Chapter 35

Thanks for an amazing picture. @Fangirl_Leo

**

After school ended, I was supposed to go with Ryan but since Tyler and I decided to talk, I'll be going with him. It's going to be difficult to talk about the past but it's better sooner than later. It's strange, I mean, when I thought I'll see him again, I'll hit him and go all rampage on him. But here we are, sorting it like adults which I don't think will go like adults. I mean, I have a lot of anger stored in for Tyler to face. But my mind and heart can't stay angry at him because it wasn't his fault either. He was only 10.

"So you ready?" Amber asked. I already told Amber about it. She encouraged me to do this. I'll know the truth and then it's up to me if I want to keep in touch with Tyler or no.

"Yeah. I'll call you if anything goes wrong," I said. Since we decide to talk, Tyler thought it was better if my whole family knew about it. It's a suicide mission for Tyler, but if he is telling the truth, it's worth a shot.

"Okay. Bye. Make sure your brothers don't kill him." She joked.

"I'll try." I laughed, nodding.

We walked in the parking lot where I see Ryan glaring at Ashton, Ashton glaring at Tyler and Tyler waiting for me.

"And you're dead." Amber muttered and walked towards Chris.

I gave Tyler a nodded. Asking him to wait a second. I walked towards Ryan and stood in front of him.

"Hey Ryan," I called, nervously.

"Yeah. What's up?" Ryan asked, still glaring at Ashton. I looked at Ashton who was looking at Tyler and if looks could kill, Tyler would be dead now.

"Look, quit glaring at Ashton. I really need to talk to you about something important." I said, now glaring at Ryan.

"Okay, fine. What is it?" He asked, turning to me.

"Uh.." I gulped. "You know...I-I.." I bit my bottom lips. This is difficult.

"Gwen? What did you do?" Ryan asked, slowly.

"Don't get mad at me. But it's my decision and you have to agree okay?" I told him.

"Depends." He said, crossing his arms.

"I'm coming home with Tyler." I said, really fast.

"No!" He yelled, startling me.

I jumped and took a step back. "Ryan?"

"You are not going anywhere near him," he said, raising his voice.

"He wants to talk." I reasoned.

"No, you are not talking to him." Ryan pointed out and stomped towards Tyler.

"Ryan, no!" I ran behind him.

"You little shit," Ryan said and punched Tyler in nose.

"Ryan!" I shouted, staring at Tyler in horror.

I ran towards Tyler and helped him stand up. "Are you alright?" He just nodded.

"Get away from him, Gwen." Ryan growled.

"Oh, hell no! I'm coming home with him and that's final," I hissed back at Ryan. Without waiting for his reply, I helped Tyler to his car and went with him. "Can you drive?"

"Yeah. I guess." He nodded. Once we were inside, Tyler turned towards me. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

We drove back to my house in silence. Neither did Tyler speak anything and nor did. Ryan should be home by now as he rushed after watching me get in the car with Tyler. The gate opened and Tyler was about to drive in, but the guards stopped him.

"You can't go in." The guard said, sternly.

"Why can't he go in?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh! Ms. Wilson, I didn't know you were with him. I got orders from your father. He isn't allowed in there." He said, jerking his head towards Tyler.

"He is going in with me." I ordered, giving him a stern look. The guards nodded and let us pass.

"You're the same old bossy." Tyler commented, laughing.

"Some things never change." I replied. "I remember I would always boss you around in 3nd and 4rd grade. And remember when I used to make you come to my tea party. I would force you and Ryan to sit with me."

"Oh! Don't remind me. I still have those photos." He said as he parked his car.

"Photos?" I asked.

"Yeah. Aunt Stephanie use to take photos secretly and give them to my Mom." Tyler groaned. I laughed walking in.

"Oh, I have seen those photos." I grinned.

"Hell, no!" He said, shaking his head, laughing along with me.

A throat cleared and we turned to see my whole family sitting in the living room. Okay..?

"Is there a reason why he is here?" Max spat.

"Max!" I gave him a point look.

"Don't you dare." Nate warned me. I huffed and went to sit next to Will, who was, might I add, glaring at Tyler.

"Tyler, you can take the seat on that couch." I said, pointing to the couch which was free. I'm guessing it was kept for Tyler.

Tyler nodded and took a seat. "I know you guys hate me.."

