Revenge [H.S. MATURE AU]

1.*

the * stands for mature content

ONE YEAR AGO.

SCARLETT'S POV.

Since I was a kid I always hated goodbyes. Goodbyes and changes. I've always been attached to the routine, now that my routine is about to change forever, I don't know how to feel. Or better, I know how to feel about this; I feel anxious and slightly worried. "Slightly" is an euphemism, I feel exactly like I'm about to make the worst decision of my life. Mom says I aways exaggerate things, and maybe she's right. She's definitely right. I'm just leaving for college.

It was one of my hardest decisions, because I'm gonna miss my family. I've always been really attached to them, we have a really close relationship. It's just one hour away by car anyway, that's why mom is right about me exaggerating things.
It's funny to look at my empty room now.

When I arrive to my dad's office, it seems strangely quiet. There's a lot of chaos in here usually.

"You should tell the sheriff that there's no need of our intervention, he's doing just fine on his own!" I hear my dad say. When he sees my right outside of his door, he slightly smiles at me. I smile back.

"Ok, Aaron!" the woman he's talking to answers. Sienna. Before leaving my dad's office our eyes meet. I try to stay neutral, I don't want her to understand that I'm still bothered by her presence. Which I totally am. She seems worried, as if I just caught her doing something she shouldn't do. It's guilt, I guess.

"What are you doing here? I was heading home just now," dad says as soon as we're alone.

"I cannot believe she's still working here after everything that happened," I sigh, closing the door of his office behind me. I trust my dad, but I don't like that woman and I'll always blame her for everything that happened.

"She's very good at her job, Scarlett! I thought we were over this," he's clearly annoyed, but he's trying not to show it, maybe because it's my last day here.

"I am, are you?" I whisper. I don't wanna fight, but I can't seem to hold my tongue back. He pretends not to hear.

Mom never told me when she found out dad was cheating on her. I wonder if the fights were because of my dad cheating or if my dad cheated because of the fights. Anyway, she forgave him.

The drive home is silent, it's just us humming to dad's favorite Rolling Stones cd. I've never been a great fan of music in general. Weird, I know.

"Did you pack everything?" my dad asks as soon as we arrive home.

"Yeah, I'm leaving for real. How much will you miss me?" I ask him, wrapping my arms around him.

"Oh, I really don't know how I'm gonna do without you!" he laughs, hugging me tightly.
A feeling of melancholy hits me. Maybe he'll do just fine, I'm more worried about me. When I was a child I didn't want to go on school trips because I was afraid that coming back my parents wouldn't be there to pick me up. That they would forget I was their daughter too and not only Poe. I guess that can happen when you're adopted.

"How can you be Poe's sister if he's black and you're not?" I remember kids at my school asking me this all the time. I didn't know how to answer at the time, because I felt ashamed of saying I had been adopted, but more than that I didn't want to admit that Aaron and Annalise were not my real parents. Now I consider them my real parents and I know that what I was afraid or ashamed of when I was a child is bullshit. They raised me, that's what parents do and they have never made me feel like I wasn't part of the family.

"What? You're suddenly quiet? What's the problem?" my dad brings me back to reality. He probably already knows. It's his job reading people, and he's the best at his job.
I've always liked that about him, that even if he already knows what's going on in my mind he always asks me.