EMBRACE winrina

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Days began to pass, and those days turned to weeks. I would spend Monday through Friday waking up next to Charlotte and eating breakfast with eleven other girls who hated me. School provided me with a break from them, only it wasn't really a break because everyone there stared and whispered too. I spent my lunches with Karina, who always tried to cheer me up and succeeded better than Giselle, Lia or Taeyong ever could, but never really managed to lift my spirits.

I appreciated every time she made an effort to make me smile. I appreciated her being there for me to talk to when I needed, but also being there to give me a hug and not talk when I didn't need to. I had tried to explain to her what I was feeling because I knew she had no idea, but I had trouble putting it into words. It was as if a dark cloud followed me everywhere, and while sometimes, very few times the sun broke through, most of the time it was pouring and the thunder never stopped.

Despite my efforts to explain it, I didn't think Karina truly understood. It wasn't her fault and it didn't bother me, in fact, I was glad she didn't know what it felt like to never get a break. Still, sometimes I thought that it'd be easier if she did because she'd understand that telling me everything would be okay didn't always make me feel better. Granted, most of the time it did give me a little bit of reassurance because it was coming from her and strangely enough, I almost believed it when it came out of her mouth. But I'd been told that it would all be okay a countless number of times, each and every time I was dropped off at a new foster home.

And it was never okay.

Quickly, January became a memory. February began to pass and nothing seemed to change in my favor. Finding my sister was still just a dream. Leo still existed in my head. I still dreaded weekdays but I had come to realize how important my weekends were. Weekends were the short period of time where I could be with the one person who made all of this bearable for longer than an hour.

The first weekend in February started like all of the rest. I woke up in half of an embrace, one of Karina's arms wrapped around my waist and the other over her head. Somehow my nightmares were worse than they had been before Leo was arrested, but the plus side to waking up at four in the morning on weekends was that it gave me time to admire all of her beautiful features.

Addy came over for a little while, of course, and Saturday night I spent on Karina's laptop while she scrolled through the channels on tv and tried to make conversation that would cheer me up. I hadn't gotten mad in a while, and I was hoping it would stay that way until at least Leo's trial, until she scrolled past a channel that caught my attention.

"Woah woah," I stopped her, pushing the laptop off of my thighs and trying to grab the remote. She had seen exactly what I had seen and she held it back. "Karina, change it back."

"I don't know where the remote is."

"It's in your fucking hand," I said, climbing on top of her and prying it from her hands. "Stop trying to protect me, I'm a big girl, I can handle it."

I turned back to the news channel to see microphones being shoved into Emma's face.

I fell back into the couch, letting my legs rest on Karina's thighs as I stared intently at the screen. "Is it true that you're not only Winter's adoptive mother, but her step mother too?"

Emma covered her face, pushing her way to her car. "I... was before her parents passed away."

I narrowed my eyes, meeting Karina's. "Tell me she didn't just announce that my parents are dead to the entire fucking world...." I swallowed, whispering, "Tell me she didn't..."

The reporter spoke, "How long has your husband been abusing your adoptive daughter?"

"We've only been her adoptive parents for two years."