Paying the Price

Chapter 19: Oakley

Last chapter recap -Oliver

He went over to Janae, scooped her off the ground, and sat down on the bed with her. "Okay Janae, it's just me you Oliver, and June. I promise that whoever you are talking about will not find out you told us what's going on and besides even if they did, do you really think that I would let anyone hurt you?"

"You can't stop him" She whispered.

"Who Janae?" Oakley demanded with a more serious voice.

"Mother and father," Janae said so quietly that I almost didn't hear her and then started to cry again.

————————————————————

I was seriously super pissed right now.

There's nothing I hate more in the world than the thought of my siblings in pain and holding a crying Janae in my arms right now broke me. She was so scared. My little sister. I could feel her shaking through my whole body as I held her.

I tried to remain calm and not upset her anymore as I asked "Janae? What did mother and father do to you? What has made you afraid of the dark?"

She shook her head "I can't even talk about it, I was so scared, I was so little."

I pulled her closer to me so that her head was in my chest and I could feel her tears wetting my chest.

"Janae, I know it's scary but I need to know what happened so that I can help you. So that we can all help you." I gently rubbed her back to get her to calm down.

I was honestly very worried about what my sister was upset about and what she was going to tell us.

"Mother used to-" she hiccuped "she would-d-"

She could barely speak.

But I didn't care. I would find out what's wrong even if it took all night.

"Just breathe Janae, it's going to be okay," I said to her.

She took a deep breath and finally let it all out. "Mother used to lock me in her and father's closet, in the dark, for hours whenever I did something, not to her liking. She told me that if I ever told anyone that she would tell father and that he would strike me. She's been doing it since I was 6 years old." She finished with even more tears than before.

Just hearing the words coming out of her mouth made my blood boil.

How dare she do that to Janae? My sweet baby sister did not deserve that.

Everything I do is to protect my siblings. I take the blame for anything and everything they do to keep them safe.

And I don't regret it.

My biggest regret is not knowing about this. How did I not notice that my sister would disappear for hours on end?

I was beyond angry and I could see that Oliver and June were as well.

But I had to put that aside and comfort Janae.

I just held her and rocked her until she calmed down a bit.

I looked at her and told her "thank you so much Janae for telling me. I promise that she will never do that to you ever again."

She looked at me with tears still in her eyes and whispered a small "I'm sorry"

I looked at her confused, "Janae what do you have to be sorry about? None of this is your fault. If anything it's my fault for letting it get this far and not figuring it out."

She shook her head, "No it wasn't, she was smart about it. She would take me when you and Ollie were busy with father or even worse she would take me at night when no one was awake but would bang on the door every few minutes to make sure I didn't fall asleep."

Oh. My. God.

It all makes sense. That's why Janae was so afraid of the dark. That is why she would beg for me and Oliver to stay up late with her. That's why she would wake up tired some mornings.

"Janae, I am so sorry that I failed to protect you from her. I had no idea but I promise that you will never have to worry about her ever again," I said.

I've had enough. Janae was on my lap still so I stood up with her and put her in the bed. I pull the covers up and kissed her forehead.

"We have all had a long night, I think it's time for everyone to go to sleep. Goodnight Janae, I love you, come wake me up if you need anything."I say to her and then walk to where Oliver and June were standing.

I also gave June a kiss on the forehead, "Goodnight June, promise to come and get me if either of you needs something."

"I promise," she said.

And then Oliver and I headed into our room.

"Holy shit," my brother says as soon as I close the door.

"Yeah, holy shit is right. How on earth did we miss this? I mean Janae said that mother would lock her up for hours."

He sat down on his bed and ran his fingers through his hair, "I don't know but I feel like the worst brothers in the whole world. She said that mother would take her at night or when we were with father but what about June?"

I also took a seat on my bed so that we were facing each other. "You don't suppose that June knew and was keeping it a secret because of mothers threats to tell father? Or even worse, the same thing happened to her."

The thought sent shivers down my spine. How did this happen? I was the only one of my siblings who should ever get punished. I take full responsibility for everything they do, it's my job, my responsibility.

Oliver shook his head at my proposition, "I don't think she knew at all, when you and Janae were talking I had to hold her to stop her from crying and shaking so badly. She was just as upset, if not more upset than the two of us were."

"Now, Oakley, I think it's time to go to sleep, it's been an extremely long day and you have only slept like 2 hours in the past 2 days. I don't understand how you haven't passed out yet." Oliver said to me in a more demanding tone.

He wasn't wrong. I was exhausted but I was doing okay. I had other things to worry about than sleep.

I  changed into my pajamas which were just a pair of loose shorts and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Not having any time to think about all the things that had happened that day. 

AN: Hi guys, so this chapter is kind of short (especially for an Oakley chapter) but that's because the events of this chapter were supposed to go in the previous chapter but I cut the scene in half because I just wanted to get an update out so I apologize for the shorter chapter. 

I also wanted to remind you guys of my goal by the end of the year to have 25 chapters written and 2,500 reads so please continue to vote, comment, and share my book, (shoutout to those of you who already do.)  My favorite thing is when someone puts my book on their reading list and I can see what kind of books that person is reading (yall have some good taste) as well as see what books they think are similar to mine. 

LOVE YOU <3