Welcome to the Family

(Lennon aka Bradley's POV)

I ripped my arm away from Danny's grip and quickly joined beside my parents as they stood in front of my now known adoptive parents. "Lennon, we were so worried about you." I throw my hands up in defense, blocking any attempt from my "mother" to give me a hug. I wasn't about to throw myself at these people and beg for their forgiveness after they're the ones who kept me away from my birth parents in the first place. "My name is Bradley, not Lennon." I say sternly, narrowing my eyes at them. The kid they knew a couple of days ago was long gone and never coming back if I had anything to do with it. "Look, I don't want to have to involve the police any further than I already have. I'll tell them you came home and end it there, no other questions asked." I scoff bitterly. They were just going to sweep it all under the rug and pretend like this didn't happen, like it was all a big misunderstanding. But it wasn't, this was my life that was at stake. "That's not going to be enough. I wanna know why you didn't tell me about them in the first place. I wanna know why you broke the adoption order and didn't keep in contact with them and include them in my life like you were supposed to. I'll tell the police everything, if you'd like. That includes the rapist you have as a son, who continues to abuse me day and night while you're at work or sleeping and continue to do nothing about it." The room is so thick with tension you could cut it with a knife. I wasn't playing around, I was dead serious.

"You're obviously trying to seek attention, I can see that. That's why you need to be in a place where they can help you adjust to these types of ideals. Your brother would never do anything to harm you, he loves you, he has since the day we brought you home." Thank God my real dad steps in before I literally lost my shit and started to swing on her. "Look, we brought her back here because we didn't want to exacerbate everything more than it already is. But she's clearly telling you the truth and you need to realize that. A child doesn't lie about something like that, not in the detail and the way she describe it. You may not want to believe it about your son, but I'm sure the police would like to believe it. We can call them ourselves too and the adoption agency saying that you broke the open order for that matter as well. We're not threatening you, we simply mean business. She's a great girl and we are extremely happy that she was able to grow up in an otherwise decent environment but you've failed miserably at keeping her safe and happy. All you had to do was provide nurturing care and love, but you couldn't seem to do that either." The look on her face was priceless. All the color was completely drained and her gaze was dead fixed straight on me. I knew that at any moment an all out shouting match was going to happen, it just needed to be set into motion.

"How dare you come into MY home and disrespect us like that! Who the hell do you think you are?! She is OUR child, NOT YOURS! You made the choice to give her up and abandon her, not us! If she would have stayed with you two, who knows what type of malicious situations you would have subjected her to! Go ahead, call the police! They'll be arresting you, not us or my son. You have absolutely no proof whatsoever that this supposed 'abuse' is happening and you kidnapped my child!" And cue to the fist flying. My mom started to rip apart my adoptive mom to shreds, screaming and crying saying that she was condoning child abuse. My dad was letting Danny have it too, smashing his tightly clenched fist into his ugly, putrid face. I knew it was going to be any second that the police were going to be barging in and taking everyone to jail, so I tried my absolute best to separate them and get everyone to calm down. But fuck, it was pretty much useless at that point. The sounds of sirens and footsteps pounding the pavement were echoing like thunder until hard knocks at the door and shouting could be hear on the opposite side. I reluctantly let them in before at that point everyone had already stopped. Two police officers proceeded to drag away my dad and mom outside while the EMTs came to check on Danny. Then came in another two officers who escorted my adoptive parents out next. I was last, when a single female officer drug me outside and sat me down on the curb. Everybody was spread out as they collected statements, potential evidence and took pictures of everyone's injuries.

I took in a couple shaky breaths as I gave my statement out of earshot to the officer who had pulled me outside. "I found out about my birth parents two days ago, I went to go and look for them. My birth parents had no idea that I had found out until I showed up at their doorstep. It wasn't too hard to figure out seeing as it was supposed to be an open adoption anyway but they didn't keep up their end of the bargain. Anyway, I told them the truth, that my adoptive brother has been molesting me and using me while my other parents were at work or whatever. And when I told them that no one believed me, not even the doctors they took me to when I tried to tell them, they were obviously upset and concerned for me. But they didn't want to cause any trouble, that's why they brought me back here in the first place. I don't want to live here with these people, I have proof and evidence that he's been doing things too." I hadn't realized it, but I was crying and sobbing pretty hard as I spoke to her. She allowed me to go back inside the house as she and another officer escorted me up to my bedroom where I handed over a few pairs of my underwear and a blanket that I had saved after Danny had his way with me. I wasn't stupid, I knew this was going to come in handy one day, I knew that eventually someone would actually believe me and I would have the goddamn evidence to prove myself without anyone having to doubt me. They collected it all into evidence bags before then saying that I would have to be removed from my home and talk with a social worker for tonight.

Back outside, I could see handcuffs being placed on everyone except me. I begged for them to let me talk to my birth parents and they agreed. I threw myself at my mom first, saying how sorry I was for even getting them involved into a mess like my life. She insisted she would do it a million times over again and again, because she loved me and not to worry about a thing, that her and my dad would have it all figured out soon. After everyone was escorted away including me, the ride to the police station was brief and quiet enough to gather my thoughts. When they questioned me, I gave up everything that I had. I also asked if I could stay with a family member until they had sorted it all out. They relented but agreed after the social worker was able to make contact. I was carted off to my adoptive mom's sister's house later that night around midnight. I was never close with her, especially when she would come over for holiday parties and whatever but she was a table worker at the New York New York casino and was almost never home, so when I had given them her number I knew it was the easiest person I could stand to stay with until things were sorted out. She held the door open for me and instructed that I could sleep in her guest bedroom upstairs while the officer and social worker filled her in on all the minor details. It was perfect timing too, she was just about to leave for work when we had arrived. The house reeked of stale cigarette smoke and cheap perfume, but anything was better than some seedy foster care. "Home sweet home." I mutter to myself as I flop down face first into the bed. I thought about calling Vinny or Nova, but my mind needed a break.

I can't count how many times I had tossed and turned all night but when I finally did manage to get some sort of sleep, the sound of my phone ringing ridiculously loud had woken me right up. It was Vinny, just who I was thinking of. "Dude! What the fuck happened last night? My parent's got a call from jail and freaked the fuck out. What the hell is going on?" I let out a long sigh before finally returning my attention back on the phone. "My parents beat up Danny and my adoptive parents. I dropped the bomb on Danny about him abusing me, now I'm here at Deena's house until they can sort shit out. Everyone got arrested last night, but I'm sure they're all out now." The line stays completely silent, you couldn't even hear a pen drop until eventually he comes back. "WOW, alrighty then. Well I guess that's a good thing, right? I mean, she's never home and now you're literally only down the street from me. I'll be over in about half an hour, get dressed." I don't agree or protest, I simply hang up before throwing myself back down into the bed. I wasn't in the mood to think or even move at the point. But I can't just fucking give up, not without a fight. Oh no, this was far from over by a longshot. They wanted to keep me, they wanted to send me away to some out of state group home and that just wasn't going to happen. I was going to go back where I belonged, I was going back to California with my parents whether anyone liked it or not.