Sister Pact: Surrendering to Mr Snow

CHAPTER FOUR: TOWN

Amber looked at her husband from across the dinner table of her sister Viola’s house. Amber, Nick and baby Aaron had decided to visit both Tate and Viola for one week, but there was still a lot of thing on her mind and Nick noticed that.

“I hate it when you have that look on your face, it means that you are thinking about something” Amber looked up and smiled at her husband, he knew her too well and she could not simply get away from his questionable gaze.

Amber placed the cup of coffee onto the table and she played with her fingers, trying to distract herself from the matter at hand.

“The weather is so cold today, I think I should go and check up on Aaron, you know how cranky that son of yours can get when he wakes up and neither of us is around” Amber stood up and just as she was about to leave, Nick held her hand, stopping her from leaving.

“Amber, I know you better than that, please sit down and let’s talk about this” Nick begged her and Amber sat back down onto her chair.

“What are you thinking about?” Nick asked his wife with love and compassion in his eyes.

“I am just thinking about Scarlet and how she’s faring that’s all. You know I should not have told her the truth. I know that I was angry at her for blackmailing you but that did not mean that—” Nick interrupted Amber by placing his finger on her lips.

“I know that you were angry at her and you said more than you should have, but whether we like it or not Scarlet had to know the truth, one way or another” Nick told Amber, but it seemed as if those words did not hold any comfort for Amber.

“I just wished that I had handled it differently than I did”

Nick held out his hands and placed his hand over Amber’s hand, comforting her with just a touch.

“I just hope that she is okay in Canada”

“Canada?” Nick asked Amber and just then, Amber realized that she had forgotten to update her husband on Scarlet for the past three months.

“Scarlet left home, she went to find her biological family”

“Well that’s good isn’t it?” Nick asked his wife, who still felt unsettled with the idea that her sister was leaving the United States and heading for Canada and she was doing that all by herself.

“I guess but I’m worried that she might want to stay there forever. I don’t want them to take my sister away from me”

“Amber this is not about you, this is about Scarlet and she has to do this by herself”

Amber knew deep down that her husband was right about the entire matter but she still had to come to terms with the idea and she was not finding it easy.

**

Once again, Louise was separated from the general population in prison; he had gotten into another fight yet again. He was inside this cell all by himself ad he liked the feeling of being alone that was how he had grown up.

For the past three months, Louise had been put behind bars. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, for a list of offences as well as defying the ends of justice. Louise did not care that he was in jail, all that he cared about was that his grandfather was dead and he was not allowed to attend the funeral.

There was knock on the heavily garden metal gate of his cell, he knew that it was time for the guards to change and if all this were going according to plan, he would get just what he wanted.

Three knock on his door, Louise jumped out of his bed, and his informant was there.

“Hello” Louise called out through the food pass.

“Hey Louise, I got the information that you wanted me to get for you” the officer answered him.

“What did you find out?” Louise asked the officer.

“Zuka is dead,” The officer told him and Louise was shocked. It had been three months since his uncle had left him tied up in his grandfather’s home and now the man was dead.

“How did he die?” was all that Louise needed to know. He hated his uncle for ruining the last chance that he had to reconnect with his grandfather.

“About two months ago he got into an accident, your uncle had robbed a jewelry store and the cops were after him for nearly an hour. He knocked into a huge tree that did not just destroy the car but him too. Your uncle’s dead body was pulled out of the car”

Louise was sure that he hated his uncle more than anything in the world did and he had always wondered what he would do to his uncle if they were ever to meet but now the man was gone.

“You need anything else?” The officer asked Louise and he said no. what else was there to say for Louise, everyone he had called a family was gone.

Louise walked back to his bed and sat down thinking about all that he has gone through for the past three months that he had been in prison. Now that entire he had to look forward to was his tarnished reputation and hopefully finishing his jail sentence and walking back into reality as a changed man.

**

Scarlet could not believe her eyes that the woman before her was her grandmother on her father’s side. Of course she did but it seemed too good to be true, the woman in front of her lying on the bed looked old and frail but she still had eyes exactly like Scarlet’s eyes.

All her life Scarlet had felt different to her sisters but here, here she felt as if she belonged somehow, even though she had known them for less than half an hour.  Her grandmother’s eyes began to tear ad unfortunately for her that set off her tears as well.

Although her grandmother was old and frail, her fingers shook as she reached out to touch her granddaughter.

“I missed you so much; I could still remember the day that I first held you in my arms, right before the cold hands of death snatched your parents away from us”

Those words were enough to send a wave of emotions through Scarlet’s body, although she had met her aunt and grandmother she still had to  face reality, that both her biological parents were dead and there was nothing she could do but live with it.

