it and I was afraid that he was going to kill her so I went to break it up, and he caught me with a broken bottle." Sam said at the same time taking off his hoodie and lifting up his shirt to show off the jagged marks that shown brightly against his rib cage. One of them looked badly infected and was oozing. Violet felt her stomach turn from the sight, and the faint raw smell of the grotesque wounds.
Violet saw the officers face soften toward Samuel as he looked at the damage Samuel had received while protecting his baby sister. "Son, why didn't you go to the hospital for that?" the officer asked. Sam just shook his head. "I tried to that night, but when I went to leave, Jessie came down the stairs and that fucker saw her. He snatched her by her hair and I tackled him, causing her to fall on the table in the living room. After that I scooped her up and took her to Miss Polly's house."
"Who's Polly?" the officer asked. Violet saw how the officer was listening to Samuel very intently. Taking every word in. Etching it into his brain.
"She used to baby sit us back when my mother could hold down a stable job. Miss Polly was a nurse in her younger years and she still volunteers as a first responder. I left her there. Thinking it would be safe for her. But apparently it wasn't." Samuel stated. Samuels eyes widened in fear as he looked at the cop. "Miss Polly! She could be injured! I have to go check on her." Samuel got up and went to run toward the door when the officer caught him by his arm.
"I will send people over there to check on her. Don't worry son. Right now we have to figure out how to keep you and your little sister safe." Monroe said in a fatherly tone. "You did your best, son. Now let the adults handle it from here. You fought a good battle." I watched as Samuels, demeanor changed. He looked as if all the worry, stress and injuries had caught up with him all at once. He just slumped down into the recliner and put his face in his hands.
"What's Miss Polly's address? I'll send a deputy and an ambulance over there. In the mean time you and your sister are gonna go to the hospital and get treated. You got that?" Monroe told Samuel.
"11342 Willowbird Lane." Samuel said. His voice was raspy and tired. Monroe just nodded and called dispatch over the radio letting them know to send out someone to check on the woman.
"Now, after you two are treated, do you have any safe relatives that you can stay with? Will Jessica's father let the both of you stay?" Samuel just shook his head.
"He is back overseas. He came stateside for two weeks and then headed out for another 6 months." Samuel told the cop. Monroe scratched his balding head.
Then he asked. "What about your father, could you two stay with him?" Samuel chuckled and shook his head.
"If I knew who he was then I would ask him. Yet he left my mother when I was just an infant, even if I knew him, I doubt that he would be the kind of person to help out his kid. Much less another man's." Samuel said, looking up. His face looked even more tired and forlorn than it had just moments before.
"Sam, you look a bit pale. Do you want a cup of water?" Violet asked him. He just nodded. Quietly and quickly Violet went to the kitchen to fetch it for him. Along the way she had a million new questions buzzing around in her mind. But the main one was, "What if they could stay here? Would that help?"