A Reason (A Reason, Season, Lifetime Series) Read online

  THIS BOOK CONTAINS ADULT SITUATIONS, LANGUAGE, AND SEXUAL SITUATIONS. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT ONLY THOSE OVER THE AGE OF 18 READ THIS BOOK.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  This AMAZING Cover was created by: Rachel A Olson at No Sweat Graphics. https://www.facebook.com/NoSweatGraphics

  Copyright © 2013 C.L. Champlain

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the Author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  ~Chapter 1~

  “Emmalyn and Evangeline? Could you come to my office please?” I look up to see the Principal standing at the end of the lunch table.

  We go to a very small school, kindergarten through the senior class is in one large building. The only thing separating the high school, seventh year through senior year, is about three steps. Eva and I are twins and we have similar friends, so we are sitting at the same table today. My boyfriend Danny squeezes my hand for support, and I give him a weak smile. I look up to catch Eva’s eye, and I know she suspects the same thing I do. Our mother was hurt again, by our father. I just hoped she was still alive.

  We follow Mr. Berkley down the hall to his office, which isn’t far from the lunchroom. The fact that he wasn’t saying anything to us only made me more afraid.

  We walk into his office, and there is a police officer, and a woman I had never seen before.

  “This is Emmalyn and Evangeline Bellamy. I understand this is a sensitive subject matter, and have requested a very close teacher to be here for this meeting, for support for the young ladies.” Mr. Berkley says.

  “That is not necessary.” The woman says to our principal, but he isn’t paying any attention to her. He walks to the door on the other side of his office and waves to someone. When I see Ms. Rivers, our English teacher, and she had clearly been crying, I knew this was not good news. She sits between Eva and me, and holds our hands. My legs start shaking, my hands too, so I have the one she is not holding in a fist at my side. Not just out of fear, but out of anger. I am not a patient person, and them drawing it out was pissing me off.

  “Ladies, my name is Officer Tracey. This is Ms. Doyle, she is from Social Services. We need to ask you some questions, and want you to answer as truthfully as you can. You are not in any danger, we are here to only get the truth. Do you both understand?”

  “Yes, sir.” We both answer together.

  “Your mother went to the hospital, taken there by her sister. She was in bad shape, and is having plastic surgery to her face due to some of the damage. We need to know what you know about these injuries.”

  “Well, Sir. May I ask what my mother told you they were caused by? As you can see, it is mid-day here on a school day, so we can’t very well be here for our classes, and home to see what is happening there, can we?” My sister Eva answers. We had become good at evading questions by now. The abuse has been going on so long. Last time we told that our father had hit us to a local police officer, that same officer laughed and shook my father’s hand. They joked about how sometimes the man of the house needed a firm hand to keep three bitches in line. We knew better by now than to trust a local police officer. Our town was too small, and most of them had gone to school with my father.

  “I understand you have been in school today, young lady. I am here because my office received a call that there is an abusive situation at your home. You ladies and your mother have had multiple unexplained injuries. Social Services may be able to help you if you are honest with me.”

  “Ms. Doyle? If there was anything we could tell you, we would. I am sorry to say there isn’t. I am glad my Aunt came around to help my mom. I am sure the hospital would not let us see her until after surgery, so I would like to go back to class and try to just get through this day.” I answer them, choosing my words very carefully. My tone is not patient, and she turns to look at me as if shocked by the anger in my tone. I can’t help it, I am pissed off. He hurt her so bad she needed surgery, but I knew there was no way to get help from these people, and if Eva and I let on that we wanted help, we would all only suffer more.

  “The call we received claimed an awful lot of information that made sense. Abuse that has lasted years, and you ladies don’t want help?” Ms. Doyle says, looking now at Eva.

  “No, ma’am. There is nothing to get help for, other than if you wanted to clean up the garage so we no longer trip over things. My mom and I are so clumsy, I tripped over the vacuum cleaner and broke my arm in three places months ago! Perhaps some classes on how not to be so clumsy?” Eva says, looking ashamed and bashful. We had become polished liars.

  “I think you can close this case now, and mark it unfound? These ladies have made it clear their home is safe, other than maybe some clutter to trip over. There is no crime here. Thank you. You may return to your classes now.” Officer Tracey says to us, very clipped and to the point. We were clearly dismissed.

  Ms. Rivers holds tight to our hands, and brings us two doors down to her classroom. My favorite class is English. I walk to the shelf behind her desk and grab one of my favorite books. It is an old book, The Complete Works of Robert Burns.

  “Is there anything you ladies want to tell me now that we are alone?”

  “No, ma’am.” We answer automatically.

  “Funny, that two of my most well-spoken students have nothing to say. Let me tell you what I know, and we shall go from there, okay?” Ms. Rivers says.

  The door suddenly opens, and in walks a boy that takes my breath away. I am dating Danny, he is my best friend and he has such a crush on me. He is sweet, but I don’t feel anything romantic for him. He doesn’t take my breath away like Ryan does just by walking in the door and locking his green eyes with my brown eyes.

