Quiet Not Innocent | ✔︎

Chapter 2:

A S P E N ♡ W I L S O N
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So the plan was simple, April and I were going to say no to Mom having custody of both of us.

She wanted to take both of from Dad but I didn't wanna do that. She was the one who cheated after all, so why did Dad have to lose everything?

We'd gone over it in our bedroom and made up a plan to force Mom to admit she was wrong for cheating on Dad and then we'd tell the judge we didn't want to go with her and she'd have to agree for joint custody.

She loved us that much, we knew it. That's why our plan would have to work. She would never leave us behind.

And after that, we would make Mom ask Dad for forgiveness and try to make them love each other again and get a happy family again.

Whatever happens, me and April agreed to stick together and make sure we're strong in our opinion because under the law here, we get a say in which parent we want to live in since we were both turning thirteen soon.

"Aspen, April, come on up." The judge called for us and we looked at each other before walking over to the front, still hand in hand.

I remember the judge asking us all sorts of questions about our home life, which parent did more for us, if a parent abused us or neglected us, if one of our parents had a specific problem doing drugs or alcohol or something.

It was overwhelming and one of the worst conversations I'd had to engage in. When the judge finally seems satisfied with his question asking,  he turn to April first and asks her the question.

"April, can you tell me which parent you think would be better for you to stay with and why?"

April took too long to answer and I furrowed my eyebrows, looking over at her and squeezing her hand to push her to speak.

She looked uncertain and her eyes darted between me and Mom, who was looking at her with a weird expression on her face.

"Come on," I whisper under my breath. "You gotta choose Dad. Stick to the plan, remember?"

She looks at me one last time and releases my hand suddenly, turning to the judge and saying, "I want to live with my Mom. I don't want to go with Dad."

I don't think I was able to hide the hurt on my face because throughout the rest of the trial, April refused to look me in the eye.

And when I saw the defeated look on Dad's face as he watched both his wife and one of his daughters leave him,  I knew I couldn't add to that pain.

I was going to leave this place by my dad's side no matter what.

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It's the same as it was years ago. The second April makes eye contact with me, she looks away, looks anywhere but me.

Why, I wanted to scream. Why did you ruin our plan that day? Why did you leave me? Leave Dad knowing that Mom was the bad one?