A Fire That Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  “Whoa,” Dean said as he came to stand between the women. “Do you have proof that she did such a thing?”

  “Plenty,” Natasha said with absolute glee to her tone. “She told me she didn’t want me with Tyler and she would do anything to make sure of that and that’s when she pushed me.”

  “Where?” Sienna countered as she stepped forward. “Where did she push you?”

  “At the house you all have been working on,” Natasha responded with ease. “I went to talk to her, to make amends for Tyler’s sake. I found her upstairs and we got into an argument and she pushed me down the stairs and then left me there. She didn’t even care about me.”

  Shaking her head, Austin felt herself snapping more and more. “You liar,” she whispered, “Why are you doing this? Why are you spreading these lies? I have done nothing to you.” Austin’s voice was nothing more than a disbelieving whisper and she couldn’t change that. She was in shock and she was horrified at how this woman managed to feed lies to everyone and not look guilty.

  “They’re not lies so why don’t you face up to this,” Natasha told her back. “No one wants you here, Austin!” Natasha screamed so that the entire diner was watching. “Can’t you see that? Your brothers and sister probably can’t wait to see you leave and are just biding their time as good siblings.” She then laughed at her, “When my father catches up to you they’ll probably help put you in jail for killing my baby and I hope they throw away the key. You’re a selfish monster and you come back here expecting life to resume. Can’t you see that there isn’t a place for you here anymore, Austin?”

  Austin had no idea how to respond to this. The thought had crossed her mind about her brothers and Sienna and that was why she didn’t look at them, not even Tom. She couldn’t even look at Tyler and she guessed her lack of eye contact made her look guiltier. Do nothing and she was the coward – even more so in Tyler’s eyes. React and completely lose her nerve and she was the evil one that everyone had assumed she was in this turn of events. And if she was going to be arrested then that would be the end of her, she knew it and apparently so did Natasha.

  It was a lose-lose situation entirely for Austin.

  Sensing her dismissal combined with her quiet behavior, Natasha decided to provoke Austin a little, and even if it didn’t get the desired effect, she still knew Austin would be hurt by the end result. "You never liked me and you always made sure that was known! You even told me you were back to get Tyler back!"

  Austin stood looking at Natasha and could not believe how this woman spread lies so easily. It was as easy for her as breathing. She couldn't understand how her conscience allowed her to continue going on like this without even breaking a sweat.

  "It's okay though because he doesn't love me anymore anyway!" Natasha placed the final part on her master plan and with dramatic ease she turned to leave. She was more than positive that Tyler would respond to save face. After all, being chief of the police department, he was one of the most noted and respected people in the town – even more so for surviving the love of his life leaving him – and he wouldn’t damage that.

  “I do love you,” Tyler told Natasha as he grabbed a hold of her. In front of the crowd he pulled her back, “It is you I want.”

  “Prove it,” Natasha told him fiercely. “Prove it or I’m gone, Tyler, and she’s won. The woman that killed your baby will have won.”

  He thought on his toes, not rationally, but he spoke under pressure. “We’ll move the wedding forward.” Tyler immediately replied, no delay or hesitation. “To Friday, we’ll get married Friday. In four days time, we’ll get married.”

  Lighting up immediately, Natasha near enough threw herself at Tyler, “Oh thank you!” she said and kissed him heavily. Pulling back she was all smiles with elation and the sense of ownership. Her earlier display of violence and grief dispersed.

  Tom saw Austin’s heartbroken expression and then grabbed her hand, “C’mon, Kiddo. Let’s go home.”

  “See that, Austin?” Natasha yelled out sanctimoniously, “He loves me!”

  Austin started to cry even before she was out of the diner and was thankful for her brothers and sister acting like a human shield for her when hers had depleted and failed on her. Getting into the car she wiped the tears away and tried to control her demise while she was in plain sight, but when she looked up all she saw was Natasha with her arms wrapped around Tyler’s neck, reaching up to kiss him, she lost her cool all over again.

  “Don’t look, Aus,” Daniel guided his sister to look away when he saw what was going on. “It won’t help you.”

  Austin knew they were right, but it was like driving passed a car crash. You knew you shouldn’t watch, but there was something ghoulish about it that just made you look one too many times. She gulped as they were finally out of view and her gaze didn’t have to track its progression any longer. She knew she had truly lost everything now and she knew that, that was it. Tyler had finally proven that he didn’t still love her and he had moved on completely.

  She had killed their relationship six years ago and she had been replaced. Regardless of who it was, Austin felt like she deserved this. This was her punishment for the deceit she carried. She would never be able to bare her soul to Tyler now. He had hardly stuck up for her and defended her, he had just broken her heart more and rightly so.

  The rest of the journey was quiet and tense. She watched the houses pass and as the house her and Tyler were renovating came into view she had to look away as she thought bitterly about it now. She looked up at their parents’ house and remembered growing up so happily. She remembered the times her and Tyler had messed around, how their friendship had bonded, shaped, and strengthened, and she remembered their first kiss – the one thing that made their destiny together be written in the stars forever.

  That one notion was now completely extinguished. The fire of their love just seemed to be stinging and burning her now.

