"How can you still allow her to come to your house!" A voice screamed. "Her father is the reason you and I are widows, Loraine. He's the reason our children are forced to grow up without their fathers!"
"You have no proof!" Belle and I heard mom's voice scream back. She was trying her best not to be too loud, but she was failing miserably.
Belle scooted closer to me so she could hear better, careful not to make any noise or reveal that we were hidden behind a wall while mom spoke to her guest.
Dad passed away a while ago, but some days it feels like it all happened just yesterday.
He died before Belle and I could even make it to first grade. I remember mom crying so much when she found out about his accident that we started to think she would never stop crying. She almost fell apart, but Forest wouldn't let her.
He handled it all so well that Belle and I sometimes thought he knew about dad's accident before the rest of us did.
He was only eight years old, but he didn't cry even once. He knew who to call to come help mom. He made sure me and Belle's grades didn't start slipping. He became more attentive to everything around the house, the farm and who knows what else. Sometimes, it kind of felt like dad was still around because of all the things Forest did.
He stopped acting like a kid after dad died. He made everything about me, mom and Belle. Nothing was ever about him ever again. He didn't allow that.
"I told you!" The woman sounded like she was crying. "A VERY reliable source told me Brian Kim orchestrated that accident. David didn't die in a car accident, Loraine. He was assassinated by Brian Kim. He made it look like an accident and now you're repaying him by feeding his daughter and clothing her and doing who knows what else for a girl whose own parents don't even want her. For all you know, his daughter is here to spy on you so that he can kill you as well!"
Belle and I heard a slap and then a loud gasp.
Mom slapped her. Whoever this woman is, mom just slapped her.
Belle looked at me and I looked at her.
Dad's been gone for three years, but talking about him and hearing about him still makes her cry. Forest and I are convinced Belle was his favourite. He never ever scolded her and when mom scolded her, he would take her out for ice cream and go buy her a new doll house or whatever she wanted. She could never do anything wrong in dad's eyes. She was his perfect little girl.
"You listen to me and you listen well!" Mom's voice became scary. "It took me nine years to get that girl out of her parent's hands. Do you know how close she was to dying, Anna? She barely weighed 40 pounds when I got her out. She was severely malnourished and she smelled so bad, Anna. She smelled like she had never taken a bath in her life and her hair had to be washed for several days before I could get the smell out. She went to school with the richest kids in this country for two years looking and smelling like that, and you all watched! We ALL watched! Do you know what that does to a child's psyche? Do you think a child who sees everyone turn a blind eye to her suffering will ever trust anyone in her life?"
Belle's tears had escaped her eyes and she now had snot and tears covering her face. She was about to start sobbing. I could just see it coming.
"Get out of here!" I whispered at her. "You're going to get us caught!"
Her lips quivered and more tears gathered in her eyes before she bolted as quickly and as quietly as possible.
Mom and whoever she was talking to didn't hear her. They were still quiet after mom slapped that woman.
I pushed my ear even further against the wall, but I still couldn't hear anything.
I had no idea whose dad they were talking about. I don't know whose dad they're talking about, but I think I know. I only know of one person whose hair needed to be washed for multiple days to get the smell out of it.
"You should at least create some distance between her and your kids." The other woman finally spoke in a whimper. "My daughter told me Charlotte and your eldest are inseparable. Imagine Lucas finding out one of his friends and a girl his mother clothed and fed is the daughter of the man who killed his own father. And imagine how he would feel if he found out you knew about it, but still let them be friends?"
Of course it's Charlotte.
I didn't care enough to stay and listen to the rest of their conversation.
I heard all I needed to hear.
Of course its her.
That girl comes here everyday. She eats here, does her homework here, rides the horses, laughs with us. She's practically a Greyson. That's how everyone else treats her because of how close she is with Forest.
She's such a leech.
I tried really hard not to be angry, but no matter how hard I tried, I still got angry.
Her dad killed my dad.
He's the reason I'll never hear dad's laugh again. He's the reason dad will never pick me up again and put me on his shoulders. He's the reason dad couldn't finish the tree house he was building for us.
And now that man's daughter gets to eat at the same table as us. She gets to do homework with us. She gets to come here everyday as if this is her home.
She gets to do that because her dad killed my dad.
I don't know when I or how I made it outside, but I wasn't in the house anymore. My legs had carried me outside into the garden and that meant I was close to one of the farm gates, and Forest likes taking Charlotte to the farm to show her dad's old tractor.
