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Chapter 14- Tara and Christian (bonus: & Drew)

Tara

A month and a half. I had been in this place for a month. A month and a half of going back to Aunt Ruby's. A month and a half of doing all the chores. A month and a half of listening to Aunt Ruby snipe and swipe at me with her words of hurt and anger. A month and a half of not seeing or hearing Christian and Drew. A month and a half of waking up to the same nightmare every day. My only reprieve was that Ritchie wasn't there, he was at college.

 A banging on the door of my 'room' woke me up the next morning. When I say room, what I really mean is Harry Potter's closet he lived in for eleven years was bigger than my room. 

"Girl! Get up, a letter came and I want to talk to you!" Aunt Ruby's shrill voice floated through the door. I sat up, scrubbing a hand over my face. My month staying with Christian and Drew had made me lazy, at least to Aunt Ruby. 

"Now!" Aunt Ruby banged on the door and I stumbled out the door. Only to have Aunt Ruby latch on to my wrist and drag me into the kitchen. I was surprised, usually she pulled my hair.

Uncle Ian was sitting at the table when Aunt Ruby threw me down on the chair across from him. When I finally got in the seat properly, my eyes dropped down before me. There, there lay what look to be an official envelope, addressed to Aunt Ruby and Uncle Ian. From the Court House of Sydney. My heart sped up. 

Hope, the feeling I had tried to squash since reconnecting with Christian and Drew again coiled in my stomach. Almost like a snake curling in on itself to sun on warm day. A hand reaching out and pulling my wrist behind my back and twisting it, had me crying out in pain.

"We're being brought to court because of you girl," Aunt Ruby hissed in my ear, "What the hell did you tell them?"

Nothing. I had told them nothing. I shook my head to convoy the message. Then my mind started to wander. Had I mentioned something to Christian without my noticing? Without even realizing what I was saying?

 "She probably told them we hit her. Is that what you told them, girl?" Uncle Ian asked. But I was in too much pain to answer.

"He asked you a question! Answer," Aunt Ruby twisted harder at my wrist, making me cry out again. I made myself answer though. Again, I bobbed my head from side to side.  

The pain subsided a moment later. As I breathed my sigh of relief though, I was pushed and my back hit the edge of the kitchen counter. My eyes glanced up and found Aunt Ruby standing before me. But there was something that I didn't get about all this, about her and Uncle Ian.

 "Why?" I asked her and her eyes widened at the movement of my mouth and at the sound of my voice coming out of my mouth, because besides that day in the park with Christian before I left him and Drew, was the only time I spoke. My voice still sounded the same as I heard it a month and a half before. Still horse from no use. 

"Why what?" Aunt Ruby in a sort of quiet voice, that I wasn't sure I really liked. But I still pressed on and continued my question. 

"You thought my mother married beneath her. You thought my dad wasn't worth the dirt beneath your feet. I know that's why my mum kept you away from us. I heard her and my dad talking about it. You were finally rid of me. Why did you contest the will?"