Stolen Love

12

12


Chris looks across the room at Danny and Joseph, worry filling his eyes. All three of them walk to the kitchen where Jonathan is. Olivia walks back in the living room shortly after.

"What's going on?" I ask standing up.

"I don't even know," Olivia says. Ashley is quiet. "Christopher just said that it was urgent, then I was sent in here."

My heart starts beating a little faster. What could possibly be so wrong that Chris has to talk with his family?

We are all quiet. None of us will say a word. Maybe it's because no one knows what to say.

Finally, I ask, "So Ashley, how has it been?"

She looks at me with wide eyes, but doesn't answer. She sighs and looks down in shame. What's wrong with her? It's almost like she was pretending to be happy with Danny at her side, and now that he's gone, she's depressed.

Normally, I would interrogate my friends until I knew what was wrong, but this is different. Who knows what she's been through, I'll let her tell me about it when she's ready."Do you have any other kids?" I ask Olivia.

"Sometimes it feels like I only have two, but I do have a third son," she says sadly. She starts
rummaging through her purse.

She pulls out a little picture book. On the front cover is a picture of Chris and Joseph when they were younger. They look so alike, if it weren't for the age difference, it'd be hard to tell them apart. I smile because Chris is missing one of his front teeth in his big smile.

There is also another boy on it. His hair is a lighter shade of brown, and his eyes are brown like his Mom's. He's older than Chris, but younger than Joseph.

A soft smile is on Olivia's lips, "I'm not even supposed to have any pictures of him. Jonathan got in a huge fight with him a couple years back. When he left, Chris was devastated. That's when Jonathan started taking Chris under his wing and show him the family way."

"What was his name?" I ask at the same time, Ashley asks, "What did they fight about?"

"Matthew," she says quietly, "Matt didn't want to take any girls. He wanted to do it the right way, he knew this was wrong. Jonathan wouldn't have it, so he kicked him out. Chris always wanted to be just like his older brother Matt, so when left, Jonathan made Chris believe that Matt was a bad guy. That he betrayed the family, now Chris hates him just as much as his father. I had such high hopes for Chris to leave with Matt," Olivia sounds broken. It must be hard to lose a son, especially because he wanted to do the right thing.

I think that's worse than having two sons who kidnap girls.

I take her hand, "It's alright," I say, "Just think about all the good he is doing in the world."

Ashley looks troubled, I'm seriously beginning to wonder what's wrong with her. Olivia looks up at me with tears in her eyes, "I dream about that every night."

"Maybe it's good Christopher took you," she says. At first I was offended, how dare she wish this upon me, but then I get what she meant. It's best that it's me, and not some other weak minded girl who would fold within a week. "You could talk some sense in to him and remind him of the brother he always wanted to be. Not be just like his father."

"I can try," I say, "I see good in him. He never even punished me for running away, and he lets me do what I want to." I laugh a little, "Honestly, he sucks at being a kidnapper."

She smiles, "I guess he just wants to make someone proud of him, and since Jonathan is all he has, it's him."

Chris has said that he's messed up before and that he's sorry. Maybe he really isn't that bad of a guy. Here I go again, being all sympathetic. Why do I feel this way about him?

"Something is wrong with me," I say putting my head in my hands, "Why do I feel this way about him?" I don't want to look at them, I feel so ashamed.

"Oh honey," Olivia says surprising me. "Don't."

"I just hate myself, why me?" I say my eyes tearing up.

"Morgan, you can't hate yourself for falling in love. You can't control these type of things sometimes. No matter how much you hate it, it's happening and you can't stop it." Then I get it, she somehow fell in love with that snake of a man, Jonathan.

"It's just, I promised myself this wouldn't happen. What would my family think? Oh, I feel so dirty, I betrayed them."

"Morgan, look at me," she says softly. I slowly look up to meet her eyes, "Your family loves you no matter what. They won't care what happens, as long as they know you are all right-"

"How? I am falling in love with my kidnapper for gosh sakes!" I cry.

"I don't know," she says in her soft voice, "You have to trust that your family won't care, all they want is you back. Besides, it won't help to wonder what if, you just gotta choose to be optimistic or not and stick with it."

I start to calm down, she's right. She has a way with words, just like Chris said. After a few minutes I finally say, "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"You know what?" She says, "You remind me so much of myself. I was the same way, wondering what was happening to me. But one day, I just woke up and smelled the coffee."

I smile a little, "My mom always used to say that."

"All good ones do."

I look at Ashley, she started crying at some point in all of this. Silent tears flow down her cheeks and I know, she feels the same way.

I stand up slowly, "I'll be right back. I should probably wash my face."

I'm walking down the hallway, when I hear there voices. "What should I do?" Chris asks worried.

I stop outside the door, "Tell me again what they said," Jonathan says. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I couldn't pass this up though.

Chris groans in frustration, "They were just going around asking people in the area if they seen her. Well, he recognized me and said he hasn't seen me since the semester ended last year. He told me how his sister has been missing for about seven weeks now and I told him I'm sorry to hear that. I told him that I haven't seen her, and when he asked for help, I said I was busy because of the holidays."

I count out the days on my hand, it has been almost seven weeks. I gasp, this guy hasn't seen him since last year in college... It was Devan or Evan at the door, maybe both of them.

"The friend stood behind him the whole time looking at me, you know, he's the one who was always on news."

"Ryan," I whisper to myself. I can't believe it. It's Thanksgiving, and they're looking for me.

They found me, without realizing it. Oh gosh, they need to come back. "Come back," I whisper to myself.

"I acted like I knew nothing, I was convincing. I lied just like you taught me."

It's quiet, before Jonathan finally says, "They don't suspect anything. I say it's safe to stay here."

"Ok-"

I leave before I get caught. I don't want to be one of those stupid people caught snooping around. I don't know what excuse I'd use, plus, we would probably move for sure.

I also heard all I need to know, they found me, kinda.