Secured Sevenfold

Jacky’s POV
It has been a while since Brian and Matt walked out of the door. I didn’t want Brian to go, not now I was finally back with him, but it was the only way. We had to do this by ourselves. Joanne had gone upstairs to get dressed, leaving her guard with us in the dining room. He had been eyeing us all the time and came closer with the minute. Luckily for Joe and me, Joanne was back before he came too close. I was thankful for that, the guy creeped me out big time.

Joanne had send him away to wait for our father and we were left alone with the three of us. We sat at the large dinner table and for a moment we just stared at each other.
“You look like us, can you see?” Joe asked Joanne with a smile. Joe looked at me and gave me a smile too, while grabbing my hand under the table. In some way I had to thank Joanne for abducting me and Joe. We became so much closer over this. One way or another, we will come out of this stronger than we were before.
I was amazed by my sister, she was kind and welcoming to our younger half sister, which gave me a weird feeling of jealousy at first. Joe and I haven’t always been in each other’s hair, and even if we were, it was still always the two of us. She was mine and it was weird to have to share her. But I knew we had to do this, Joe was looking for answers and to be honest, so was I.

“Miss Crowley? Mr. Thompkinson is here”
Speaking of the devil… The man who was supposed to give us those answers was just walking in. My father looked tired and old. He seemed to have aged at least 20 years since the last time I saw him. And even though I had so many question, so many things I didn’t agree on with him, so much misunderstanding for how he handled things… I missed him. I got up from my chair and ran over to him, right into his arms. I thought it would give me the comfort I would need. That he would make the hurt from the past few days go away and give me peace of mind, but everything I had wanted from my dad, I already got from Brian.

“Pumpkin. Are you okay?” He pushed me gently out of the hug, and investigated my face for bruises. His hand lay on my cheek and I leaned into his touch. He was still my father, and for now the answers could wait. I was happy he was here.

From the corner of my eye I saw Joe move in next to Joanne, who stood at the table, completely frozen. Joe put a comforting hand on her arm and Joanne snapped her face at her as if she only then realized there were more people in the room than just her and dad. Joanne was blushing and only stared, while Joe had a mad expression on her face. I guess she couldn’t care less if the man now walking towards the table, was still our father.
“Josephine, princess, please, let me check if you are okay” he cooed at her, begging her to come over to him, but Joe wasn’t budging.
“I’m fine” she replied curtly, looking at him as if she was ready to fight.
“Please Josephine” My father sounded sad, but one look at Joe told me he wasn’t going to come very far. She was mad and she would stay mad, I got that look myself so many times before.
“I said I’m fine!” she snapped.

Joe gently put her hand on Joanne’s back, and guided her around the table to my father. She was just staring at him, barely able to move, certainly not saying anything. I was strange to see the change in her, she was all shy now, not even able to speak a word, while she was also the one putting this whole plan together and abducting me and Joe. The arrogant girl that had the facts so damn wrong. There was nothing left of this girl. Nothing at all.
Joe and Joanne had reached me and our dad now and I shot Joanne an encouraging smile. I wanted her to talk to him, understand that things weren’t as she thought they were.

“Meet yourlong lost daughter, Joanne” Joe introduced the girl to our father, her voice dripping with venom with those three words.

My father put out his hand to Joanne and took hers in it. Then he looked from one to the other, to the next, taking his three daughters in.

The mad
The forgiving
The unknown

Joanne’s POV
I couldn’t even comprehend what was happening around me… one second only my sisters were with me, then suddenly these guys all in black clothes were standing there with them, wanting to take my sister away from me.
But I just found them, they were mine… and then they surprised me, sending the guys away and wanting to stay with me, wanting to clear the situation with our father.
They called him, he would be here soon they said, I still didn’t know what to think about all this… I mean.. would he really come? Could I talk to him? Would he want to see me?
What should I say to him?

The time ticked by and I quickly got redressed when suddenly the door opened and there he stood the man I wanted to meet my entire life, the man… that was responsible for everything.
For what happened… for what I had to do to finally meet my family, for the things I had done…

What have I done? I looked at him and then my eyes turned to Joe and Jacky, we all had some features from this man, you couldn’t deny that, that’s for sure… but why did it have to come so far that I had to steal my sisters from their life?
I mean… I kind of ripped them out of their daily lives with all this, they must have been afraid, but I didn’t treat them wrong.. I tried to be good, right?

And in the end, this hadn’t been my fault.. It had been his.. not mine. I would have known my sister my whole life if he hadn’t been this way, he should have acknowledge me right from the start and not pushed me away, like I was nothing…right?!
“Why didn’t you want me?!” I yelled at him, surprised by my own voice, receiving a disapproving look from Joe. I quickly corrected myself and tried again, this time my voice barely a whisper “Why… Why did you never come by? Why did I only found out that I had sisters, just now?”

