and the plot thickens. . .

Chapter 3:

“Andrew was the third generation of only children and both his parents are dead. Lily was adopted, and when she finally found out who her birthparents were she was 30 and both of them were dead, just like her adoptive parents. Other than an aunt she has never met, who is currently living in a rehab center in Reno I am the closest thing to family that girl has. And besides all of that Andrew said in his will that he wanted me to take care of her if anything happened to him. There is no reason why I shouldn’t get custody of the brat.” Paul explained to Tristan and me, while he had us going through my house, packing anything he could sell into the back of his truck.

“Nothing but the fact that he’s abusive to the kid he already has,” Tristan whispers to me, obviously not quietly enough though because Paul hits him in the head.

“Even if I were abusive, you aren’t going to say anything. Because you know that if you did two things would happen. First, you would never see her again. She would go to a foster home on the other side of the country. And Second, you would be getting in a lot of fights at school to explain away all of the bruises I would give you.”

“Well, actually, only one of those things would happen. I might not see Hilary again but you would get arrested and wouldn’t be able to hit me anymore.” Tristan shoots right back, not the least bit intimidated by Paul’s threats.

“Really? What proof do you have that I have ever hit you?” Paul’s voice fills with venom, getting scary like it never did when Dad was around.

“Hu, I’m not sure. Maybe one of the dozens of bruises that I have right now might work.”

“Nope, you have spoken to the school nurse about every single one of those bruises. You already explained them and gotten in the fights to back up your explanations. It is far too late to change your story. Now shut up and get to work.” He laughs, shoving Tristan back onto his knees next to me and leaving the room.

“Don’t worry Hilary. I am not going to let him hurt you.” Tristan says, pulling my mom’s necklace out of his pocket and handing it to me, “I hid this when we went though your dad’s room. I figured you wouldn’t want him selling it. You’re going to need a good hiding place for it though. The second he sees it, it will be gone.”

“Hilary, Sofi says she needs to talk to you,” Holly pulls me from the dream before it gets to the bad part, bouncing on the foot of my bed being careful not to touch me.

“Okay, where is she,” I say through a yawn, tired from sleeping so long. It was already 7. I had slept for a whole 8 hours last night and only woken up the one time. That had to be a record.

She hesitates in answering which makes me think that I am not going to like what ever she has to say, and of course I could not be more right “Kitchen.”

“Oh joy. One of those talks again.” I sigh, rolling out of bed and stalking out into the hall ignoring everyone I pass. After going down two flights of stairs I finally get to the kitchen, in a bad mood already.

Chapter 4:

“Hilary, perfect I needed to talk to you,” Sofi says as if she forgot that she sent Holly up for me, beaming at me from the kitchen sink.

“I’m not hungry.” I say flat out. I really did not want to fight with her this morning but if she was going to force feed me then we would fight.

Sofi was the only thing keeping Paul from winning completely. Everything he had said would happen if Tristan did anything to stop him had happened, except for me ending up in a foster home half way across the county. I hadn’t seen Tristan since then but I read something in the paper about his mom being arrested for attacking him and putting him in the hospital, and even though it didn’t say anything about Paul I knew Tristan had gotten in trouble, and he hadn’t been arrested for it. Sofi’s was not half way across the county though, it was only about 3 hours away, and it was technically not a foster home since she was my cousin. As long as I stayed here Paul wasn’t winning and so I owed her. That meant that she was one of the people that I didn’t hate, and I didn’t like to fight with her.

“Okay,” she agrees to let it go even though I can see that she is worried, “I had something I wanted to run by you.”

“Okay,” I consent, even though I already know that she has done something that is going to make me mad.

“Well, I was thinking about how you have such a hard time with people and how you don’t really ever feel like eating and I thought maybe if we could replace what ever bad memories you have about those two things with good ones that you would have a better time so I signed you up for cooking classes. It isn’t anything formal, just a few students from your school, people you kind of already know, and even the teacher is your age. And Holly said that she would go with you if you wanted but it would make me feel so much better if you would do this. And you can quit in a few weeks if you don’t think it is helping.” By the time she finishes her explanation she is red in the face and looks ready to die from embarrassment and so I have to say yes.

You just couldn’t say no to Sofi when she got like that. Her life had been just as hard as any one’s here. That is why she opened ‘Sofi’s Home’ and took all of us in. Some how my grandparents had been smart enough to put my mom up for adoption but 3 years before that, when my aunt Kelly was born, they didn’t care enough to even do that. Kelly grew up with out them because they didn’t care enough to come home and was a druggy by the time she was 15, which was about the time she got pregnant with Sofi. She was living in a rehab center the whole time I was growing up and I never met her, and neither did Sofi. She grew up with her dad, Derek, who was just as crazy as Paul. She finally got sick of him and ran off when she turned 14 and has been on her own since then.

When she turned 30 Derek died and for some reason left all of his money to her. She decided that there had to be hundreds of kids in situations just like hers. So she went and bought an old inn with 10 rooms and put the address in the bathroom at every restaurant, in every telephone booth, and on every street corner in the area. Then she waited. Less than a year later she was the legal guardian of 29 homeless and abused girls.