Everyone's Got Problems

[Adelle_fan1000]

Ahh that gave me goosebumps

very well written.. can't believe you left it there!!

[Zetti]

Angelo I can't even process what I want to type as I am in so much shock!

Wow. I really didnt want Tess to have to hear about that but wow!

I am in awe. I hope you update soon and Angelo gets what he deserves!

[Inactive User]

Whoa!! This is getting really good! Don't leave us hanging here! Update soon

[Lise]

Wow!

Word's don't even explain what I think of Angelo. Why did he have to blurt all of that out? The kids didn't have to find out that way.

[susanf6230]

You never fail to keep me intrigued and waiting for more.

[LauraPhilly!!]

any chance of an update 2night?

x

[wrongturntaken]

You never fail to keep me intrigued and waiting for more.

Hopefully, I'm working on it, having a bit of lack of inspiration atm... I'll try my best!

Thanks for asking! Means a lot!

[Symphony]

I thought I'd commented on this!

Angelo is such a langer - it's a terrible situation to imagine; all the kids seeing hteir mum being held like that, and Aden, powerless and helpless to do anything about it ... Ih ope he manages to bring Angelo down in the next chapter!

Excellently written - as always!

[wrongturntaken]

I really struggled writing this chapter so that's why it's a bit... meh! And you might all get bored cos you know it all already really. My computer mucked up again with the layout. Anyway, let me know what you think...

Chapter 29.

“Dad…?” Mark whispered.

Aden didn’t look at them but continued to glare at Angelo; Belle still securely in his grasp as she looked horrified at what had just been revealed. “Go back to bed,” Aden demanded without turning around to look at them.

They stayed where they were.

“I mean it,” Aden pressed, keeping his voice level but the teenagers didn’t miss the way he balled his fists up by his side.

Angelo was looking at the exchange with mild interest as slowly a smile grew on his face, “You mean they don’t know,” he laughed. “What you did? Where you’ve been?”

“Shut your mouth!” Aden shouted.

“Or what?” he answered nonchalantly.

“I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” he questioned coldly tugging Belle closer to him who visibly tensed.

“Just let her go…”

“What like you did you mean…” he said with an evil smile, “…oh wait you didn’t let her go, did you? She called me and I arrested you if I remember rightly.”

“She didn’t call you… she called the cops.”

“Dad, what’s he talking about?” Tess interrupted them wearily.

Aden was trying to think of the right words but before he could get them out, Angelo was speaking again.

“So you really haven’t told them that you were in prison?”

“What?” Tyler exclaimed suddenly with a look of horror.

“You were what?!” Mark whispered.

“Now is not the time for this!” Aden said levelly as he turned around to look at them. He turned his attention back to his wife whose eyes were beginning to droop. “Belle?” he whispered worriedly.

“Aden… it hurts,” she said as she winced. She swayed for a moment and Tess saw the way her index finger pointed to the panic button. She lost her balance causing Angelo to move the blade quickly away from her. She elbowed him in the stomach before he could make another move. As he was hunched over in pain, she ran to Aden as Tess leapt to the panic button and pressed it. The family retreated, gathering behind Aden as Angelo glared at them.

“You’ll regret this,” he hissed and went to exit through the back door but the cops were already there. They grabbed him and put his arms behind his back as they arrested him. They all drowned out the actual words as they barely took in the scene playing out before them.

One of the police officers; a man, led Angelo out whilst the other; a woman, stayed behind. “Are you okay?” she asked them concernedly.

Aden turned his attention suddenly to Belle who gave him a slight smile, “I think I need stitches but it’s not too bad,” she winced as she spoke.

“We’re going to the hospital,” Aden told her firmly and took her hand. “We’ll be back soon,” he told the kids without giving them a second glance as he led her out the door. He just couldn’t bear to see the hate and misunderstanding that would be in their eyes when they looked at him. Belle followed him obediently out of the door; also unable to bear looking at the kids and seeing what emotions were written on their faces after what they had just found out.

The teenagers watched them leave before Tess moved slowly in to the living room, followed by the two boys. They dotted themselves around the seats in silence.

