Through the Dark (Sequel to Taking Chances)

Chapter Eleven: "At Cross Roads"

Brielle

_____

After the funeral, Aunt Charlotte fought for me. She gave all evidence she could to convince the court that her home would be better off for my protection and care, but Judie was manipulative. She had strings Aunt Charlotte didn't. She lost the battle, and I was left in Jon and Judie's care.

Aunt Charlotte was never allowed to come and visit me, as Judie's rules applied. And no one else of my family was allowed, either. I was alone, with no one but an evil aunt who planned on ruining my life, an uncle who was too kind and oblivious to Judie's intentions, and a baby too young to understand anything in the world.

How could I deal with that?

I did. Despite the challenges, I learned to deal with it. And it was to my greatest relief that I made it out of that house as quickly as I could for College.

I always hoped for Aunt Charlotte to come find me one day. For us to talk about everything now that I was able to understand it all.

But she never did. And I never wanted to find her once I'd begun to feel anger for her lack of care for our relationship. I needed her most in those times, and she failed to show up.

I shook my head as I got myself dressed and brushed my hair, pulling it into a lazy bun. Out in the kitchen, Jon was making pancakes and Carly was sitting at the counter reading a book. But Niall was nowhere to be found.

Jon smiled at my confusion, finding it amusing, despite my even greater confusion as to why.

"He said he had to talk to Harry about something important." He looked up at me, in which I sighed to. "He said he wouldn't be back until a couple hours."

"A couple hours?" I gawked. "To talk? Who needs hours to talk?"

"Apparently him," he laughed.

I shook my head and sat down next to Carly, watching as she concentrated harder on reading. It made me smile, knowing she wanted to stop reading to say hi to me. But I turned away so she could finish reading and instead began to watch as Jon finished breakfast.

"He's quite the character," Jon noted aloud.

"Yeah," I chuckled.

"Has he always had those tattoos?"

"Yes. But I didn't notice them for a long time."

"Really?" He looked at me in disbelief. "I noticed them as soon as he walked through that door. It was like watching a gang member standing on my doorstep."

"You know he's not," I mumbled, containing a smile. He didn't hide his, though. He remained humorous, much to my relief.

"You should see the way he looks at you," he said aloud, thoughtful. He was working on the breakfast, concentrating hard, but his face was clouded and light, a sign that he was thinking quite hard. "It's like he sees the world whenever he sees you. Like he would jump in front of a car if he had to. And he worries. I can see it on his face more than anything else."

He looked up at me, a small break from the cooking. "That boy loves you more than life itself, Brielle. It would take an idiot to not see that."

I smiled slowly, softly. I knew that Niall loved me. I knew how he felt. It was nice, though, to hear from someone else that they could see it clearly as well. It was nice that people could witness connections like ours.

"Would you believe me if I said we hated each other for awhile?"

He shook his head, scoffing. "Of course not."