"Hate is not even the word." Blake growled.

"Blake, that's enough. He is trying to say something. Let him. This behaviour is not acceptable in my house." Mom scolded.

Blake nodded and slumped in his seat. All the others nodded too. I gave Mom a satisfied smiled and gave my brothers a smug look. They just narrowed their eyes and ignored me.

Tyler chuckled. "You guys are the same. We use to prank Gwen and then she would tell all our secrets to Uncle Richard. In the end, we all ignored her and then she would cry her eyes out."

"Hey!" I complained. "I never cried."

"Oh, please. You know you would cry and go to Mom complaining." Ryan snorted.

"That wasn't ladylike." I argued.

"I'm not a lady," he mocked.

"Could have fooled me." I mocked back.

"You little brat." Ryan clenched his teeth.

"You ugly face." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"You old fat lady." Ryan mocked.

"You piece of a shit." I retorted.

"You cow poop."

"You horse shit."

"You dog shit."

"You-" I was cut off by Max.

"Okay that's enough both of you." Max interrupted.

"Tell him to stop." I pointed at Ryan.

"Why me? You were the one to start." He argued.

"I wasn't! You called me a brat. When clearly, you are a brat." I called.

"I am not." Ryan defended.

"Yes, you are."

"I am not."

"You are."

But before he could continue, Ethan got up sat on Ryan. It was really comical. "If both of you don't shut up now, I promise you that you won't be in each other's presence for two days."

"It's fine by me." Ryan huffed.

"That means, no taking care of Gwen, no talking to her, no eating with her, no giving lifts to her and no more arguing with her." Ethan warned Ryan.

Ryan seems to hesitate. He can't stay without talking to me. He won't see me for two days, but I bet he would call. "Fine. I'm sorry, Gwen."

I smiled. "Apology accepted."

Ryan raised an eyebrow and then turned to Ethan, who might I add was still sitting on Ryan. "She won't apologise. And get off me. You're heavy."

Ethan made a sound at the back of his throat and got off from Ryan and took his original seat. "I'm not fat. It's called muscles."

"Whatever flows your boat." Max muttered.

"What did you say?" Ethan growled at Max.

"Exactly what you heard." Max began. Here we go again.

"Oh my god! Will all of you shut up for once? We did not keep this meeting for you to fight against each other." Mom complained. "See, that's why I didn't want seven kids. They are difficult to handle."

"Mom!" We all screeched in unison.

"What? Don't look at me like that. It's true. You guys fight like dogs and cats. Tom and Jerry." She scoffed, folding her arms. "But this man can't seem to keep his hands off to himself. Always suggesting we should have another kid, just for pleasure."

Dad's face was priceless. He turned completely red. "I did not say that."

"Yeah, but you suggested that." Mom said, turning to him. Angrily, Dad pulled Mom to his side and whispered something in her ears which made Mom go red.

"Richard!" She yelled and hit his arm. The look on Dad face was all smug. Mom huffed, still red from embarrassment.

"Could you guys talk dirty elsewhere? Will pepped in. "We are here for something else." His expression was cold stone. No amusement, nothing. He was glaring at Tyler. Tyler looked uncomfortable.

"Will." I warned, giving him a point look. "Please, behave." He only scoffed, but didn't reply.

Tyler cleared his throat and all the attention went back to him. Clearly, this time everyone sobered up. "Yeah. Sorry. I'll tell you guys what happened. And why couldn't I help Gwen."

"You better." Max muttered bitterly.

Tyler sighed. "When I woke up that morning, I could tell something was different. Firstly, Mom wasn't home. It's not unusual for Mom to not be home. What was unusual was that Dad was home. Dad's never home. He devoted most of his life in work. He never was home, so when I saw him on the breakfast table; it came as a shock to me. He smiled and behaved like everything was okay. Then, he gave me a glass of juice which was suspicious, but I was happy that Dad was home.

"I was ten. He fooled me. In that juice he had mix some type of drugs. I found out about it later when I was admitted in the hospital. That's something I'll tell in the end. For now, I'll continue. I drank the juice and asked him if I could go to play with Gwen. He denied. He told me to ask Gwen to come home, which I shouldn't have." He explained, looking at me with regret. I blinked back the tears. I scooted closer to Will, who wrapped his hands around me.