“What just happened?” Mark questioned the room at large.

Tyler shook his head as Tess answered, “I have no idea,” with a sigh.

“Did you two know… about Aden?” Tyler asked them with a hint of anger in his voice.

“I’m more worried about my Mum right now, Tyler,” Tess spat at him.

“But did you?” he pushed uncaringly.

“No,” she answered plainly.

“No,” Mark said suddenly, “This is wrong. Dad can’t have been in prison. That guy, whoever he was… he’s lying. There’s no way.”

“Mark, I don’t wanna believe it either but Dad didn’t deny it and you know he would have done if it wasn’t true.”

“So you’re saying that you think our Dad’s a criminal?” he yelled at her.

“Of course not!” she yelled back, standing up.

“Then why the hell would he go to jail?” Mark exclaimed.

“I don’t know!” Tess said not bothering to lower her voice as anger steamed out of her.

“That guy…” Tyler started.

“Angelo…” Tess added for him in disgust.

“He said that it was because he held Belle hostage and tried to kill someone…” he pondered.

Tess shook her head, “No… no, not Dad… he wouldn’t, he just… he wouldn’t.”

“Face it, Tess. You said it yourself, Dad would have denied it.”

“So now you think Dad’s a criminal?” she yelled back at him, confusing herself as she and he brother seemed to be agreeing and disagreeing at the same time.

“We know nothing about our parents!” Mark exclaimed, “…did you see the way they walked out of here, not even looking at us,” he added bitterly.

“Think about what they just went through and us seeing them like that, Mark. Especially what happened with Angelo and Mum before…”

“What do you mean?” Mark asked her; suddenly confused.

“You didn’t hear that bit?” she asked and narrowed her eyes.

This time both Tyler and Mark were looking at her and shaking their heads in question.

“He… he raped her,” she told them quietly.

“Oh my God,” Tyler whispered as Mark stayed silent.

After a minute or so of yet more silence, Mark spoke up again, “Do you think… all of this… is what they were going to tell us tomorrow. About the prison and whatever else it is their hiding?”

Tess shrugged, “Probably.”

*

“Argh,” Belle winced as she rolled her T-shirt back down over her side after the doctor had finished the stitches and left the room. It wasn’t painful now because the local anaesthetic had numbed the area but it was still uncomfortable to move.

“You okay?” Aden asked worriedly as a he took hold of her hand suddenly.

She nodded and offered him a weak smile. “Hey,” she shushed at his sullen expression, “I’m okay,” she told him gently.

“I’m sorry, Belle,” he said as sadness overcame his features. “I should have been there to protect you… you never should have gotten hurt.”

“You did not do this, Aden,” she replied firmly. “Angelo did. But now he’s going to go back to prison.”

He looked at her sadly, “I don’t know what I’d do without you Belle… you’re my every thing…”

Belle let out the slightest of laughs as Aden blushed in embarrassment, “You’re my every thing too… I love you,” she answered him softly, stroking the side of his face before leaning in and planting a gentle kiss on his lips.”

He sighed deeply.

“We’re going to have to talk about it, you know,” she finally brought up what they’d both been dancing around the entire time they’d been at the hospital.

“I know,” he answered; biting his bottom lip and looking at the ground. “They’re gonna hate me Belle.”

“Of course they’re not,” she reassured him.

“As far as they know I’m just… a criminal.”

“Aden, they would never believe that, they know you. But we have to tell them the whole story. They must be so confused right now.”

“Yeah, we ought to get back I guess,” he said quietly.

“Hey,” she forced him to look at her with the word, “We’re gonna do this together, okay?"

He nodded nervously yet determinedly before they left the room.

*

“Mum, are you alright?” Tess asked suddenly as she rushed to meet her parents the second she heard them coming through the door. The other two followed her at a slower pace.

Belle smiled at her softly, “I’m fine, just got to take it easy for a couple of days.”

Aden averted his eyes from his daughter as he placed the car keys on the hook that was on the kitchen wall. Belle saw how scared he looked and grabbed his hand to squeeze it, “Now?” she questioned him softly.

