Chapter Seven
Charli led Britney to an unoccupied room and gave her set of PJ’s to sleep in and bid her goodnight.
Britney changed and laid down on the bed.
A tear rolled down her face as she stared at the ceiling in the dark room.
She never even bothered brushing it away as she closed her eyes and felt the letdown feeling consume her.
She fell asleep but it was an uneasy kind of sleep as more memories came forth.
She tossed and turned but nothing brought her out of her sleep. Finally, just as dawn broke the eastern sky she settled down and fell into a deep sleep REM.
The next morning...
Charli was busy doing dishes when Luna walked in. She looked at Charli and said, “I see we have visitors and the guys are discussing plans to protect the farm. Deuce told me a little bit of it. But what is going on?”
Charli looked over her shoulder at her and sighed heavily.
“We got some visitors late last night. That’s true enough.
My cousin Mario arrived and he brought a woman with him.
He came to tell me that his father, my uncle, wants me to join them in Italy for some kind of festival to join two tribes of my people.
I’m supposed to marry some guy I don’t even know or have no feelings for in the main ceremony.
” She shook her head. “We also found out that instead of taking me with them fifteen years ago they left another uncle in charge of protecting me, whom I have never met by the way. Yet, he’s been getting money from Mario’s dad to give to me but instead of doing that he kept the considerable sum for himself and the guys think he used that money to build his own compound and has been selling the weapons on the black market.
They believe he is one of your dad’s missing partners and they think he’s coming here to make sure I don’t say anything. ”
Luna slid down into a chair at the table and opened her mouth in shock.
It took her a moment to take everything in and finally she shook her head.
“Damn, Deuce didn’t tell me all of that.
He said it was a long story and he would tell me later.
So, I can guess at the answer but what did Ace have to say about you leaving to marry someone else? ”
Charli let out a sudden laugh. “He stared at Mario with death in his eyes. I thought Mario might pass out. Don’t get me wrong, he was the only family member that ever treated me decently.
That ever acted like I existed anyway. But he knows I won’t be doing any of that.
I got on the phone to Italy and told my uncle, I wasn’t leaving my husband and my son to marry someone else nor would I be accompanying him anywhere.
” She paused and smiled. “Let’s just say I get my stubbornness from my Italian side and he did not listen to a word I said.
So my uncle is on his way here with their Council to talk me into honoring their customs.”
“That is just insane.” Luna shook her head. “What excuse are they using to try to get you to bend over backwards like that?”
Charli crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.
“It appears that before my father was killed... he was their leader and my uncle took over his position because I was only five when he died. I was fourteen when the entire family left the States to rejoin the rest of the family in Italy but they made the mistake of leaving me behind here with Ben. He and my grandma raised me. They had no idea I had this family destiny. But it is just too bad, because my destiny is here with Ace and my son. They didn’t even know Ben was dead or that I was already married.
Someone should have checked on me since I am all grown up now.
So now, they just expected me to fall into with their plans? I told them all to go to hell.”
Luna sat there and thought for a moment. “I’ve heard of family drama but that is freakin’ wild, Charli.” She shook her head and asked, “And the woman? Deuce said that a woman came too. What about her?”
Charli walked over to the table and sat down on a chair as she slowly shook her head.
“This poor girl. I mean I feel so bad for her. She says her name is Britney but she doesn’t even know that for sure.
She said she woke up in a hospital in Chicago and she couldn’t remember anything from her past. The doctors told her she had given birth but she couldn’t even remember the fact that she had been pregnant.
The only thing she can remember was that Braaken Ridge was a familiar name to her.
She was working in a diner where Mario stopped to eat.
They struck up a conversation and she asked if she could go with him. ”
Luna’s eyes widened. “Wow... So she came here because of the name of the town?”
Charli shrugged then leaned back in her chair.
“Apparently. She believes she might be from this area, but she isn’t sure about that either.
She woke up in Chicago after a three week coma.
She’d lost a lot of blood from a slash across her belly.
She doesn’t know how she got there and she told the doctors she didn’t remember being pregnant.
Nor did she know where the baby was. They were very suspicious of her story so they kept her a few days longer as the police kept questioning her.
When they finally conceded that she was most likely telling the truth, they let her go.
But that poor girl had no memory. They released her into an unknown world.
She was all by herself too. It must have been scary as fuck.
” Charli got up and went over to the coffee pot to pour two cups of fresh coffee.
“Did she remember anything at all?” Luna asked.
Charli came back, put one cup of coffee in front of Luna and kept the other one for herself.
“She told me this story about when she was trapped in this house with her sister, they were raised in fear and kept hidden, she said. When she was eighteen, they shipped her off to some man. He became her captor. She was...” Charli sighed and couldn’t seem to describe the details.
“...treated very badly by this man. Like he took advantage of her and he was very cruel. She then got pregnant by him.”
Luna stared at her then she set her coffee mug down. “T-that is horrible. My sister was taken from me at eighteen, you know? She rebelled a little but really, she never meant to make dad so angry. I missed her so much and I always felt guilty about her getting into trouble over me really.””
“That whole story is so horrible...” Charli shook her head.
