New to the Family

I'm Sorry

Author's note: Happy social distancing everyone! I hope you are all staying home, unless you are an essential service. We'll all beat this virus together.

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 "Jared, stop!" I yelled.

I grabbed the girl's arm. She clawed at my arm as Jared dragged her back. Jared let go of her and she tumbled to the ground. He put his foot on her chest and pinned her down to the floor. He looked furious.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back a few steps. I looked over to see that it was Lindsay. She bit down on her swollen lip, and she shook her head as a silent warning.

I looked down at the girl. She looked almost like my sister Katelyn. It was like they were murdering my birth family.

"She looks like me," I said. "You can't kill her."

"Please!" the girl screamed. "Please, let me go!"

"Yeah, but she's not you," Jared said. "She was on our property. She was going to hurt you."

"I was lost," the girl cried.

Jared let out a deep breath and rolled his eyes. He lifted his foot for a moment to bring it down on her throat.

"Go sit down," Jared told me. "I don't want to have to punish you."

"Leah, please," Lindsay begged. "Sit at the table and I'll make you a tea."

The back door opened and Gabe stepped into the kitchen. He furrowed his brows. His eyes jumped from the girl lying on the floor to me.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Leah was about to sit down," Jared said.

The girl screamed and thrashed around. I squeezed my eyes shut so that I did not have to look at the girl.

It's not Katelyn. It's not Katelyn, I repeated in my mind.

This was just some random girl. This was some random girl that was going to try and hurt our family. I had to believe Jared. I had to believe him that he was doing this to protect our family.

I opened my eyes to see that everyone was staring at me. I dropped my gaze to the floor and I walked over to the dining room. I sat down at the wood table. I stared at my fingers as they were intertwined on top of the table.

I listened to the girl as she screamed. Each shrill cry caused a shiver to run up my spine. I buried my face in my hands. I dug my nails into my scalp each time the girl cried. I moved my hands when someone touched my wrist.

I looked up to see that it was Lindsay. Her lips twitched into a smile. She flinched when the expression caused her swollen face to be in pain. She pushed a mug of tea across the table.

The girl let out one last scream before it went quiet.

I sucked in a deep breath.

It's not Katelyn, I told myself one more time.

"It's okay," she said. "It's all over now."

"I'm so sorry," I said.

"Don't apologize to me," she said. "Apologize to Jared."

"Do you think he is going to punish me?"

Lindsay avoided my gaze. She leaned back in her seat to see Jared and Gabe. She looked back over at me and shrugged her shoulders.

"He's probably going to want to," she said. She leaned in closer and dropped her voice low. "Give him a reason not to punish you."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Just be really nice to him," she said. "He may forgive you."

I nodded my head and sipped at the tea Lindsay brought me. My knee bounced underneath the table as I waited for Jared. Lindsay and I stayed silent as we listened to the boys move around the kitchen.

Jared was wiping his bloody hands on a towel as he walked into the dining room. I jumped up from the chair and ran over to him. I wrapped my arms around his neck. Jared stumbled back a few steps and then slid his arms around my back. I buried my face into his chest.

"I'm so sorry," I said. "I don't know what came over me."

"I'm not happy you did that," he said.

"Maybe she needs to go to the basement." I lifted my head from Jared's chest to see Gabe walk in with his blood soaked jeans. I bit down on my bottom lip as my heart pounded in my chest. The threat of the basement was enough to make me panic.

"No," I said. "I promise I won't do it again."

"You should have never done it in the first place," Gabe said.

"I'll punish her, but I don't want her in the basement," Jared said. His hand slid from around my back to my stomach. "If she's pregnant I don't want anything to hurt the baby."

My heart was going to burst through my chest at the mention of being pregnant. If this was the only thing keeping my out of the basement, I would have to go with it.

"Thank you," I said. "I want to keep our baby safe."

Gabe raised an eyebrow. Lindsay's jaw was hanging open. I buried my face back into Jared's chest as he held me.

"You're pregnant, Leah?" he asked.

"We don't know yet," Jared said. "But you never know."

I listened as Gabe let out a deep breath. I imagined that he was shaking his head.

"Go upstairs, you two," Gabe said. "I'll finish up down here."

Jared kissed the top of my head before unwrapping his arms from around me. He laced his fingers through mine and pulled me out of the dining room. I kept my gaze on the floor because I did not want to see the shocked expression on Gabe and Lindsay's face. Jared let go of me when we got up to our bedroom.

"Sit down," Jared ordered me.

I obeyed and sat down on my side of the bed. Jared sat on the edge of the bed and put his hand on my knee. I held onto my stomach like I was cradling my baby. If I could convince him that I was pregnant, maybe I could get out of a punishment.

"What happened back there?" Jared asked.

"That girl," I said. "She looked so much like my sister Katelyn."

"Your birth sister," he corrected me.

"My birth sister," I said. "She looked so much like Katelyn that I just panicked. I'm so sorry. I know you had to kill her to protect me."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded my head. Jared smiled and leaned forward to kiss me. I moved my hands off of my stomach to cup his face. Jared crawled over top of me as we continued to kiss. I giggled as his lips trailed down my neck.

--

The next morning, my stomach felt queasy as I got out of bed. I held onto my stomach as the nausea sat heavy in my gut. Jared stared at me as I managed to change into my clothes.

"Leah, are you alright?" he asked.

I opened my mouth to speak and I could feel the bile rising up in my throat. I covered my mouth as I ran to the bathroom. I barely made it to the toilet before I began to vomit. Jared ran behind me and put his hand on my back. My hands were on the bowl as my arms propped me up.

"Do you know what this means?" Jared asked. "This could mean that you are pregnant."

Hearing him say that made me sick again.