Three years prior.
Alana was 'sick on the inside' as Pope would put it. She was so fucking sick of being broke, of being a pogue, of not being able to escape this stupid island. Lana B wanted help, but she couldn't ask for it.
"Dad..?" She asked quietly, wandering into his study. Her father didn't even spare her a glance, keeping his gaze focused on the piece of wood that he was picking apart with tweezers. Lana B wasn't sure what exactly he was doing it for, but something told her it was for the Royal Merchant. Their father was obsessed with that stupid boat.
"Dad, I need help. On the inside." Alana whispered, stepping back when her father turned to her harshly. He leaned his elbows onto his knees so that he would be eye-level with the short girl, who hadn't quite hit her growth spurt yet.
"We don't say stuff like that, okay?" He reached a hand to rest on her cheek and swiped her nose. "I need to focus on finding the gold. Just a few more years, I can feel it, Alana." Big John said, giving his younger twin a stern look. "Dad, I need help now." She pushed, knowing that she was beginning to entering uncharted territory in their dynamic.
Lana B wasn't to question what Big John told her, she kept to herself and didn't fight back in order to keep the peace. She 'had a good life ahead of her', a phrase that her dad liked to repeat whenever she complained. 'You have Rafe. Rafe will get you somewhere in life.' He always told her.
Big John suddenly stood up at, what he would consider, his daughter outburst. "I give you everything I have, everything! And you start complaining?" He began to raise his voice and every inch of the girls body was begging her to back down. "Dad I can't—" her voice was cut off by a loud smack, a ringing in Alana's ears following directly after the deafening sound.
She looked up at him, eyes filled with anger. "Dad, please listen to me." She whispered, her words angering the man that named himself her father even more. His nose scrunched up before he took his daughter by the hair, slamming her face into the counter which rested next to her. He did this twice, Lana's loud shouts being heard before he slammed her back down one last time.
Lana gasped, holding her hands over her heavily bleeding nose and attempting to stare at her dad with the flurry that her vision had become. In the moment, she was 100% sure that he had broken her nose. Three years later and it still hung at a crooked angle.
Big John gave her one last look before leaving the study, locking the door behind him and leaving the injured girl. Lana B was grabbing at her nose with one hand, the other occupied with gripping to the chair handle in an attempt to ease the pain.
Alana was surprised, to say the least. Her father had hit her before, but never anything to this extent. She hadn't been expecting it. However this encounter was, as her teenage brain deciphered it, her fathers way of showing her not to cross him. Not to upset him. Not to further grow their charted territory. To stay on her side of the line.
Alana never got the help she asked for.
__________________________________
Lana B woke up in a bed more comfortable than the one she recognised as her own. She opened her eyes, glancing at the sheets and recognising them almost instantly. "What the fuck?" She squealed, sitting up in Rafe's bed and looking around.
"Ah!" Rafe shot up from the couch in the corner of his room that he had fallen asleep on. "Oh, hey." He muttered awkwardly, running a scarred hand over his neck.
Lana's eyes widened, quickly looking down at herself and mentally breathing a sight of relief once she realised that she was clothed. "I found you passed out on the beach last night. I brought you back here— sorry." Rafe explained, apologising for bringing his ex girlfriend back into his bed, which felt all too familiar to her.
"It's okay." Lana muttered, looking at the ground and awkwardly standing up. She thought back to last night, an unsettling feeling washing over her when she realised that her brain held almost no knowledge on what had happened. "I can drive you home if you want?" Rafe offered, looking up at 'B' shyly.
Alana nodded silently, looking around and picking up the baseball cap that she had been wearing last night, having it been draped over a chair in the corner of the room. "Thanks Rafe." Lana whispered, walking in front of him towards the front door.
__________________________________
Rafe pulled into the chateau's 'driveway', turning the car off and turning to Lana, who was looking outside the window. "Tell me if you ever need anything." The boy spoke, watching as B silently exited the car, leaving him with only a nod of recognition.
When Rafe's car left, Alana saw Pope running up to her. "Lana B! What happened?" Pope shouted, placing his hands on her shoulders, which the girl
quickly pushed off. Lana quietly walked up to the porch, pushing her questioning brother and Sarah out of her way and jogging to her bedroom.
She fell onto her bed, burying her face into the singular, abused, pillow. The poor thing had been beaten to the brim. It was covered in stains, the edges were beyond frayed and it even had ash markings from the lighter that JJ always played with.
The door slammed open, the sound of which making Lana B jump out of her skin. "JJ!" She squeaked, holding a hand over her heart in shock. She noticed how he was holding himself. His jaw was clenched and his hands fists. "JJ?" She repeated, this time in a more cautious tone.
"Where the hell were you?" He suddenly asked, making Lana scoff in both annoyance and deja vu of the situation. "At the beach." She replied which he quickly snapped back to, "bullshit."
Lana subconsciously lifted a hand to fidget with the necklace that was resting against her chest. "I was drunk as hell. Rafe helped me." She replied, her words being chosen carefully. "Rafe?" JJ repeated the boys name while an angry expression settled on his face.
"You said you were done with him." JJ looked at her with an accusing face. She was about to reply when she felt a hand take her wrist, the sudden touch making her flinch so hard she almost fell off of the bed.
JJ squeezed his eyes shut, brain currently screaming at him for what he was about to do. "Alana." He said, making her sit up straight. JJ hated using her first name. Alana truly didn't understand why, yet she also didn't care enough to question the boys distaste for the name.
"Lana B, we're done. I can't keep doing this." JJ suddenly said, making a strangled sound in the back of his throat. Alana's eyes widened, her hand going to hold JJ's shoulder. "No, no, no, no, no." She repeated, desperately looking into his eyes, searching for any sign of mercy. "JJ, stop." She said firmly, not accepting his words.
JJ could not break up with her.
JJ could not break up with her.
How could he leave his child like that?
A/N
sorry for the short chapter!
(imo this is the best pregnancy announcement I've ever seen.)