  Then the night she left took over and clouded out all of the good memories and she felt her low morale drop unbelievably lower.

  Getting back, Austin rushed into the house leaving her siblings to follow in collectively. They knew there were no words right now, there were no moments of absolution and lights at the end of the tunnel. There was just space and time to collect thoughts and prepare to move onwards. They would be there for her, whatever happened, but right now they couldn’t even save Austin from her thoughts. There was only one other person besides Tyler that could do that and she wasn’t talking to any of her children at the moment. Their mother was acting on her own hurt and only hurting those that loved her most.

  “This isn’t fair on, Aus,” Sienna commented as they all came to sit in the living room and gathered their thoughts over the entire situation that had unfolded back at the diner.

  “Well until dad gets back mom’s a no go,” Daniel mentioned as he pointed out that their dad had gone away with business again. “It’s just us.”

  “We need to out her,” Tom almost growled as he paced, throwing a baseball between his hands that he had picked up as a form to work out his frustration. He knew that Natasha’s grief was nothing like Austin’s had been and the memories still burnt him and fuelled him. “We need to find out what happened and prove Natasha as the liar that she is.”

  “Yeah, I agree. We were starting to get the old Aus back and then the pregnancy news completely pushed her away again,” Daniel spoke up, his own heart sinking thinking he would never get his sister back for good, “And this doesn’t make sense. Natasha’s story doesn’t add up so why is everyone else believing them?”

  “Because everyone loves a witch hunt,” Dean pointed out the obvious. “We need to be cunning about this. We need to make sure we have all of the information before Friday and have Tyler convinced before he makes the worse decision of his life.”

  All agreeing they exchanged looks. They knew they were on time limit now and that worried them. They also knew that with the house renovations nearl
y over, their sister would find that as a reason to never talk to Tyler and they knew she needed him more than anyone else. They had seen how she had literally fast tracked the progress and they had to wonder if the house was her way of getting closure.

  “I could go get her medical files when I’m in next,” Tom commented as he thought of ways in which he could look while on shift at the hospital.

  “That’s illegal,” Austin said as she came back into the room wiping her makeup away. “I don’t want you getting into trouble. Plus, if we wanted to know that I could hack into the files and find out myself.”

  They all looked at her in awe as they tried to work out how she knew how to do that. Daniel smirked, he knew how, but he never expected his little sister to excel.

  “You learn to teach yourself a lot when you need to make money quick,” Austin sighed and then looked at them. “But we’re not outing her.”

  “Why not?!” They all seemed to bellow at her. The multitude of shock was palpable as it hit the walls and scattered upon the floor.

  Austin smiled at their concern, but shook her head, “It’s not worth it anymore. He made his decision very clear back there who he wants to have it all with and it’s not with me. He believes I’m the bad guy and there isn’t any changing that. Another one of the reasons I came home just closed me out. There is no point to push this.” Austin looked at Tom, “You can tell them, but I’m going to bed.” She then left as quietly as she had arrived.

  “Tell us what?” Dean asked as he stood up off of the window ledge.

  Tom sighed, “Why she left six years ago.”

  “You knew why she left all along?” Sienna asked as she sat up a little, she felt irked that the secret they had all spoke about over the years had actually been known by the one that claimed to not have a clue.

  Tom looked back to the empty doorway, nodded sadly and began to tell them of their sister’s demise.

  Chapter Eighteen

  WHY was there no police report issued for assault?” Dean asked trying to digest the events of the night that caused his baby sister to flee.

  Tom rubbed his forehead. He didn’t know about Austin feeling this plight of never ending grief, he too was feeling it. “I tried to get her to, but Austin wasn’t in any state to make those allegations. She was scared that if she did, Natasha’s father would find out and so would Tyler. She didn’t want him to find out at all and finding out that way would just cripple her more.”

  “Why didn’t she talk to us, or mom and dad even? She used to go to one of us for everything,” Daniel tried to understand his sister’s logic but he was trumped to what it might be.

  “Dad’s rule,” Tom remarked and saw each of them take that acknowledgement with ease. “She didn’t even care that her and Tyler were only a month away from their wedding date, she just was terrified of how mom and dad would react and of telling Tyler what went down with Natasha.”

  “So what did happen?” Sienna asked and stood up, pacing a little to work off her nervous energy that was building in her. She needed to go and be with her sister but first she wanted to hear everything that happened. “How did she lose the baby exactly?”

  Tom looked at his sister and he felt his anger built again. “Natasha was taunting her with a necklace that was identical to one that Tyler had bought Austin back in high school. The one she still wears. For the first time ever, Austin snapped and went for the necklace, and Natasha pushed her back. I couldn’t stop it from happening.”

  “Stop what exactly?” Dean asked as he leaned against the window sill opposite his brother.