He nodded before looking at Mark and Tyler. “Can everyone go in to the living room, we need to tell you…” he sighed sadly, “…everything.”

Mark and Tyler both gave curt nods and Tess gave him a quick smile before the younger ones led the way.

They all sat down except for Aden who began pacing in front of the TV. He was very unsure of where to start.

“Did you really go to prison, Dad?” Mark questioned curiously but with disbelief in his voice.

“Yes,” Aden answered shortly. “But it was a lot more complicated than that. The judge on my case was bribed… by Angelo. So I got sentenced to three months in prison,” he told them slowly. “There was… an accident… and I got let out after two weeks before there was a retrial and I was released.”

“What did you do?” Tess asked softly and Aden was reassured by the soft look in her eyes that showed no signs of hate or accusation.

Aden took a deep and noticeable breath and the teenagers saw him let down his guard as he bit on his bottom lip, looking for the right words.

“We were always going to tell you,” he said. “It was just never the right time.”

“Tell us what?” Mark asked and Aden looked into his eyes and saw the look that he used to give his father. Mark was looking at him as though he didn’t know who he was. He was unrecognisable in his eyes.

“You don’t know about my family… my childhood,” Aden began to explain slowly and saw Belle smile at him supportively.

“My mum died when I was young and my dad started drinking…”

“Is that why you get weird about alcohol?” Tess interrupted as though she had already gotten one answer.

Aden nodded slowly.

“So…?” Mark questioned and Aden was relieved to see his form had softened.

“I have… or had two brothers… I don’t know who or where they are now… but they were always getting in to trouble and Dad wasn’t fit to look after us. My…” he paused knowing this was the part he was going to have difficulty with.

“It’s alright, Aden,” Belle soothed his nerves and he smiled gratefully at her.

“My grandfather moved in with us… and he…” he ran a hand through his hair, unsure how to put it. “…I was sexually abused by him.”

Tess’s eyes widened immediately as she raised a hand to her mouth, “D… Da… Dad,” Tess stuttered. “I… I don’t know what to say…” she settled on before turning to look at Tyler. He looked shell shocked, he was just staring at Aden with a completely blank expression and Tess saw that he was very, very slightly rocking himself backwards and forwards; a fact which even he didn’t seem to have noticed.

Mark had a similar reaction to Tess except that he couldn’t even manage the words. Aden looked at Belle and saw her wearing a gentle but proud smile.

“Anyway…” Aden continued, shocking the others back to look at him; them having forgotten what he was originally explaining. “I was a bully for a long time… I did drugs… drank… did things I shouldn’t of… …and I hated my Dad because I blamed his drinking for what happened to me.”

“Then what…?” Tyler asked and Tess was the only one to register the desperateness and hope barely evident in his voice.

“I started to confront it, I got help and it got better,” he said. “…but it still didn’t go away. All that pain. All the anger… I had a breakdown.”

“…a breakdown?” Mark stuttered.

Aden nodded, “My dad had been involved in a drink driving accident that killed someone… he was on the run from the police when he asked for my help.”

“What did you do?” Tess asked, narrowing her eyes in some semblance of curiosity.

“I was going to call the cops,” he told them, “…but then… he told me that he’d been abused by my grandfather too when he was younger… he knew what might happen to me if my grandfather moved in but he didn’t do anything… he just let it…” he broke off, the memory too painful to continue.

“So you called the cops?” Tyler questioned.

Aden shook his head, “No… he was in no state to go anywhere, the alcohol had got to him, or lack of,” he explained. “I just wanted it all to stop… all the pain to go away so I… I didn’t get him help, I thought he would die…”

Tess gasped quietly.

“Only he didn’t… Rachel Armstrong…”

“The Rachel that cousin Rachel is named after?” Mark questioned, utterly shocked at the revelation of her involvement.

Aden nodded, “… well she came round to the house cos she found out I’d stolen something out of her medical bag. Then she heard my Dad and… well I couldn’t let her go cos she would have got him help…”

“…so you took her hostage?” Mark asked in shock.

