The Truth

As soon as I hung up I went to the address that was given to me.

At first when I knocked on the door, nobody opened it. Since the door was unlocked I just invited myself in.

Calpurnia was there, lying on the couch. All of her hair had been cut and her face was extremely bruised.

I gently nudged her awake and she gave me a huge hug. "Mom," She cried.

We were both crying now, my tears were tears of relief that she was alright and she was just really happy.

After that, I tried to find out who did this. I explored all of the rooms in the house and finally found someone hiding out in the bathroom.

"Alright," I said. "Who is in here?"

Just then my dad popped out of the blue. "Why are you here?" He asked me.

"The better question is why the hell was my daughter here?"
He looked taken aback momentarily. "Wait, that was your daughter?"
"No," I said sarcastically. "She's just some random kid who has mine and mom's hair color. Yes, dad, she's my daughter."
"Oh, that's why Chester brought her here..."
"Wait, what?" I asked.

"Nothing," He muttered.

Since it was typically a good thing to do in this situation, I called the cops. Because well, my dad who abused me and my mom was living with some dude who threatened to kill my children and coincidentally I found my daughter here.

Apparently that Thomas Rictor who I met in the last post is a cop, because he showed up at the door.

I sighed when I went up to talk to him. "You're a cop?"

"Well, I'm only a snitch so far, but they wanted me to come for some reason. Must be fate."
"Either that or you're another creepy, obsessed stalker."

As if on cue, Chester came home. At this point I just want to bang my head against a wall. Before Thomas can get to him I start yelling at him.
"What's wrong with you?!? I had your kid and everything and now I find my daughter in here all bruised. Do you have some sort of issue with me and my kids?"

"Well, yeah, actually I do."
"Explain," I said to him. "Before the cop ends up having to arrest me."

"We were all in high school together. I was on the chess team and nobody ever noticed me."

"That cop was a jock, Thomas Rictor I believe. Everyone thought he was so cute."

"Then there was you, you were that shy, artistic girl who nobody paid much attention to. Except for me."

"One day junior year I decided to go ask you to prom."
"Wait," I said. "That wasn't you, that was some kid named Sebastian," I interrupted.
"Oh, yeah, Chester is my middle name, by the way."
*Face palm*

Unfortunately, right as I was about to ask, Thomas came up and asked you. Of course you said yes, everybody loved Thomas.

So at prom I stood in the corner, watching you two. I knew one day I would get my revenge. I would make you feel the same emptiness that I felt. Even if it ended up killing both of us.

*Extra Photo*

"Wait," I said. "So the whole reason you did all of this is because of a stupid prom? Honestly, how did you think all of this would magically make it better? Nobody should have been hurt in this situation. Chester... I mean, Sebastian... Wait. Do you go by Chester or Sebastian?" Now I was just confused.

"Ches... Seb... Eh, just call me Hester. That's what everyone else calls me and plus, both of my other names are just weird."
"Okay, Hester. I honestly would've gone with you if you had just grown a pair and asked me sooner. Also, I never even liked Thomas then."
"What about now?" Chester asked.

"I don't know," I said blushing, "Why does it matter to you how I feel about him?"
"Awwww," Thomas said. "Does Laura have a little crush on me?" He pinched my cheeks, making me blush even harder.

"That is not what we should be focusing on right now. Thomas, what exactly happens next?"
"With Sebastian or...?"
"SEBASTIAN... CHESTER... HESTER. I don't know, just tell me what comes next."

"Well," Thomas started. "You can take him to court and since he's guilty he'll probably have a lifetime sentence in jail and since people were also killed we could even have a possible death sentence. We could also let him go, but this guy has been wanted before I even got my job, so that's not a nice idea."

"No death sentence," I said. "But we're going to court. I don't trust him on the streets. If he's not found guilty."

"Unlikely," Thomas said.

"Well if he isn't guilty I at least want a restraining order. I want him nowhere near my family."
"Laura," Chester said. "Please let me go, I promise I won't do it again."
"You did this, now you have to deal with the consequences."

I left soon after that and unfortunately saw a paparazzi standing by the door.

"Wonderful," I muttered. "This will all probably end up in the news tomorrow."

Once Calpurnia was home she ran to Sam and started to talk to him. Children are so precious. I just hope this experience won't affect her in any way when she's a teen.

The next morning as I was getting the paper, Thomas called me over. "Yes?" I asked.

"How's Calpurnia doing?"
"Pretty well so far, she was still willing to go to school today and is talking with all of her siblings. She just isn't willing to talk about what exactly happened."
"Don't worry, I've seen this a few times before, unfortunately. She'll come around when she's ready. Just give her some time."

I looked up at him. That's what everyone had ever told me, give it some time, everything will be fine. When I was living in the same house as my dad, when I was pretty much homeless, even when Calpurnia disappeared in the first place. In all honesty, I had started to think that time wasn't the answer to everything, that the only way to get through it was to act.

"What if she's never ready?" I asked. "What if all of this remains a mystery her whole life."
"Well, then we don't know what happens. We obviously don't want to force her to do anything, that would probably traumatize her even more. She's one of the strongest kids I've seen on a case like this and when you think about it, how much would it really take for her to just fall apart?"
"That's what I'm afraid of," I said. "What if I do too little for her, or too much? What if I'm the one to drive her to that point?"
"You won't be."

"How can you know?" I asked.
"I just know these things."
"Yes, but how do you know that I won't have any effect in this whatsoever?"
"Laura, you're special, I've never met anyone like you. You always seem to know when your kids need help and what to do when they need it."
"Oh," I said with a little bit of a smile. "Obviously you've never met any other challenge mothers, I've got nothing on them. I'm just the new kid on the block."
"That may be true, but imagine how amazing you'll be at this parenting thing later on."

"I hope I'll get better at it."

"You will,"He said. "Everything is just new to you. This is a total change of subject, but when we were talking to Sebastian...."
In all honesty I knew what he was going to bring up. "Thomas... Don't you even."
"Now Laura, pretty soon you'll realize how madly in love you are with me and..."
"No," I started blushing. "I don't like you that way at all."
"Aw, look at you blushing. How cute," He said with a cheesy little smile. "I bet I could make you blush even more."
"Oh god, please don't."
"Not now, silly, I could do it over a nice romantic dinner at the bistro next Saturday."
"Sorry, too early in the challenge," I said as I ran for the hills. "Maybe later though."
In all honesty, I had too much on my mind for dating. Calpurnia, court, and added to that, it's time to find my mother and talk to her.

I hope you all enjoyed this post and thank you for reading!! I understand that this post has A LOT of new stuff and I'm sorry if it was like a sea of craziness. I'm honestly dreading the court post, but hey, I got myself into this craziness and now it's time to dig my way out. Honestly, I could've just left Chester after he was the father of Cal and Dill, but that would be too easy. xD

Time to go research court stuff.

Toodles.