“She died after she disappeared. She was my twin, not identical, only paternal. She also had a child from the story I was told. But after Collette disappeared, my dad made it very clear to me that the only way he thought about us was as assets to his business ventures. He used Collette to bind another man to his empire and that was just wrong. She never wanted to go and leave me behind but he forced her to. And she didn’t even know this other man but our father didn’t care.
The man wanted a place at my father’s table and that’s how he chose to get there.
He’d married Collette off to a total stranger.
When I found out her supposed asshole husband had let her die after she gave birth, I about lost it.
I hoped one day to find the child and I did finally. ”
“Annabelle,” Charli spoke softly.
Luna nodded. “And now she is all I have of Collette.” She had a tear running down her cheek, but she wouldn’t wipe it away. She went on in a flat voice, “That fucking Gauntlet...Whitaker, he didn’t even give my sister a proper burial. He just left her body behind.”
“I’m so sorry for all that you went through. I know that it must haunt you.”
“Well, you telling me this woman who came here has no memory and was told she had a baby? It really brought all that back to me. I will always regret not finding her before Gauntlet killed her.”
“I know and I don’t know how to help this girl. Right now, the timing of her arrival sucks. My Uncle Ray might be after me now to shut my mouth and I got another uncle coming here to take me back to Italy to marry someone I don’t even know.”
Reaching out, Luna patted her hand. “You can’t help her much. Just allowing her to stay here and being supportive is about all that you can do.” She looked up at Charli and asked, “Where is she?” Her eyes looked overly bright now and her hand shook as she raised her coffee mug to take a sip.
Charli watched Luna closely now as she set her mug down.
With a heartfelt sigh, she took her hand in hers and gazed into her eyes.
“Luna, you need to think about this. I mean I know that you have wondered what happened to your sister. But I really don’t think that she would just show up here out of the blue.
” She paused as she knew she needed to choose her words carefully.
“She told me some of what she went through and she’s sort of messed up because of all that. ”
“I know how that feels. I know that I will never get over my sister’s death.
I should have been able to help her.” Luna shook her head as tears glimmered in her eyes.
“My sister had always been a gentle soul. I was the opposite but I always tried to protect her when we were growing up. When she was taken, my dad had me locked into my room for three days, no food and no water until he unlocked that damn door. But by then she was gone and I couldn’t find her.
He thought he broke me and while I might have stayed quiet, it wasn’t because he broke me.
No, I was pissed. I had to be smarter than him until I knew where she was.
It took me a year to find her and on the night I was gonna leave that house forever, I found the report that said she died.
And yes, that about broke me right there.
You see I felt that I failed her. I failed to find her in time to save her and suddenly she was beyond my reach.
” Shaking her head, she went on, “And I hated my father so much. I hated him with a passion I couldn’t handle.
That’s why when he told me he was letting his minion have me I ran from both of them.
I wasn’t going to become a checked box on the coroner’s table, because I knew that’s exactly what happened to Collette.
So the morning Deuce found me, I was running from not only my father but the creep he sold me to. ”
“So you think by helping this woman, it will help you?”
Luna shrugged as she swiped a fallen tear from her cheek. “Maybe? But I do know that you all helped me. And I at least understand how she feels.”
Charli tilted her head at her. Then she stood from her chair.
“Just be careful, you could be stirring up more than you realize. Just take it easy and slow, ok?” she advised.
“Just listen to what she has to tell you before you tell her anything. You have to listen to not only her words but her feelings too. She’s been broken, abandoned and thrown away like her life meant nothing.
I watched her eyes this morning when she began to remember.
She’s bound to remember more now and I don’t know how she’s gonna handle that.
But that is one thing you can do, listen to her and just be supportive.
Since your family was broken apart too, maybe you can help each other? ”
“W-what if she’s...” Luna shook her head.
“...your sister?” Charli stared at her.
Nodding, Luna bit at her lip.
“I don’t know, but try not to be disappointed, Luna.”
“I will try. Maybe I can help her and therefore help myself. The injustice of what happened to my family...” She sighed. “And Whittaker didn’t suffer enough for what he did to Collette.”
“I know, his death was way too quick.” Charli got up and motioned for her to follow her. She walked down the hall and stopped at Ben’s old bedroom. “Please be gentle with her.”
Luna nodded then reached for the door. Opening it slightly, she went inside leaving the door open as she moved toward the bed.
She paused at the side of the bed and studied the woman sleeping there.
Then she reached out and turned her head so that she could see her face.
She gasped. Then she pushed up the sleeve of the PJ top the woman wore.
There was a long scar there on her forearm.
The room was full of a tense silence.
Luna fell to her knees and whispered her name, “Collette.”
Charli went inside and knelt beside Luna. “Are you sure it’s her?” she asked as she felt shocked.
Luna nodded as tears ran down her face. She reached a hand out to brush a strand of her sister’s hair away from her face.
“She got that scar on her arm because she fell while we were both running away from our dad when we were twelve. She hit the ground and rolled onto a piece of broken glass. He grabbed us and hauled us up to our bedroom and locked us in for two days before he unlocked the door. He didn’t know she was hurt but I patched her up and he never knew about the cut.
” Luna’s whisper echoed in the room and when she paused, her words faded into silence.
Then she whispered, “She’s alive and she came back on her own.
I have my sister back and this time no one can take her away from me.
Come hell or high water, I have her back and she’s going to stay. ”