  “Austin falling onto the back of a bench,” Tom told them solemnly. “I snapped and Natasha offered to tell Tyler about the baby, but I warned her against it. I tried to get Austin to go to the bar and talk to Tyler but she just wanted to go home.” His eyes watered immediately then, “I found her on the bathroom floor crying less than an hour later.” He looked at his eldest brother, Dean, praying for some strength, “She was bleeding and by the time we arrived at the hospital there was no hope. She had miscarried and the scans showed no sign of fetal heartbeat. She was still bleeding heavily and the hospital said that the initial impact of the bench must have been hard enough and combined with her falling to the floor, there was no preventing it. Some people are lucky, they won’t miscarry. Austin was one of the unlucky few.”

  None of the Pearson siblings had anticipated that such a turn of events would destroy what they loved most about their little sister – her ability to be the happiest person alive. The baby of the family was suffering and had been for too long. She had kept it well hidden from them and she was being punished tenfold. It seemed that the jury wasn’t quite done with issuing her with chastisement just yet. Soon they knew that Austin would buckle completely under the strain of life and they dread to think how this would affect her.

  “She promised she would talk to him the next day and I believed her,” Tom suddenly spoke in a whisper, pained by this part of the memory. “I got up the next morning and she wasn’t here. I had a note from her apologizing and that was it. There was nothing else. She had me and she ran! I promised I would stick by her and she ran. I failed her by allowing her the chance to run away,” he clenched his jaw allowing the muscles to twitch as he forbid tears to fall. He looked up at the three sets of eyes on him. “I should’ve spoken to one of you sooner but, I thought if I could just hold this secret she would come back. I didn’t expect it to take six years.”

  “You’re a loyal brother, Tom, and that’s what Aussie needed,” Dean comforted from afar, not holding any signs of grudge against Tom for withholding the information. “Now we know and we can do something about it.”

  “What if it’s too late? What if me not talking to anyone means we left her too long? What if I left it too long?” he asked with desperation, his eyes searching each of his brothers and sister and he found no resolution. Placing his hands to his head he let out a large exhale of frustration, “I should have told him,” he finally gave in and felt like all of the wind had been knocked out of him as all the memories from six years ago spilt across the living room floor.

  Six years of carrying a burden had finally broken Tom.

  As silence settled amongst them, Sienna approached her brother and gave him a tight squeeze of a hug, giving him a dose of comfort to help soothe him. She had no hard feelings towards him and he wasn’t going to dig and delve for any either. Letting go, she bit her lip in anticipation for a plan of action. “I need to go and see her,” Sienna broke the silence that settled among them and she couldn’t stand it any longer.

  Tom shook his head and blocked the way, “No, leave her be.”

  “I am not leaving her,” Sienna said hitting her brother’s hand away only for his to grab her by her wrist to prevent her from running upstairs. “Tom,” she ground out through gritted teeth. “You think she wants to be alone? Like really?” she asked her brother and saw he just didn’t know the answer anymore. “She’s been on her own for six years with this and are you going to tell me she’s really over it?” Tom looked down, ashamed that he could have prevented this, “If anything this will always eat her away and now being back, she probably feels the grief of losing that baby so much more now than she ever did.”

  “She likes to be alone,” Tom told Sienna nonchalantly having heard Austin cry most nights.

  Rolling her eyes, Sienna wrenched her arm back with attitude, “You can stay here, but I am going to my sister and doing what I was denied the chance to do years ago.”

  “Sienna,” Tom bit back not knowing what the wisest move was anymore.

  “Don’t Sienna me. She has been alone for far too long and I don’t care what she wants and doesn’t want. She is getting her big sister back once and for all and I will help her get through this finally, because I can guarantee that her being this sad has more to do with that baby than just Natasha getting her filthy lying paws into Tyler.”

  “Let her go and be with Austin,” Dean stood
up straight. “It’s time we started to give Austin what has been a long time coming. We also need to let mom in and alert dad when he gets back from this business trip.”

  “Okay,” Tom finally caved, suddenly realizing that all Austin needed was the support system that she believed she didn’t need any longer.

  Turning in the doorway, Sienna looked at her brothers with a heated glare, “And Natasha isn’t going to get the happy ending.”

  “We’ll follow you up,” Daniel remarked, standing up ready to go up after his sister. He quickly realized that they all did the same, all ready to form an alliance to bring Austin back to peace.

  “Let’s not overwhelm her,” Sienna commented knowing that if they all went in she would hide her emotions and act like everything was going to be okay. “Give me ten minutes at the most and then come up.”

  Noting that her brothers agreed, she went to find Austin. She practically marched upstairs and went to the guest room where the soft glow of a light came from the crack underneath the doorframe. She could hear the muffles of cries and she wondered if this was a nightly routine for her sister now.

  She didn’t knock because she didn’t want Austin to have the chance to wipe the tears away and put on a brand new facade. The moment she walked in, Austin looked up at her stunned, almost terrified and then tried to wipe away the tears and attempted to hide the photos in her hands under the pillow.

  “Why?” Sienna asked and suddenly she realized she was hurt by her sister’s reaction to the baby news. “Why couldn’t you have come to me, Aussie? We were two of the closest in the family. I know you and Tom were always in each other’s pockets but why couldn’t you just let us in?”

  Sienna felt immediately that she was too cold with the tone and began to approach her. She only halted her walk towards her sister when Austin looked up at her, lips pursed, poised, and ready to respond to her questions.