A Home For Christmas

Chapter Four

Julia

I turn to face the woman and for a moment I am thrown. The woman looks to be in her late 40s and she is absolutely beautiful. She has red hair pulled back in a bun and bright green eyes, she has a beautiful dress on but her clothes along with her jewelry scream money. However, she works in a charity shop, so there could be more to it.

"Yes?" that's all I say. I am standing here with stolen property in my hands and that's all I can come out with. "Miss, I think you may have forgotten to pay for those items, but not to worry, it can happen. How about we head to the counter and get you checked out?" she smiles, and it feels like her smile alone could light up the entire place and her expression is warm and motherly, which makes me sad for a moment.

She knows full well that I wasn't planning on paying, and yet she's giving me a chance to correct my behavior, without any judgment and God knows I wish I could do as she asks. I felt bad stealing these clothes before, but now after how she is treating me, I feel even worse.

I... I can't", I struggle to explain, and before I know it I'm a sobbing mess. She comes up to me and wraps her arm around my shoulders and starts guiding me towards the back of the shop. I know that I shouldn't let her, that I should run or even fight my way out if I have to, but my body doesn't seem to get that message as I just continue to let this lady guide me.

We get to the back of the shop and enter a small room where she leads me over to a chair before taking a seat next to me. She leans to the other side of her and pulls some tissues from a box that's placed on a small coffee table in the corner of the room. "Thank you." She gives me a warm smile but doesn't say anything. Instead, she just sits there while resting one of her hands on my arm, offering me comfort. I tried stealing from this woman, and here she is offering me comfort. What the hell?

She leans towards me and takes the stuff out of my hands and then reaches out and holds on to my hands while I start crying harder because all I feel right now is shame washing over me. "You weren't planning on paying, were you, sweetheart?" I don't want to look up, I don't want to see the look in her eyes when I answer, but that would be the cowardly thing to do, and after how she has treated me so far she deserves so much more than me acting like a coward.

I take a deep breath and I try with all I have to stop the tears, but they still fall down my face as I look up at her. "No, I wasn't, and I'm so, so sorry! I swear it wasn't because I didn't want to!" I feel myself start to panic and take slow breaths. As she goes to speak, the door to the room that we are in opens and a man walks in, f**k it's that guy. I'd never seen him before, and then I saw him twice in one week. That was three weeks ago, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about him. I don't know what he's doing here, but now he's going to know that I'm a thief. Great!

I can't bare to look at him for some reason, so I lower my head and look at my hands where the woman is still holding onto them. "What's going on, Mom?" Mom? Oh, f**k! I hear movements, and then two shiny brown shoes appear in my side view right before he gets down on his hunches, and I'm now looking at his chest. I watch as his hand comes towards me, but instead of feeling fear like I should, I don't.

He hooks one single finger under my chin and lifts my head while turning it to the side, so I have no choice but to look at him. "What's happening?" he asks me. His voice is strong and holds a no-nonsense tone but still, for some reason, I feel like he's holding some of his true self back, it's as if he's angry but not showing it.

"I tried... I tried to steal some clothes." I hiccup. While I'm talking, the nerves kick back in at him holding me in place and not letting me look away. His eyebrows climb his forehead while a look of confusion graces his insanely handsome face and I get it. Who the hell would steal from a charity shop? He looks over to where the clothes are, then gets up and moves over to them, picking them up and checking them out.

"I'm so sorry, please, I promise I didn't want to do it... I just... she is so cold, and I can't do a dam thing about it. I swear I would pay if I could. Please don't call the police, she only has me!" My panic has reached boiling point, but how can it not? If they call the cops on me, I'm f****d and so is Nina.

My breath starts getting tight, and I feel like I'm doing all I can to take just a simple breath. "Sweetheart, calm down. It's going to be OK, we are going to work this out." the woman comes to sit in front of me and even though I can hear what she's saying, for some reason, I can't seem to take it in. "Mom, go and get her a glass of water." I watch her nod then disappear out of my view.

I keep working on my breathing, but I feel like I'm going to pass out, then he appears back in my view as he once again gets down on his hunches. "Look at me." I ignore his words as my heart pounds even harder. "Look at me now!" I don't know why but something in his tone makes me listen, and my head snaps up to look at him. "I'm sorry." I know I've already said it several times, but I'll do whatever I can to keep the cops out of this and Nina safe. I have to get her away from this place soon, and I can't let her down.

"I want you to listen to me. I want you to copy me and take small calm breaths." he starts showing me what he means and somehow my body just automatically follows him, but I'm glad because just a few moments later I finally get a full breath and feel so much better for it. The door opens and the woman... his Mom walks in with a glass of water and hands it to me. "Take small sips or you'll make yourself sick." I give him a nod as I'm handed a glass and for a moment I find myself frozen. I can't remember ever holding a glass, not a clean one anyway.

"Thank you." I give her the best smile that I can, but it soon falls once more. "Are you going to call the cops?" before she can answer he jumps in. "No, as long as you tell us what's going on and why you tried to steal children's clothes and shoes." I look toward him, and while he may sound stern, he looks a little sad, and it's confusing to me. I try to speak but nothing comes out.

"The choice is yours, but if you don't want the cops involved, then I need a good reason not to call them." I don't think it's up to him, I'm pretty sure this is his Mom's shop, but either way, I'm not in a position to argue right now.

"I... I... I can't, I wish I could, but I can't." as soon as I start speaking, I realize that I can't tell them the truth, because that means telling them about Nina and that means there's a risk that I could lose her forever, But if I face the cops without her name coming into it then I know that the others will look after her and at least that way I'll be able to come back to her. The woman walks over to me and leans down so that we are face to face. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"It's Gemma, Gemma Longgate." both of them look at me and I know that they both know that I'm lying but I can't risk anything. "You're lying, but I guess that the cops will find out your real name anyway." he sounds pissed, and I don't blame him. Most people would have called the cops by now but neither of them has. Instead, they have been nothing but nice to me. I'm scared, and he knows it, but still, I remain quiet as he picks up his phone ready to call the cops on me.