He lets her touch it, climb it and pretend that they're driving it.
Her dad killed our dad and his reward is that his daughter gets to be doted on by the family of the man he killed.
Surely that can't be fair. Dad wouldn't have wanted that ... so why is mom so okay with this?
Shouldn't Charlotte feel even an ounce of what her father has put us through? Shouldn't she also cry the way we cried after dad died?
I blinked and I was suddenly standing infront of dad's tractor.
He loved this tractor. He used to let me and Forest take turns sitting in his lap and driving it during the weekends. The second he got home, he would get out of his suite and wear comfortable clothes so he could drive this tractor.
Now Charlotte gets to sit in its seat.
I couldn't see Forest anywhere ...
but I could see Charlotte.
She was busy trying to climb dad's tractor. Her dad is the reason why my dad will never drive his tractor and yet here she is, climbing it without a worry in the world.
I ran towards her and pushed her.
I pushed her as hard as I could and she fell.
She scraped her knees and they were both bleeding, but she wasn't crying. Now that I think about it, I've never seen her cry even once in the three years that I've known her.
Dad probably cried when he died, but this girl has never had a reason to cry because we have rewarded her dad for killing our dad. We've rewarded him by raising his daughter for him.
How nice that must be.
There was no fear or anger or hatred or even shock on her face. She just got up as if nothing happened and started dusting the dirt off her clothes.
"Should I push you too?" She cocked a brow at me.
"I want you to leave." I said calmly. "And I want you to leave me and my family alone, Charlie. You don't belong here. You know that, right?"
Still, no tears. She looked as calm as can be.
What kind of eleven year old ever looks this calm; especially when someone just pushed her and she was bleeding from both knees? She isn't normal.
"I know." She responded in a calm and cold tone. "But I don't think Forest knows that. Should we go tell him together?"
"His name is Lucas!" I screamed at her.
Why is she so calm? What the hell is she? Did her dad really send her here to come spy on us like that woman said? A spy would act like this! A spy would be as calm as her.
"You don't get to make everyone forget tbe name that dad gave my brother just because you have some crush on him!" I yelled at her some more. "You think you're so smart and so perfect, but you and I both know you're NOTHING without my family. If it weren't for Lucas, everyone at school would be shoving you into their lockers."
I should have seen it coming, but I was too blinded by my rage.
She pushed me hard and I fell to the floor.
"No one will ever hurt me again." She bent down on her bloody knees and whispered in my ear. "You think your words hurt me? You think a few scrapes on my knees hurt me?"
"This is nothing." She scoffed. "And nothing you could ever do will ever be enough to hurt me or chase me away from Forest, Christian."
"It's Lucas!" I grabbed her hand before she could get up. "My brother's name is Lucas."
She sneered, walked away and left me there on the ground, right next to the tractor that dad will never drive again.
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
I've never seen Lucas with a single hair out of place. I've never seen him get overwhelmed. I've never seen him drunk or be anything but charming, intelligent and confident.
My brother always knows who he needs to be and how to get anyone to ultimately say yes to him. It's one of the things that make living in his shadow harder than it already is.
The world could be turning upside down, but my brother will still be as calm and composed as ever so that he can find a solution to whatever problem we're facing.
Belle and I have almost grown to take that for granted. We can do whatever we want because we know Luvas will take care of everything.
Belle made it clear she doesn't like business things and Lucas told her if that's how she felt, she didn't need to worry about it. I told him I'd like to be a lawyer and work for other companies before considering working for our family company. Lucas said that's perfectly fine. He said he just wants us to be happy. That's all he's ever wanted for us.
I don't think he's ever done anything for himself, except to allow himself to fall in love with Charlotte.
That was the only thing he was always unapologetically selfish about. And it also turned out to be the thing that broke him.
With the snap of a finger, Charlotte turned my brother into a man none of us could recognise anymore.
A man who could never do wrong, suddenly wanted to drop out. He started drinking. He stopped eating. He stopped being Lucas and turned into someone we constantly had to check up on because we were scared he might just drive off to nowhere one day just to get away from his pain.
He never let anyone see him as anything but perfect, but when Charlotte broke up with him that all went out of the window.
I actually didn't think I'd meet another person who was as obsessed as my brother about making sure others do not ever see you weak until I met Charlotte.
I knew her for for thirteen years. I spent every day with her and yet not once did I ever see her cry or be sad or look anything other than perfect.
She always had her guard up, making sure that she's only ever viewed as nothing but perfection.