  “I heard you two talking on the bus this morning. I asked Danny, and put him in a head lock until he caved. You two need to trust someone. You need help, at least someone to turn to so you can talk about it. Danny told me about the cops. He was crying after Eva broke her arm. I know your father twisted it and broke it because he didn’t like how you mopped the floor and felt you were sassing him. I also know that he has the cops in his pocket. I came to Ms. Rivers, because I know you both love her and she loves you. You spend all of your free time here anyway. After the lunch period this room is empty, so we have about an hour to talk, since lunch isn’t over yet. Did you both eat?”

  Eva starts crying and sits down, I walk over to Ryan, my feet touching his, and look up into his eyes. I take a moment to catch my breath, mostly in anger right now. “Ryan Pierce, I swear by all that’s fucking holy, if it gets out, I will kick your ass. Undefeated wrestler or not, I will take you down if my mother or sister suffers because you run your mouth.”

  Ryan arches his eyebrow, grabs my arms by the wrists, and pulls me around so my arms are wrapped around my body and my back is tight against him. I’m barely five feet tall, and he’s too much taller than me to head butt him, so I drop my weight to the floor. We wrestle for a few minutes, taking turns who is on top, but in the end, he has me pinned.

  “Eva is crying. Go hug her and then you two need to hear me out. Well, us out. Because we have a plan.”

  I wait for him to get up off of me, and go over to hug Eva while she sobs. She’s
the crier, the sensitive one. I’m the pissed off one. Always.

  “It may not get you out of that house and away from that monster, but it may save your lives someday. I am here because you are both my friends. We may not be really close, I’ve only lived here less than a year and I’m the new guy in the little town of cliques. I do know that you two ladies go out of your way to be nice to everybody. You volunteer at the churches and would give your own shirts to a stranger if they were cold. I have the training to help protect you, so let me try. Stop being so proud, and afraid, and accept some damn help.”

  “I have to agree with him ladies. Let us help you. He came to me straight off of the bus this morning. He has a great plan. We can easily pull it off if you’re willing.” Ms. Rivers says.

  “Okay. I’m willing to listen to the plan. If it includes killing the bastard, I won’t hesitate, much, but I would be surprised if Ms. Rivers was cool with that.” I say to them.

  “That is tempting, little Bambi, but let’s start with something simpler. How about if we teach you self-defense so you can protect yourselves and fight back?” Ryan says, looking between Eva and myself.

  “No! No, no, no. He would know. I am too much of a klutz and uncoordinated. He would know if I suddenly wasn’t and started to fight back.” Eva says, sounding really scared.

  “You’re right. I’ll do it on my own. I’ve fought against him before. I’ve always been the difficult one. He doesn’t hit me as much as he hits them, because I fight back. I’ve spent a lot of time up at Walker’s farm to burn energy and get out of the house. I’m stronger, I can ride a horse bare back, I can leg press more than double my weight. Being in cheering, I have strong legs. I can do it.”

  “Emma! You can’t always be the one defending us! There has to be another way!” Eva says through tears, and fear is clear in her voice. I can feel her fear and try to remain calm myself.

  “You know it’s true. He doesn’t hurt me as much as he hurts you and Mom. I have to be the one to start learning to fight him. Let’s start right away. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  Ms. Rivers steps behind Eva, running her hand over her long auburn hair trying to soothe her. “The plan was that we would start a drama club. I know our school is a bit small for it, but I know we could get the churches involved, and it would mean more money for the school if we sold tickets to the performances. You two are two of our top solo singers in chorus, and two of my best English students. You love to read, and have amazing memories. It wouldn’t take much for you to memorize lines. We could use that as a reason to have you staying after school several days a week, and maybe even some Saturdays. We could have your mom sewing the costumes and helping with props, which would get her out of the house more too, once she is better. We can give you the rest of the school year to work hard on training. This summer, we’ll figure out something.”

  “I’m in. I want to be able to give him a taste of his own medicine. Whatever it takes. I’m not sure I can keep up with cheerleading and add training and drama club to that too though.”

  “Yes, you can, Emma. Cheerleading ends when basketball ends, but you seem to forget who the cheering coach is. We’ll put Eva on the front line more. The Drama Club will be easy. We’ll choose some of your favorite plays that you already know well, so they will be simple. We’ll start with Romeo and Juliet, of course. You love that one, and you both know it by heart. Ryan will be Romeo, Emma you can be Juliet and Eva can be Juliet’s nursemaid. We’ll work on the rest of the cast shortly, but that will give a reason for Ryan and Emma to be seen alone together if they are caught training.”

  There is a knock at the door, and we all jump. Ms. Rivers walks over and opens the door. We hear mumbling, then Ms. Rivers steps back and lets in three guys. Of course one is Danny, who immediately runs over to me and pulls me into his arms. The other two are Grant and Robert. Two wrestlers on the team with Ryan. They also wear their martial arts gear to school all of the time to flaunt their belts. These guys are huge, scary, and the reason why Argyle has an undefeated wrestling team.

  “You fucking blabbed again, didn’t you!” I turn around to face Danny, really pissed off.

