The Boy Who Knew Me When(71)

Not being able to face my father I crawled out of the bathroom window just as he managed to kick in the bathroom door following me out onto the roof. I saw that he had the gun in his hands. He was not pointing it at me; it was just there, until it wasn’t. The moment I heard the loud pop of another bullet I jumped. My father tells it like I tripped but it was him that tripped, not me. He tripped, dropped the gun, it went off and I wished like hell that it had hit me. When I realized that it had not, I jumped from the roof.

I was ten years old and all I wanted in the entire world was to die. I no longer wanted to live in a world were strangers killed brothers and stole friends, a world where parents went crazy and ignored their children and a world where a little girl count no longer remember what it was like to be a little girl. I myself only faintly remembered what the world was like before my brother was so tragically taken from our family, a world of day dreams, where I was a beautiful fairy princess and danced in the sunlight all day long. A world where Barbies married Julians and not Kens. A world where I could just be a child.

I woke up days later in the hospital. According to doctors I had suffered a horrible concussion but amazingly survived thanks to a very painful holly bush that left scratches and cuts all over my body. The worst part for everyone involved was that the memory that I had of the night in question was not even real. Somehow in my young mind I saw my father murdering my mother, I saw my father trying to murder me. I still do not fully understand why my head remembered it so skewed. My Doctor says that children who have suffered tragedy have a way of protecting themselves from the worst kind of pain, it often times includes making up a completely fictional life or in my case story. I am just thankful that after years of therapy I can finally remember the events as they actually happened.

Soon, I am going to be married to a wonderful man, a man who came back into my life after being absent far too long. This man was my brother’s best friend; his parents were killed the same day that Nicolai was by the same gunman. His name is Julian Ackles and he was like a second son to my father, who has been suffering for a crime that he did not commit for way too long.

I want more than anything to have my father home again, to have him walk me down the aisle and give me away to the man of my dreams. You have daughters of your own Mr. President, you know as well as any man what a blessing it would be to give your daughter away on that day to a man that you would proudly call your son. Julian is that man for my father.

Please, besides my aunt, he is the only family that I have left. He is a good man; there is not an ounce of evil in his entire body. Please do not let my father be another victim of the monster who took so many lives. Ignacio Hernandez is the only evil person in my sad but all too true tale.

Sincerely,

Jemma Lee Hale





Chapter Twenty Two





“What does it say?” Brea asked pounding on the bathroom door.

“Come on sweetheart, it has been way more than three minutes, open up!”

It has been six weeks since Mr. Hicks and I first met with the DA and we were still waiting for word as to whether or not my father’s pardon had been approved or denied. In the meantime, there was something else that I had been waiting for as well...my period. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I am not really sure how to look at it, it was four weeks late.

Julian and Brea had both wanted to come with me into the bathroom for the test but I refused to allow either of them see me straddle a toilet while pee poured out of my body onto a tiny little stick. It was gross enough for me to have to watch.

Brea had also insisted that Jonathan join us in said bathroom. Thankfully for me Jonathan didn’t even show up.

“Oh no I’m not, this is for Julian and Jemma, and I know where I am not wanted. Unlike some people I know.”

What Jonathan did not know is that there was no way I was taking this test without my best friend and she knew it. She might not be in the room with me watching me piss myself but she was close enough that if I flipped out she would be by my side in seconds.

Jonathan and Brea had been getting along great and by the time they got back from Puerto Rico Jonathan had an apartment lined up and was ready to start school with me during the upcoming semester. Not only that but he had asked Brea to marry him. She thought about it a few days but in the end she said yes.

Brandon called me a few days after the proposal to confirm with me that it was true. I am not really sure why he thought Brea would lie to him about it but Brandon rarely thought rationally where love was involved. Sadly, once the fact was confirmed Brandon vanished from both of our lives. Brea and I have both tried to call him but he refuses to answer the phone which is so unlike Brandon.