“Why did you let them take me then?” Scarlet asked, she knew that this was not the right time but she had to know why. She no longer believed a word that her stepparents had told her, nothing seemed clear, Scarlet hoped that her biological family would give her some insight.

Scarlet watched as her grandmother’s mouth quivered, she wanted to say something but either she did not want to say it or it was overflowing of her emotions holding those words back.

“Scarlet, think we can talk about that another day, please my dear, your grandmother is not feeling well” Scarlet accepted that excuse from her aunt; Marilyn and she dropped the matter.

“You look as beautiful as your mother” Marilyn complimented but Scarlet did not believe that. Ever since she had found out about her parentage, she had never seen a picture if neither of her biological parents.

“Can I please see a picture of them?” Scarlet asked her aunt who smiled at her and proceeded walking up the stairs leaving just Scarlet and her grandmother. There was and awkward pause and Scarlet did not like it, her grandmother kept staring at her s if she wanted to tell her.

“Grandmother is there something wrong” Scarlet asked her grandmother, who was about to answer her, but Scarlet’s aunt walked in just in time.

“Here it is!” Aunt Marilyn told them, walking down the steps with what seemed to be an album in her hand.

“Oh, sorry am I disturbing the two of you?” Aunt Marilyn asked both women who simply answered with a no.

Her aunt handed her the photo album and immediately Scarlet dived into it, not wanting to wait a minute longer. She had waited her entire life for this moment without even knowing it and now she was finally seeing the truth.

The first picture was of a handsome man sitting on the boot of his car and he had a woman sitting next to him. The handsome Caucasian man had his dark brown hair trimmed in a perfect cut, a cigar in his mouth and he looked so confident, the beautiful black woman sitting right next to him had on her red dress, matched with red shoes and a black band to keep her afro hair in place.

 Scarlet did not have to guess who these two people were because as she looked closer, she had their traits. She had her father’s smile and his nose as well and her mother’s eyes.

Scarlet had not noticed that she had been crying until one tear drop fell onto the picture she was holding in her hand.

“How did they die?” Scarlet managed to ask both women who looked at each other and then back at Scarlet. Her aunt took center stage as she had been doing ever since Scarlet had stepped her feet onto their property.

“Well your parents were the adventurer type, they loved to travel but home was always the United State unlike the rest of the family who settled her in Canada of course. One day they called us telling us that they were on their way to visit and the next thing we knew was that, we were being called at the hospital. Your father died on the scene and your mother died minuet’s after she had given birth to you”

“But how did they die?” Scarlet asked one more time, hoping that this time she would get the correct answer from her aunt or grandmother. Scarlet did not care who told her the truth but she did want to know how her parent’s lives had come to an end.

“They were driving in the snow, right about February and they crashed into a tree. I asked the detective what had happened and he said that it seemed as if their breaks failed”

Upon hearing that information Scarlet’s heart broke, she had wanted to hear that her parents had died a peaceful death but no, they had died a painful one instead.

“Thank you” Scarlet managed to say, because that was all she was strong enough to say at that time.

“Why are you thanking us?” her grandmother asked Scarlet.

“I’m thanking you both for telling me the truth, back home there aren’t many people to tell me the truth. It’s all just lie after lie I guess”

“I’m so sorry that you had to live through that my dear granddaughter. Anyway, Marilyn go and prepare the room for Scarlet”

Scarlet jumped up from the chair in order to stop her aunt from going upstairs and preparing her a bed to sleep with.

“No, please don’t!” Scarlet told them but her grandmother’s eyes were in shock.

“Why not?” her aunt asked her.

“I really do not want to inconvenience the both of you, there’s a B&B not so far away from here, I think I’ll sleep there tonight”

“No my dear, you are our family and you will not be sleeping at a B&B, you will be sleeping in this very house with your family”

Scarlet felt a warm and fuzzy feeling travel through her body, this was where she belonged and even her body was feeling the sudden change.

“Where are your bags?” Her aunt asked her and Scarlet just realized that she had left them in the boot of the car.

“They are in my car, I’ll go and get them tomorrow”

“Oh! I suggest that you do not trust this weather, one moment it would be snowing a bit and the next you cannot even leave your house because there is about seven inches of snow covering the town.

Scarlet knew that her aunt was right. Scarlet got out of the house as she removed her bags from the boot of her car.

Now she was finally ready to stay and begin her new life with her family, she had no idea what she would be doing with the family that she had once called a family but she would give herself the time to figure that out, whether it be sooner or later.

“Are you ready?” Scarlet’s aunt asked her and Scarlet nodded her head in agreement as both women entered the little wooden house, which belonged to her family.