  “Don’t blame your boyfriend. It’s your fault you date a girl, for one, and we saw how pissed off Ryan was this morning. When the Principal came to get you himself, and we saw the cop, we knew what was up. This town is too small, Emma. So my guess is, Ryan is playing the hero. He wants to help protect you, and we want in.” Grant says, with a cocky smile on his face, and his huge arms crossed, muscles bulging. When he sees me looking at his arms, he makes them dance and smiles wider.

  “Fuck me, this is getting out of control. Ryan can teach me some moves, why do I need you two?”

  “Ryan doesn’t know as much martial arts, he knows wrestling and street brawling. Robert and I are racing through our belts. We can teach you how to break things so that bastard never walks again. Do you want to put him in a grapevine and hold him, or do you want him to suffer for the rest of his life?” Grant answers, again looking so cocky and sure of himself, I’m torn between wanting to smack him or laugh with him.

  “I don’t have time to go to a dojo. I know what you guys can do, I’ve seen your matches when I’ve gone to cheer you on. I just don’t think it would be smart to be seen in a dojo. Though making him suffer really works for me.” I tell Grant. Robert is a man of few words, there isn’t much point in my saying much directed at him.

  “Girls aren’t allowed in the dojo. Not to spar anyway. We’ll teach you here. We have good mats in the gym for wrestling matches. We should tell coach though, so he can make sure when we’re using the gym to train you that no one can walk in.”

  It’s freaking 1995, you would think women would be allowed to do anything a guy could do my now! I blow out a long breath, and fuss with my pony tail so I can think. Ryan training me was one thing, but these guys? They could wreck me with one hand. Ryan is strong and a hell of a wrestler, but these guys are huge, and a little crazy. I look at Eva, and I picture my mom having plastic surgery right then, trying to fix the damage my father had done to her face. She stayed with him because of us. He holds us girls as ransom to make my mother stay. He threatens that his connections would assure that he gets custody of us. These crazy guys are my ticket to paying her back for all of the suffering. My future is ending my father. I have to make sure he can’t hurt anyone ever again. This is the only way to do that.

  “I’m in. You keep your mouths shut. I know I don’t have to worry about Robert, but all of you, this is between us. Eva stays out of it as much as possible. Danny especially needs to learn to keep his mouth shut!” Then I turn to look at him and poke my finger in his chest. “I know you care about me. I appreciate that. I appreciate you turning to these three, because I know they are probably my best chance at besting him someday. I swear, if you run your mouth, or your tears to anyone else, we are done. I trust you, and that trust is hanging by a very thin thread right now.”

  “I know, baby. I was just so sad about it. Ryan bullied me into it, and I was glad to tell him. He’s a great guy, and he wants to help. He’s my best friend, I know we can trust him. These guys are two of the biggest guys I’ve ever seen. Robert picked me up with one hand and held me against the locker to make me talk. I had to tell them, because they already knew. I basically just agreed with what they knew and pointed to this door.”

  I sigh heavily and sit down on the floor. “If this gets out, this could get us killed. At least mom and Eva. His temper is bad. He has held us at gun point before, it would take just one more thing to make him snap enough to pull that trigger. I want this training to include disarming. Can you do that?” I look up, and Ryan kneels down in front of me.

  “You can’t get the bullets out of the house?” He asks me.

  “No. He would know. He checks often, and it’s hunting season.”

  “Then, we can make sure that if he ever pulls a gun on you again, that if you can get to him, you can get that gun and shov
e it up his ass.” I look into Ryan’s green eyes, and the moisture in his eyes, the emotion threatening to overflow, surprises me. I refuse to cry in front of these guys, but I know he means what he says. I can feel how he feels about me, and it makes me sure of what he says.

  I nod at him. Suddenly from behind me, I hear a voice I’ve never heard. “I’ll train you in knives and stars as well. If you can’t get close enough to disarm a gun, you can throw a knife or a star. The stars are illegal in this state, but I say fuck that. What he’s been doing is illegal. If we can’t unload the gun, we’ll stab the shooter before he can fire.”

  Eva and Ms. Rivers gasp from their side of the room, but I know he is just being honest. That could be a very real scenario in my future. I turn to Robert, stand up, and walk over and hug him. I have known him all of my life. He is from a horrible home. He is so strong because he had to be. Grant’s family took him in to get him out of his own hell hole. For him to speak to me, to say that, I knew it was hard. It touched me to the core that this young man who had grown up in hell was willing to help me escape the same. Robert picks me up, crushing me to his huge chest and whispers in my ear. “We’ll send him to hell someday, where he belongs. Whatever that hell is, whether prison or death, we’ll end him so he can’t hurt them ever again.” I just nod, knowing I couldn’t talk through the tears.

  He sets me down, and they walk out, headed off to find the wrestling coach. It was just Eva, Ms. Rivers and I again.

  “Are you sure about this, Emma? You could get hurt, killed even.”

  I had thought about this already. Am I willing to die at my father’s hand to protect my mother and sister? Abso-fucking-lutely. “It’s done, Eva. This is the best plan. Those guys can train me to be able to take him on, to stop him from someday killing our mother. You need to trust me. I will protect you and Mom. It has to be me, and it has to be this way. Having my training done at school, by these people, it could be our best hope at beating him someday. You have to trust me.”