Page 8 of Bound By Secrets

"All good. I need a little break from you two anyway," I joke. "Make sure you behave Sunny, and keep Grumpy in check when you're with him," I fake whisper. Callum laughs as Connor scoffs before walking away. I say a quick goodbye to Callum and then speed walk down the hall, following the grumpy giant that is my brother and catching up to him once we reach the door to our homeroom.

I'm about to walk in when I feel Connor grab my arm and pull me to a stop. I peer up at him, my eyes tracing the light bruisingthat’s started to form from this morning. He stares down at me with a rare softness on his face and hands me two slips of paper.

"You come and find us if you need us, okay?" I assure him that I will and then follow him into the room, glancing down at the two slips of paper, they're copies of both Connor's and Callum's schedules. A small smile slides onto my face and I put the papers into my handbag.

Sitting down in the seat next to my brother, I hear my name being called from the front of the classroom. I look up to see a smiling Kat with her brother following behind her. I wave and see her point out the table next to us before heading over, pulling her brother along. Connor mutters something under his breath and I roll my eyes, knowing he's not happy about them joining us, the antisocial bastard.

"Hey, Callie!" She smiles sweetly as I say hello back and wave to her brother, who's staring at me over her shoulder. She glances over at Connor, looking unsure as to whether she should say anything to him. I elbow him in the side and he glares at me before turning his stony expression to the two sitting next to us, giving them a slight nod and then looking back at the desk where he's tapping his fingers together.

“I'm glad we have homeroom together. I honestly only have a few other friends besides Nate and Brad, so it's nice to know I'll be seeing you around too."

"Yeah, Connor and Callum are the only ones I know. It’ll be nice to have another girl around. We need to balance out the testosterone levels.” She laughs at that, and I feel myself relax slightly. Maybe I can do this whole friend thing just fine.

"So, is that like a thing in your family?" Nate asks, leaning back so that I can see him past his sister. He must see the confused look on my face due to his question because he rubs the back of his neck in a kind of nervous gesture before continuing, "All your names start with a C, your parents do that on purpose?" It's aninnocent question but it makes Connor freeze up beside me. He hates people asking about our family.

"Uh, yeah... my Mum's name is Clarissa, and her brother was called Cristopher, so she liked the idea of naming us all with C names," I tell him softly, offering a smile before turning to face my brother, putting an end to the conversation so that he doesn't pry any more information out of me.

I place my hand over Connor's, stopping his incessant tapping. He looks over at me in annoyance and then places his hands in the pockets of his jogging bottoms. "Relax, I know you're uncomfortable, but you'll be back with Callum in literally twenty minutes when homeroom is finished," I tell him as he glowers at the teacher who's just walked into the room.

Connor may be a big, intimidating guy who is practically fearless, but he always gets nervous and irritable whenever Callum isn't close by. I used to think it was due to everything that goes on at home and him wanting to make sure we're all as safe as we can be because Connor is our biggest protector. But I think it's more of a twin thing. They literally could not live without each other. Three years ago, shortly after my Mum disappeared with Crystal, a few weeks before my 17th birthday, 'Uncle' Fraser came to visit for the first time.

When my father told me what he expected me to do for Fraser's needs once I was eighteen, I obviously refused, which, of course, caused my eldest brother Cameron to punch me.

It was the first time any of them had been violent towards me, and I still remember the shock of what Cameron had done. I froze and stared at him in disbelief. He stared back, a playful smirk etched on his face. Callum heard and saw what was going on, so he jumped on Cameron and started raining punches down on him until Dad, Paul, and Fraser pulled him off. They then beat him to a bloody pulp and said we needed to learn our place.

They cut off his baby finger in front of me as a punishment for me refusing to let Fraser rape me and for him attacking Cameron. They had a doctor come and patch him up, then put him down in the basement.

That was the day we all learned about that place. We never even knew it existed before that, and little did we know, it’s been there for years. Callum was down there for days, and the whole time, Connor was physically sick. He didn’t leave his room; he lay in bed and stared blankly at the wall. He was deadly silent; not a word or sound left him. He was a shell of a person until Callum came back.