Until today.
Today, six months after breaking up with my brother, she's standing at our door wearing sweat pants and a sweat shirt. I have never seen her in sweat pants ever before; even when she went running.
Her light caramel skin has lost its gold shimmer and she looks so pale that she's probably closer in colour to a white sheet of paper.
Lucas told me she cut her hair, but I didn't take him seriously. Her light brown curly hair once reached her behind, but now it barely reaches her shoulders. Her eyes are so dull and lifeless that looking at them for more than a few seconds just sends chills down my spine.
And of course, I can smell the alcohol on her.
I thought she didn't drink. Guess I was wrong.
I was about to turn her away and tell her to never come here ever again, but Belle yanked the door wide open before I could speak.
"Charlie!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and hugged Charlotte, pretending not to smell that faint scent of alcohol that came from her.
"Come in!" She pushed me out of the way and ushered Charlotte inside the house.
I followed them into the sitting room where mom had the same reaction as Belle.
She also ignored the fact that Charlie looked like a corpse and that she smelled like liquor.
"Come here!" Mom embraced her in a tight hug. "It's going to be okay, Charlie. Whatever you're going through sweetheart, I swear it's going to be okay. You two just need to sit down and talk and then this whole mess can be done with."
Mom hadn't noticed that Charlotte wasn't hugging her back. Belle didn't notice it either.
Her arms were hanging on her sides like dead fish.
"I can't do that." She answered in the most timid voice I've ever heard from her. "I'm not here for Forest, Mama Grey. I'm here because I messed up and I'll lose everything without you helping me like you've always done."
Her voice sounded like she was about to cry, but there wasn't a single tear in her eyes. She looked lifeless.
Gosh, it scared me.
Mom sat her down and Charlie, the perfect Charlotte Ericsson who can never do anything wrong, started telling us of how she dropped out, started drinking and how her university refuses to take her back. Lucas at least managed to graduate and he actually graduated with good marks despite everything, but Charlotte dropped out and she even lost all the offers she got for a position as a junior associate.
She's nothing. She's nothing without us.
"I'll call your Dean first thing Monday morning." Mom said without hesitation. "Everything will be fine, Charlie. You'll see."
"Thank you." She answered again in that dreadfully timid voice. "For everything. I know I don't deserve it. I know I'm a burden to you and -"
"You're not a burden!" Mom hugged her again and then Belle followed. "Just tell us what happened. Go tell Forest what happened. He's in his room right now."
She shook her head.
"I can't." She started standing up. "I just can't."
She was trying to leave and I could see how much that worried mom and Belle. I understood why. She looked like someone who would walk infront of a bus the second she left the house.
"Then at least eat something!" Mom tried bringing a plate of food to her mouth. "When's the last time you ate?"
"I'm not sure." She shrugged. "I should really get going. Please don't tell Forest I was here. He deserves better than this." She said that last part while looking right at me and then headed for the door.
"I'll walk her out." I shouted behind her.
Mom and Belle seemed too shocked with her appearance to do much.
"Don't come back." I said softly while we walked to the door. "My brother and my family have only ever been good to you, Charlie and you never deserved it. If you're really grateful for all we've done for you, then don't come back. Lucas will get better. In time he will forget how much he loved you. He will meet someone who would never do what you did to him and you'll become a distant memory."
There were still no tears in her lifeless eyes. I'm not even sure if she heard me.
"You're just like your dad, Charlotte."
She flinched.
"All you do is bring this family pain; just like him."
"You're right." She finally spoke. "I'll stay away, Chrissie. Tell Lauren not to let him slip through her fingers. Lucas is one of a kind."
She disappeared into the distance just like that. The Greysons were finally free of Charlotte Ericsson.
*** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** ***
PRESENT DAY
"They're okay, you know?" I told her what I think is a lie. "Forest and Jona are okay, Charlie."
She looked passed me with a glossy look in her eyes. No tears, no fear. Just nothing in those eyes.
Jona was supposed to be back two days ago, but he isn't and now he's nowhere to be found. Lucas was supposed to be back yesterday, bust he's also not back and he's also nowhere to be found.
She ignored my attempts to make her feel better, opened the door and when someone other than Joshua was waiting for her outside, I noticed a scowl form on her face.
"Joshua called in sick!" The tall man in all black said quickly when he noticed her scowl.
She smiled, closed the door and looked at me for the first time this entire morning.
"We're in trouble." She smiled sadly.