“Oh my… Joanne… I wished…” He started and I couldn’t help it, tears started to built in my eyes.

“I never meant for this to happen, Joanne, never. You have to believe me… I didn’t know of your existence… and when I did… I wanted to meet you, but by that time you mother wouldn’t let me, sweetie. I wanted to… I wish I would have worked harder for it…” Joseph or my father was talking to me, but I couldn’t answer. How could I answer to that?
He wanted to meet me? But my mother-

“Where is your mother, maybe we can talk to her together, maybe she can explain why-” He began again and I shook my head.
“She is dead…” I said softly and his eyes widened “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” The he pulled me into his arms and I sobbed softly into his chest, this felt good… this felt weird, but good.
“What if you come with me? You could stay at my house and we could get to know each other?”

Did he really just asked me to stay over at his place? I looked at Joe and then to Jacky. Both smiling encouragingly
“What do you say Joanne?”

So he did care, after all?

Joe’s POV
I looked at the clock, noticing it was already late afternoon. We had been at this for hours and it was amazing on all the information that was coming out. It was like my father had this whole other life without us even knowing it. I can’t believe he knew about her and never even told us. I would have understood, at least, I would like to think that I would. Finding out like this hurt me even more and I don’t know if I would ever be able to forgive him for it.

My father was mostly talking to and later with Joanne. She had her falling out, but I never thought she would hurt us, not anymore. Something had changed and she wasn’t the girl anymore that held us captive.

We were reaching the end of the conversation and my dad shot Joanne a wide smile, receiving the same smile back. She had his smile, it was obvious for everyone to see.
“That’s settled then” He reached over the table and grabbed her hand, shooting her a loving look. I guess Jacky and I would need to accept we had another sister now, we were with three instead of two. Another one of those youngsters to piss me off, I thought for a second, immediately discarding the thought. Jack and I had been closer the past few days and with our men around, I guess we would be completely fine. It would take some getting used to Joanne, but in the end, she was still my sister and it wasn’t completely her fault that things turned out this way. I think with a little help, Jack and I would make her feel right at home in our sisterhood.

We all got up from the table, getting ready to leave.
“Do you want to grab some things to take with you? We could always come back and get you some more later, but just to get you through the first few days?” My dad had put an arm around Joanne and pulled her to his side in a side hug. She looked very happy.
“Yes, that is a good idea. Let me help you” Jacky offered and turned her back to our father, mouthing “Talk to him!” before she turned around to leave with Joanne.

The minute they left the room, my father approached me
“Josephine, you have to understand, please… If you still have questions, I will be happy to answer them, but please… Forgive me”
I had ten thousand questions, but I also had ten thousand feelings and I was far from ready to share any of it with him. I needed to process first, think about it, discuss with Matt…. Matt… I just…
“I want to go home”
“I can take you home, I am driving past your apartment. I think it’s a good idea for us four to be together” my dad let out a hesitant smile.
“No. I’m not going to be pushed into forced family time. I want to process all of this first and more importantly… That is not my home anymore. Home is with the man I love and I really, really, really need to be with him now. I don’t need anything else, I don’t want anything else”
My father looked at me with wide eyes and then nodded, barely noticeable.
“I think you can manage the rest without me, don’t you think?”

I turned around to look for the door, knowing Matt would be behind it, ready to take me home. I was done. Jacky and Joanne came down the stairs and I smiled at them.
“I will see you later, Joanne, I really need to go now, is that okay?” I asked, without really asking permission, she wouldn’t be able to keep me here anymore.
“Will I… Will you… Will we talk again? I would like to get to know you” Joanne stuttered, blushing deeply.
“Of course we will, I promise” we were close now, facing each other and I hugged her shortly. It felt weird, not at all natural, but I guess we would get used to it over time.

“Where the hell do you think you are going?” a harsh voice made us break up the hug and I moved away from Joanne. The guard, Kevin, came walking out of the hallway, his gun pointing at me.
“I’m leaving, you should listen to your boss, she is fine with it” I turned around and headed a few more steps to the door.
“The hell you are! This was not what I bargained for! A family reunion, a happy ever after! I would get money, loads of it! This is not okay!” He yelled to my back and I slowly turned around to face him and spoke calmly.
“Well, sometimes things change, and you know what? You can’t mess with family, it will always come back together, so get your head out of your ass, this assignment is over!”

With that I bridged the last few steps to the door and put my hand on the handle, but I wasn’t able to open it. I heard a large bang, I fell down and then blackness surrounded me.

Yes. This would be the only way to keep me here.

Notes

You guys didn´t think we would let things go easily, did you?
Tell us what you think! Comments please!