That was when all three of us saw my family’s true colours. They were terrifying and they didn't care how badly they hurt people. If they got their way, they were happy.

My mum had clearly been our saviour beforehand because after she'd left with our baby sister, everyone became ruthless. Derek made it clear to all of us that he could easily find and hurt my Mum and Crystal if he wanted to.

He bragged about his friendships with the police, lawyers, and politicians. He made sure we knew we wouldn’t get any help from them. He also told us about the Private Investigator he’d hired to keep tabs on our Mum and Crystal’s whereabouts. That’s when we realised we'd have to deal with everything he threw at us, we had no choice if we wanted to keep my mum and sister safe and protected from this monster.

I struggled for a while to understand why my Mum had left without us and left us in the clutches of our monstrous father, but a few weeks after my father and Cameron had begun treating us with their cruel behaviour, Uncle Johnny came to see us.

He'd managed to slip an enveloped letter to Callum whilst we were all seated at the dinner table and later that night, we locked ourselves in Callum's room before we tore it open. All of the anger that I had felt towards my mother those previous fewweeks disappeared as we read over the words she had written to us.

My babies,

I understand that all three of you most likely resent me now because no doubt your father has turned his wrath from me onto you. It’s completely valid for you all to feel furious towards me, but I'm hoping that writing this letter will soothe some of that anger inside of you. For many years, your father and I were happy, and he was a loving and generous man. In the last decade or so, since he overtook your grandpa's business, things have changed. He’s become cruel, vindictive and downright disgusting, and I want you to know that I feel terrible for leaving you all with him.

Last month, Robert offered to look after Crystal so that Jasmine and I could have a girl's night. She came to our house, and we were having drinks, it was a nice evening until she saw some severe bruises on my arm and asked me about them.

After hiding for so long and pretending to be okay, I felt that I needed to tell someone about the abuse. She’d noticed, and I knew she cared, so I told her everything. Jasmine was shocked by my revelation. She told me that I had to find a way to leave. She mistakenly mentioned a secret of mine that I had shared with her years ago that only she and I knew about. She was trying to comfort me and give me a solution to the problem, but yourfather had overheard our conversation and now knew of the life-altering secret that I had hidden from him.

That night, I went up to bed, and your father beat me sobadly that I ended up with a broken arm, two broken ribs and a fractured skull. He dragged me through the house. I was screaming, begging for help, but he laughed and told me that everyone was knocked out cold. He threw me out into the driveway, pressed a gun to my head and threatened me, telling me he’d kill you all if I didn't leave.

I promise you, I didn't want to leave, and I tried to get back into the house but he shot me in the leg, telling me that it was my only warning. He stood there until I agreed to leave, and then he just left me, walked back inside and locked the doors. I had to force myself to stay conscious until I could get somewhere safe.

Thankfully, I managed to get down the street to Jasmine's house. When Jas saw the state that I was in, she and Robert immediately patched me up as well as they could and then got Crystal in the car and drove me to the hospital.

One of the nurses asked me if there was anyone I could call so that I could get some help and get to safety. I had the number of a detective that I knew was already looking into your father because of his dodgy business. He collected me and Crystal from the hospital and took us away. He’s found us somewhere safe for now. He's working on something to try and get you kids out, I promise. He just needs some evidence to stick. Your father is quite a powerful man, and he knows how to get exactly what he wants. If I could come and save you myself, I would, but I can't leave Crystal defenceless and alone. If something were to happen to me, she’d have no one. She's only a baby.

Johnny knows where we’re staying at the moment, but after he gives this letter to you, he won't know anything. I know you probably have some questions, and I hope that sometime soon in the future I will be able to see you all again and give you the answers you want, but for now, I have to stay hidden. I love you all with my whole heart, and it is breaking me apart knowing that it's my fault that you're all now going to suffer. I just don't see any other way around it to get us all out of this alive.

I miss you all terribly already, and I'm so sorry for leaving you with that bastard. I hope that one day you can forgive me. I love you all so much. Please try and stay safe.

---