“I didn’t know what I was doing… all I knew was that the answer to my problems was my dad dying and I wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardise that… I didn’t care about the consequences… I didn’t care if I went to jail… I only cared that the pain would go away. But then Belle figured out something wasn’t right… I’d lied to her about where I was and she found me and my Dad and Rachel…”

“So you kept her there too?” Tess whispered, as she felt water stinging the back of her eyes because of what she was finding out her dad had been through. She kept them back so that her dad wouldn’t think it was because of what he’d done.

He nodded in response and Tess could see the guilt he still carried apparent on his face, “She tried to get through to me, tried to tell me that my dad was going to jail but I didn’t know that for sure… I just wanted it to be over so I got some morphine from Rachel’s bag and I…”

“Did you kill him?” Tyler said suddenly.

Aden was a little shocked at how disdainfully Tyler had asked the question, “No,” he answered with a frown. “Belle stopped me, she told me that she loved me and that we couldn’t be together if I went to jail.”

“But you broke up?” Tess intervened.

This time Belle spoke, “I couldn’t trust him after that and I started dating Angelo…” she told them softly

“You dated that guy?” Mark exclaimed.

She nodded, “But I was never over your father… not really… and Angelo and I broke up and then he…" she trailed off as a lump swelled in her throat.

“It’s okay, Mum, I told them,” Tess smiled weakly.

Belle smiled at her thankfully, “Well when Aden got out of the clinic…”

“…what clinic?” Tyler asked and again Aden was surprised by his harshness.

“They sent me to a psychiatric clinic to get treatment, it’s why I became a counsellor, what I did there; it really helped me deal with everything in a way that I hadn’t ever done before.”

“What about your Dad?” Tess asked.

“He’s been in prison for the last twenty years,” Aden answered her simply.

Tyler stood up slowly and looked at Aden, “So you were sexually abused as a child and then you tried to kill someone because of it?” he asked loudly.

Aden faltered at the flat out question, “Ye… yeah, to put it bluntly.”

Tess was the only one to correctly identify the emotion on Tyler’s face as his breathing became short rasps, “Excuse me,” he said suddenly before running from the house.

Aden sighed in confusion, “Should I go after him?”

Tess had narrowed her eyes in concentration, trying to make sense of Tyler’s reaction. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed suddenly before following him out of the house.

“Tess!” Belle called; worrying where they were going.

“She’ll be okay Mum,” Mark suddenly spoke. “They’ll come back when they’re ready,” he added wisely.

Belle gave Mark a small smile and there was silence for a moment.

“I’m going to go to bed,” Mark said; breaking it.

“Oh, okay,” Aden said, weary of his son's reaction. “Look son, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you before…”

“It’s okay Dad, I understand… and I’m sorry…”

“…what for?”

“…for saying that you were the worst dad in the world… especially after everything that you went through… what I really mean is…" he hesitated, "...you’re the best…” he said quietly and looked a bit embarrassed at the words. “…and I love you…” he added with a bit more conviction.

Aden turned to his son and wrapped his arms around him in what was an emotional hug turned manly as the two males broke apart and Aden watched Mark walk out of the room and heard him walk up the stairs.

Belle smiled at her husband and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around her as he held her close but gently, never forgetting her injury, “Well overall I think that went well,” she said softly.

“Yeah, I guess,” he sighed. “But Tess and Tyler…”

“Like Mark said, they’ll be back when they’re ready Aden, just give them time…”

*

“Tyler wait!” Tess called. “Wait!”

He turned around suddenly, “Go back to the house Tess!” he yelled at her and she could just about make out the tears on his face from the moonlight as they stood on the beach.

“No Tyler,” she stated firmly. “You have to talk to me… I know what you’re thinking.”

Please comment! x

[LAURZY!]

Wow!! that was so emotional, you had me in tears

That was really well written, the way Aden told them was heart breaking!!

I am soooo glad Belle's ok and Angelo's been arrested

Fantastic update, dont know why you thought it was 'meh' far from really!!

Cannot wait for more