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Chapter 11- Tara and Christian

Chapter 11- Tara and Christian

*Tara*

Drew, why are we just dragging this out? We both know that the inevitable is coming. I mean, we started falling apart after your mother died. Then we took in your brother and things got worse with his arresting and everything...and I'm not blaming him, I swear! But, what I'm trying to say is that we haven't worked in a long time and we've just been making each other miserable by trying to make it work...and then Tara came into our lives on top of everything...and she requires a lot of work. I'm not trying to blame her either, but let's face it. Bringing her-

"Tara," Christian said softly taking the piece of paper from me, "Stop reading this. It's not your fault. She already said things were already bad before they even got custody of me okay? Please stop overthinking this. This is not your fault."

He was starting to sound like a broken record. He had been saying this all week since we had found the piece of paper in the trash last week. Christian and I guessed it had been sent three weeks ago, if Drew's irritable mood lately was anything to go. Instead of trying to fight back like usual, I brought up something that had been bothering me since we found the letter.

"Why did Molly say you got arrested?" I wrote out carefully, before giving him my notepad. I gazed him as he read my note. His face morphed from a calm face to a cloud of guilt, before his eyes met mine. But as quick as the came, they were gone and glued to his hands instead.

"It was about two years ago...and before I say anything else; I want you to know I was in a really bad place when this happened." Christian started to explain.

"At the time I had a mate-Aaron. Although looking back now, he wasn't a very good one. But he was still a mate." He paused, looking up at me for a second before quickly looking back down at his hands. "Like I said, I was in a really bad place. My mom was gone. Your parents were gone. You were gone. The only person I really had left was Drew, because I didn't know Molly then. I didn't want to know Molly and me and Drew really weren't getting along-fighting every night. Aaron made it seem like he was the only one looking out for me in my life. At the time, I thought he was because I thought my brother thought I was burden- that Drew had to take care of because I was his brother..."

He trailed off as his hands were clenched into fists so tight that his knuckles were turning white. Moving from where I was sitting on my bed to his, I put my hand on his shoulder blade and squeezed.

"One night Aaron came by," he continued a moment later, "He said he had this buddy that needed our help...He didn't tell me what he needed though and before I knew what was happening...we were holding up a guy at a service station. Aaron had a knife on him..."

Christian stopped when he heard my intake of breath. But I grabbed his hand closest to mine and squeezed, silently urging him to continue. He must've understood, because he started to speak again. "Long story short the cops caught only Aaron and I. Drew came and got me and we worked out a deal with the court since at the time I was underage. Elite training in dance like our Moms planned for us at the academy was proof enough I was a model citizen. Provided I didn't get into any more trouble...Aaron hadn't been so lucky. He was sent to prison for at least four to five years."

Now he looked at me. His hands coming to cup my face gently. I should've been scared. Ritchie used to do this all the time. But oddly enough, I wasn't. Because this was Christian. Aunt Trisha's youngest son. My best friend. He wouldn't hurt me.

"I'm not that person anymore. You have to understand that. I'm not him anymore." I nodded, trying to figure out why it was so important that I knew this. But nodding didn't seem like it was enough. So I placed my hands over his and squeezed as tight as I could, trying to make him understand that I knew he wasn't a bad person.