Beyond All Expectation (Percabeth)

Chapter 37: Forgiveness

Annabeth POV:

"I'll give you ten minutes," I said. 

She sighed and sank further into her seat. 

"First off, I just want to say that this is not an excuse. I'm just going to tell you my point of view and I don't expect forgiveness, it's just the way I see it. I know what I did was wrong and again, I'm sorry."

I nodded and said nothing, waiting for her to explain.

"Right, okay," she coughed. "Ten years ago when we first met, I was homeless. What happened was... When my Mom got pregnant with Jason she took time off work and her career went down the drain. She started drinking because of it, and Dad was never home because he worked all the time, and my home was miserable. Mom went kind of crazy. She started blaming it on Jason, saying that it was his fault she had started drinking and his fault that Dad was never home and his fault that no one wanted to hire her. Jason was just a kid. I tried my best to make life easy for Mom - I practically raised Jason myself - but it did nothing in the end.

"The few times my Dad did come home they would argue and fight and then Jason would cry and it would make Mom even angrier and then Dad would leave for even longer. I hated it. Then one day, Mom went so crazy she took Jason out of his classes unexpectedly. I was nine, this was two weeks before I met you. I had been at school at the time, I didn't know what had happened until I came home. When I got home, Mom told me Jason was spending the night at a friends. But the next morning he didn't come home, and I didn't see him for a full two days. Mom kept on making up excuses until finally she cracked and said that she had taken Jason to a Care Home.

"I-I couldn't find him anywhere. I didn't hear from him for a week. I couldn't even call Dad to tell him what had happened, because he cared too much about work and not enough about his kids to notice that one of them had been taken. So I ran away from home. That's when I met you. I was homeless and I didn't have a family - because the only person I loved had been taken from me and my parents were crazy.

"And I know you said you didn't like your family but I was so... broken... because they had taken Jason away from me... I-I just didn't want you to lose your family too. The way you spoke about your Mom - to me it sounded like there was actually some sort of love their. And I had spent a week on the streets and I was miserable and you reminded me of him - Jason. You were Jason's age, you looked like him, you seemed as tough as him. I couldn't imagine you living on the streets, fighting for your life... dying from the cold and the hunger. That would have killed me. So I made that decision to send you home because I needed to see you safe. And yes your home was shit and yes I made a mistake with that but at least you were alive.

"I-I was dying Annabeth. I hadn't eaten in a week, no one would take me in, I spent every night in some cold alleyway expecting to be attacked by some creep. I just couldn't let you do the same. So I'm sorry if you feel like I did the wrong thing by sending you home but I don't regret my decision, because otherwise you would have died."

I stared back at her. "Yes but that doesn't explain why you're no longer homeless... or why you lied to me..."

"Because I'm ashamed! Annie- Annabeth... I was bought back. About a month after meeting you, my Mother got a job offer. But the problem was, with her line of work, she needed to look perfect to get the role. She needed to have the perfect family, the perfect life - she needed to be everyone's ideal woman. She found me on the streets and begged me to come home - not because she missed me but because she needed me. I said no, I hated her...

"But then my Dad came home and found Jason and brought him back. I wanted to see Jason but I had made it my mission never to return to that house. I was proud, living without them. But Dad kept on asking. He wanted Mom to get the job, so he kept on coming to me and asking me to return. I refused, I was too proud... until he bought me. He bribed me. He said if I came back then he'd pay for everything I wanted and he'd never put pressure on me again.