Left In The Dust

Chapter Thirteen

Sofia walks into Chief Ripley's office.
"Tanner what are you doing here?" Ripley said.
"I was running and some how ended up here." Sofia said.
"Aren't you on shift? And you ran here? The Station is miles from here." Ripley said.
"Yes I ran here. No I'm not on shift. Not anymore. Sullivan sent me home." Sofia said.
"Why?" Ripley asked.
"Because my Dad's parole hearing is happening soon and they still want me to testify again. And I don't know what to do." Sofia said.
Ripley gets Sofia water.
"Well he's what 20 years into his sentence." Ripley said.
"Yeah." Sofia said.
"He has 15 more to go without parole if you leave him in prison. Do you want to leave him in there to rot or let him free?" Ripley said.
"I don't know. He's my father but he abused me! His own 4 year old daughter and finally at age 10 someone finally did something." Sofia said.
"What do you think of all of this?" Ripley asked.
"I don't know. HE ABUSED HIS DAUGHTER! HIS OWN DAUGHTER! I was just too dumb to realize any of it." Sofia said.
Sofia chugs down her water bottle.
"You weren't dumb. You were what 4 when it started? I doubt any 4 year old would understand what was going on." Ripley said.
Sofia starts to cry. Ripley sits next to her and puts his hand on Sofia's shoulder.
"How are you and V?" Sofia said as she tries to change the topic.
Ripley looks at her.
"Lucas come on. I need something else to talk about." Sofia said.
Ripley sighs.
"V and I are good. We are better than ok. We are doing great. But we don't want to remain a secret. But if we tell people one or both of us will most likely lose our job." Ripley said.
"You love each other?" Sofia asked.
"Yeah. Well I think she loves me." Ripley said.
"Oh she definitely loves you." Sofia said.
Ripley smiles.
"That should be enough." Sofia said.
"So do you know what you want to do?" Ripley asked.
"I don't know. He abused me. Just imagine getting abused for 6 years and not fully understand what it meant. Since you didn't have any friends to tell. Didn't trust teachers. Didn't trust anyone." Sofia said.
"How about now?" Ripley said.
"I'm better now since I met Ryan. He was my first friend." Sofia said.
"That's good because I can have a firefighter not trusting other firefighters." Ripley said.
"I have to go before my brother sets out a whole search team looking for me." Sofia said.
"We wouldn't want that. And Tanner you know that I'm here if you need to talk." Ripley said.
"Thank you." Sofia said as she hugs Ripley.
"You're welcome and here." Ripley said as he passes Sofia another water bottle.
Sofia walks out of his office and back to the firehouse.