"The drug he mixed was something that makes your mind blank. Like you can see, but your body is paralyzed. It was same for me. My mind was working, but I felt trapped in my own body. Dad placed me on the couch and waited for Gwen to come. When she came, it terrified me. Because I couldn't do anything. He wanted information about some business project that Uncle Richard was working on. But Gwen-" I cut him off.

"I haven't told anyone about anything. Cut my part out. I don't want them to know." I ordered.

"Gwen?" Will turned to look at me.

"Are you sure?" Tyler asked, guilt swimming in his eyes. I gulped and nodded.

"Okay. So he started hurting her. I won't go in details. S-Since you don't want to. I wanted to call the cops or your brothers, but I couldn't. I saw you escape. It was a relief. But that was cut off when Dad started throwing tantrum that you ran away. He took his anger out on me.

"Then, he ran away. Cops came home searching for him. They found me lying on the ground. Ambulance came and took me to the hospital. I was unconscious at that point. But when I woke up, I saw Mom crying next to my bed. I asked her what happened, but she didn't utter a word, just cried. Later, when they thought I was sleeping I heard everything. How Dad had given me drugs, how I was beaten. Then, I remember every fucking thing. It was like a nightmare running in my mind and won't go away.

"Police was searching for him everywhere, he wasn't found. Mom decided it was best if we fly away. She knew about Gwen too. So we took the next flight to Italy where my grandparents lived. It took a while for me to understand everything. I asked Mom about it. She told me that my Dad was abusive. He used to hit Mom. And that day he had hurt Mom and had thrown her out when Gwen was supposed to come. Later, we got the news that he was caught and was behind bars. All his illegal works in the company was exposed. Mom told me, he was an alcoholic too.

"His business was running in loss. He saw Gwen as his target. He thought if he goes after her, he'll be able to get all the information related to Wilson's and throw them down. But Gwen put up a good fight. She-" I cut him off again.

"Tyler, I said don't talk about me." I growled.

"Right, sorry. So that was it. I know I couldn't contact Gwen yet. She suffered a lot. Mom told me to lay low. I visited Dad in jail to ask him why he did this. He just laughed and called me a fool. I never visited him again. And now, we thought it would be better if we come again. So, Mom and I shifted back here. That's it." Tyler completed.

Everyone was silent. My mind wandered to that day, how scared I was and how he hit me. I let out a shaky breath and leaned against Will.

"How..How do we know that you're telling the truth? And that you're not faking it?" Blake asked.

We turned our attention back to Tyler. "I already have proof. I have my medical file. Mom told that she'll talk too. We have her medical files too. I knew it would be difficult for you to trust me. You can do your research if you want. I want to come clean. I want Gwen to know," Tyler said, looking directly at me. "I would never do anything that would hurt her."

A single tear ran down my face and I wiped it. "I need time."

"You can take all time you need, Gwen." Max said. Tyler nodding. I just leaned back on Will.

"I want to see all the medical report," Will said. I looked up at him as he looked back down at me. "I'm not taking any risk."

"Can you and Rachel come to my office?" Dad asked, referring to Tyler and his Mom.

"Of course. She wanted to discuss about Dad's business and case too." Tyler said, nodding.

"Okay."

Then, it was silent. Nobody moved or said anything. Everyone was thinking about what Tyler said. This was until Tyler got up.

"I should go. Mom must be worried." He said, standing up. "I'll see you tomorrow?" He asked, looking at me.

I nodded and tried to smile. "Yeah."

He nodded and smiled at the others, before leaving. The sound of door shut behind him echoed through the walls. I looked around to see everyone deep in thoughts.

"I'm hungry." I broke the silence. They all looked at me as if I grew two heads. "What?"

"Nothing." Nate said. "Go tell Mary-Ann to cook you something."

I nodded and went to the kitchen to tell Mary-Ann that I'm hungry. She smiled and quickly prepared something. I sat on the kitchen stool and ate.

Was Tyler telling the truth? My heart and my brains, both for some reason are saying to trust him. But trust is something that can't be built so easily. Just because I know the truth doesn't mean I have to process it all at once. In few days, we'll know the truth.

Today is the end of one chapter.

**

Big revelation. But but, the story is got interesting. Now that Tyler and Gwen are friends, there's Ashton. Ah! It's going to so interesting further now! Until then.

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