Faded (Conviction) | ✔

Faded

The world knows me as Hayes Morrison, the daughter of the former President of the United States. A wild child who could never do anything right, while my brother, Jackson had it all figured out. My dad's career had created a spectacle of us that everyone could view if they chose to. However, I had somehow managed to keep my inner secrets inside all these years.

They're what matter in this story I'm telling you. The sadness I kept inside began with the constant need for approval. For heaven's sake, I was raised by nannies, housekeepers, and chefs instead of parents. Which always brought me to feeling privileged, even though it was something I would never admit to anyone. Even so, I could believe somewhere in there was a decent human being I could never find.

There are reasons I was the way I was. Over the years I had seen too many things that could scar a person inside out. I wasn't just talking about political things, but things that could physically scar a person inside out. Watching people selling drugs on the street, only to find they didn't get their cut of the money so they went after them. Sometimes it ended with a scuffle, sometimes it didn't. Those who were too high to care what they were doing with themselves and were lying on the asphalt looking like death had just warmed over. Seeing all those things from a different, but slightly skewed perception, made me feel like I was a different person who I couldn't control no matter how hard I tried.

You know, it wasn't always that way. When I was eight years old I remembered living in a two-story house. We went to your normal preparatory school, but we would still come home and spend most of our time outside. I would ride my bike around in the driveway while watching my brother throw baseballs in the rose bushes lining the front of the house when he didn't catch them with his mitt. I was surprised there were more dents from the ball hitting it, and no broken windows. He would more often than not, need my help grabbing it when it would occasionally roll into the open area underneath the house. By the time the day was finished, we would have scratches all over our arms and legs but our parents never seemed to notice. Whatever nanny we had at the time did. She would chide us as our mother should have, but each one seemed to know we were just being kids.

Those were the days when I could truly admit I was happy. Years later I found out my father had cheated on my mother. My mother started running as a hardcore politician who only cared about herself. My brother became the golden child, while I was dubbed the wild child. Living up to my name, I turned to drugs when I was a teenager. The deeper I fell, the more fractured my relationship with my parents and friends became.

No matter how screwed up I seemed to be, Jackson seemed to be the only one who didn't totally give up on me. As annoying as it was, he always felt the need to save me. When I met Conner Wallace, he seemed to be exactly what I needed to turn my life around when it came to drugs. Then I lost my way again when I was fired from my job and decided to move out of Chicago.

A little while later, the police found cocaine in my purse. There I was once again sitting in jail like a complete idiot. I found out my mom had called him to clean up the latest mess I had gotten myself into. I didn't want him to. I was happy to go somewhere else after thinking that part of my life was over. He was able to strike up a deal where I led the Conviction Integrity Unit, but that was only after I refused and he pointed out it could damage my mother's election.

My once boyfriend was now my boss. Like many things in my life, I had made another mistake I couldn't change. Fitting in with everyone on the team was slightly on the rocky side, especially with Sam Spencer who must have felt rather cheated after losing to me leading the unit.

Tess Larson was the paralegal on the team. She was eager and had known about me for years. The more I learned about her, the more I found out about her past. She had supposedly put the wrong person in prison after her aunt was murdered.

Frankie was an ex-con who was smart but held both a temper and a bad mouth. If it weren't for Tess, he would have long given up and left the CIU by now. I liked to think they had more than a little crush considering the way they looked at each other on a daily basis.

Then there was Maxine, a second-generation cop who swerved through many dark tunnels I hadn't quite figured out yet. I knew in time, those secrets had a sure way of coming out and biting you in the butt. I knew that all too well from what I had experienced in my lifetime.

What I'm trying to say is we're all broken in some way or another. Even though I didn't know everything about my team, I had no idea how to admit I needed their help. I highly doubted any one of them would give a second to listen. I was their boss, the definite pusher of nerves. No one really wanted to be around me. The second work was over and they were gone, out of the office and heading to their cars. They didn't have to listen to another word or face me until the next workday.

Sure, every day was a new day, but sometimes it felt like too much being there at the CIU when I was around people who hated my guts. In the least, disliked me with extreme passion. I was in no way a role model, nor did I think I could be what they all needed me to be. Even if I did manage to become someone they liked, I could manage to screw up their lives just like I had screwed up mine.

It was a vicious cycle I wasn't proud of. People didn't think I cared. Truth was, I had never learned to care about others. How does a person truly do that when everything was handed to them? If I had known how to, the whole thing would have been lost on me. Besides, Morrison's don't have friends, just lots and lots of enemies. Over the years I had managed to be called every name in the book. There was nothing I hadn't heard. I was what people called a "sitting bomb". Either those enemies would get to me first or I would blow myself up before they got to me.