Guilty

One

I've been sitting in prison for four years because I had been falsely accused when I was fourteen. My family was attacked by someone on my fourteenth birthday, and I was the only one left alive. Whoever it was broke in, killed my parents, and left me unconscious covered in blood with the murder weapon in my hand. I swear I didn't do it but all the evidence pointed to me, plus having been unconscious and not remembering anything didn't give me a very good testimony. They've decided to let me out on my eighteenth birthday since I was no longer allowed in the juvenile section and maybe since I was so young when it happened I might still have a chance at life. I fully plan to find out who killed my parents and get proper justice. I suffered for four years and they've gotten to live freely, well that freedom is about to end.

"Ember Jones come with me, please." The officer comes to get me from my cell to release me. I was finally gonna be free, I lost four years of my life to this place and now I'm finally getting it back. My older cousin is going to take me in since my parents are dead and everyone else hates me. Me and him were never very close growing up. Part of that might be because we are about eight years apart, I mean we had a decent relationship but it still wasn't that great. After we finished all the release paperwork, another officer escorted me out to where Oliver was waiting to take me home.

"Ember, you've grown up a lot since I've last seen you." Oliver's voice has grown a lot deeper since I've last seen him like six years ago.

"Yeah, that happens in six years." I'm not sure how to talk to someone I haven't seen in six years' Hell, I've been in prison for four and don't know how to talk to anyone normally.

"That is true, I guess we've got a lot to catch up on." He says leading me out of the building and into the parking lot where his Audi A6 was parked.

~Time Skip 30 minutes~

"So, tell me what I've missed." Oliver speaks up, breaking our awkward silence. How does he expect me to respond to that question? I know he knows I've been in prison for four years, I know he's heard about what happened, everyone has heard about what happened.

"Well, it's three hours from Cleveland to Cincinnati, and we can't just ride in silence." Oliver speaks up and breaks me out of my thoughts.

"Why did you agree to take me in?" I decided to just outright ask him, I've gotten so many hate letters I thought I'd be outcasted from everyone.

"What do you mean, why wouldn't I?" He asked as if I wasn't on Ohio's top 10 most hated list.

"Because of what happened." I say quietly.

"If I actually believed you did that do you really think I would've tried to get you out?" He chuckles and takes his eyes off the road to look at me for a second.

"You tried to get me out?" No one told me he tried to get me out.

"Did you read any of my letters?" He seemed just as confused as me about this situation.

"You wrote me letters?" The only letters I was ever given were hate mail.

"Yeah, I did, I'm guessing he wouldn't let you have them." He seemed angry so I didn't dare question what he meant by that, I learned not to push someone who was already angry while I was in prison.

~Time Skip to Cincinnati~

He shakes me awake informing me that we've arrived in Cincinnati and that there's someone here he'd like me to meet. The house was nice, it was big but not too big. It was big enough for an average size family with two parents and maybe two or three kids. It seemed as if he wasn't rich but he was comfortable.

"You gonna just stand there in stare or are you gonna come in?" A woman's voice broke me out of my thoughts.

"Ember, this is Evelyn, my wife." Oliver comes up and introduced me to this really pretty blonde woman. She was slightly shorter than me and I'm 5'8, so I'd say she was 5'5 maybe 5'6.

"Oliver has told me a lot about you, I can't wait to learn more for myself." She had a very soothing voice.

"Oh well, hopefully, it was all good things." I wasn't sure how to respond to her since I spent some critical years of my life in a cell and didn't pick up on too many social skills. Also, what could he have possibly told her we barely associated growing up?

"Why don't you follow me and I'll show you to your room." Oliver leads me up the stairs and down this hallway to a very nice room. The main color for the room theme was red with a few black accents in there.

"I remember when you were like eleven your favorite color was red so I tried my best to make the room what a teenage girl would like, despite my lack of knowledge of teenage girls." There was a hint of nervousness in his tone like he was worried I wouldn't like it.

"I can't believe you remembered that, I love this room." I smiled trying to reassure him even though my favorite color has always been blue.

"Well, I'll let you get comfortable." He says that last thing before he shuts the door and leaves to go do whatever. There were clothes in the closet and a note on the door.

"Evelyn bought you clothes she had no clue what size or what you liked so she got a variation of stuff."

There were several different sizes of clothing in the closet. I decided to just pick a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt since it was already like eight at night and I was tired. Oliver apologized a thousand times for it being so late cause he couldn't take off work any earlier than like one in the afternoon and it was like a three-hour drive.

After my shower, I plopped into this extremely comfortable bed and lay down. God, I forgot how comfortable beds were. I drifted off into the best sleep I've had in years.