welcome to the family [eminem]

Chapter Four

*LEILA'S P.O.V.*



"Well, since we're suddenly adopting you, I might as well introduce myself. I'm Hailie, Hailie Jade.", the teenage blonde said, and stuck her hand out to me. I shook it and nodded.

"Leila.", I said. Hailie nudged the older woman's shoulder and the woman scowled at her. She didn't look happy.

"Hi sweetie, I'm Kim, Marshall's wife." Wife? Kim stuck out her hand to me and I shook it, trying to ignore the pain that just went through my arm.

"Ouch, you look in pain, here, sit back.", Kim said, and I did as I was told. I sat back on the hospital bed and tapped my fingers against the rim.

Hailie whispered something into her mother's ear. The mother grinned and nodded, and walked out of the room. Now it was just me and Hailie. Okay...

She drew in a breath. "Thank you..", she said quietly. I cocked my head. Thank you? For what?

"For?"

"For saving my little sister's life. We really can't repay you enough.", she looked down at me. Her eyes were glassy and teary.

"Well, you're taking me in, that's more then enough. I'd be fine living on the streets."

"Why don't you have a home?", she asked. Tears came rushing towards my eyes but I blinked them back. I can trust her...

I sighed. "My parents abused me..." I started, "Mostly my mother though. She'd beat me at any time, but mainly around the afternoon when my father was working. My father never knew about it, until the day I ran off." I paused, "I was lucky to even escape. Usually my windows were locked and my door was glued shut. I was never allowed out of my room. My father must've got the hint though, I never came out for dinner. That's why I'm so skinny. No one really knew about the abusing being my outside family died a while ago. Sometimes when I went to sleep my father noticed the bruises and scrapes on me. I'd lie about it, I'd say I fell down the stairs or something, because if I told him, my mother... she'd..." Tears escaped my eyes as I said the words. "She'd kill me."

Hailie looked shocked, her mouth hanging wide opened and a few tears dribbled down her face. I didn't mean to make her cry. I continued on.

"She used to tell me how much I wasn't worth it, how I didn't deserve living in this world and how no one loved me. But it was true though. No one except my father. I had no friends, because my mother never sent me to school. That's what got my parents into fights - my education. My mother used to act like she cared about me to my father, but then once he left the house she'd hit me with anything she could reach. Spoons, sticks, bats, brooms, anything she can get her hands on, she'd beat me with." I choked back the tears that were threatening to spill out again. "But then, one day, I got sick. I started throwing up all over my room because I never ate. I only ate enough to keep me alive, which would be a piece of bread my mother would shove down my throat. I got sick everywhere which forced my mother to open my window. She wouldn't clean my throw up, so I had to, which made me even more sick. Anyway, she locked my window and shut it, and left my room. I tried so hard to unlock it but it never budged. She must've left the lock loose, because I got it opened, and I ran. I ran so fast with only that twenty dollars that was in my pocket. I ran to New York City, and that's it."

"I'm so sorry.", Hailie cried. I looked up at her from my hospital bed. Now we were both bawling our eyes out.

"Please," I choked, "Don't tell them yet." She nodded.

"I won't.", and with that, we cried together.

--

"So she's good to go?" Marshall asked the doctor. The doctor nodded.

"Yup, free to go. Just make sure she keeps off that leg for 8 to 12 weeks, then she can come back to get the cast off." I adjusted my crutches from under my arms. It was giving me a rubber burn.

"Alright, thanks." Kim and Hailie held Whitney and Lanie as Marshall tried to help me walk. I never used crutches before.

"Do you want me to carry you or..?" he asked kindly. I shook my head.

"No, no it's okay I got it." I smiled at him and struggled to walk with the crutches. I set them down on the sidewalk and swung myself forward, landing on my good foot. I smiled.

"I did it." I whispered to myself, and tried to do it again, My arm must've slipped, because if Marshall wasn't there I would've fallen.

"Woahh," he said, catching me under my arms. My face heated up.

"Sorry Marshall," I said embarrassed. He chuckled.

"Let me carry you Leila," he said, and scooped me up into his tattooed arms. This was embarrassing. "And you can call me dad." I froze. He must've sensed this because he apologized. "Oh shit sorry, only if you want to."

I smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you." I hopped my way into the Range Rover and he got in the passengers seat. Kim, Hailie and the girls were already in the car, sitting in the back.

A bulky fat man got into the drivers seat. I never seen him before. I just chose to ignore it though, and stared at the window as we left the place I've been staying at for a week. I was glad to go to a real house.

Somewhere I can actually call home.