Runaway

By Heidi K. Smith

Jessica is a young girl forced to move to New York with her aunt and uncle after her father is brutally murdered. When she meets a boy named Bryce she doesn't expect to have anything in common with him. That changes, however, when Jessica learns that her uncle's past is somehow intertwined with everything that had happened when Bryce was led to believe that his mother was dead. Will the mysterious arrival of Bryce's long dead mother change everybody's life for the better or will it be one long nightmare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heidi K. Smith
• Release date: Jun 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224625277

Heidi K. Smith

Heidi K. Smith is a young girl who has been writing several different books over the past few years. She has mainly been writing a series known as The Arranged Marriage Chronicles. When Heidi is not writing she spends her time reading, watching a variety of television shows, and spending time with her family and friends. Her best friend and sister has helped her in many cases by coming up with the cover for each of these books. Heidi currently resides with her dog Treasure in the city of Rome, New York.

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Prologue

June 2004 - Syracuse , New York

The school year was just coming to an end when Bryce Alexander had found himself walking out of the local high school to see that the city police had been speeding past his school chasing after someone that was doing everything that they possibly could to find a place where the police would never be able to find them. At least for the time being. Bryce had never exactly been surprised by these things, since the day that he had moved in with his grandparents after his mother had died in a rather tragic accident and his father had been arrested for something that Bryce had felt that he had never done, regardless of the things that the police had seemed to be saying throughout that entire time. Bryce knew that there were so many different things that his grandparents had never seemed to like about his father, but even then he had always felt that it was his job to defend his parents even when people had claimed that there was something that people had tried to say that they had always been doing over the many years that Bryce had been growing up. The day that Bryce had seen his father being arrested he had found out that the police had been accusing him of driving while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Bryce knew that his father, Brady Alexander, would never have done anything that would have put his family in danger, especially after the accident that had taken his mother’s life. Brady had always made it a point to explain to Bryce that drugs and alcohol was something that was never a good combination and even after he had been arrested he still tried to get his son to understand the reason that he had been spending his time trying to teach him everything that he possibly could. Bryce knew that it was because of the time that his father was using to teach him about these things that had caused him to start realizing that his father had been more than just a little innocent. The fact that his grandparents still blamed Brady for everything that had happened was something that Bryce had found himself thinking about for a rather long time.

Bryce had been only about eight years old when he had found himself losing both of his parents and moving into the same house as his grandparents on his mother’s side of the family. He had heard all kinds of stories about his grandparents and the kind of life his mother had ended up having during the time that she was growing up. Of course, his mother, Dorothy Alexander, had never mentioned the fact that her parents had never exactly approved of the relationship that she had always had with his father. Bryce would never learn that his grandparents had hated his father until after he had been sent to jail because of the accident that had killed his mother. Nothing that Bryce had tried to tell his grandparents had seemed to get them to understand that his father would have never intentionally done something that would have caused his mother to end up getting seriously hurt. Bryce had absolutely no idea what his father had done that had caused his grandparents to hate him so much, but whatever it was it had definitely been something that had been really bad. Bryce had been dealing with the police asking him so many different questions about his parents and the things that had ended up causing the accident that had claimed his mother’s life. Now that he was seeing those same police officers that had been chasing after someone who had been trying so desperately to escape after they had done something that they honestly knew that they would be getting into serious trouble for. Despite the fact that Bryce had been rather curious about everything that had taken place, he knew that his grandparents were expecting him to come home after the school day had officially come to an end.

Bryce had been looking forward to the end of the school year, just the way that he had when his mother had died. This was the only time that he had ever seemed to have the time to hang out with his closest friends without having to worry about the amount of homework that his teachers had always been giving him, especially when there was a test that he would be taking later in the week. Of course, one of the biggest problems that Bryce had always found himself facing was that his grandparents had always found different reasons to keep him from going to the jail where his father was currently locked up so that he would stand a better chance of finding out exactly why people had honestly believed that his father had been guilty of everything that had happened the day that his mother had died. For some reason Bryce had gotten the feeling that his grandparents had blamed his father for so much that they had felt that Bryce had absolutely no reason to want to see his father and talk to him after he had been arrested on the day that Dorothy had died. Either way, Bryce knew that he would have to figure something out so that he could talk to his father. Regardless of the things that his parents had felt should be happening, Bryce had decided that he had definitely needed to find out the truth about these things, even if his grandparents had never seemed to approve throughout that entire time.

For the first few months that Bryce had been living with his grandparents, he had found himself talking to a social worker that was trying to figure out whether staying with his grandparents had actually been the right thing for Bryce once you considered the fact that they had not approved of his father or the different things that he had represented after Bryce had lost his mother. Bryce knew that his grandparents had not exactly been the kind of people that would intentionally hurt him, but the social worker had never exactly seen things in the same way that Bryce had always seemed to be seeing these things. Every week Bryce had come home to find that social worker sitting at the house talking to his grandparents and then looking through the house as if there had been some kind of sign that Bryce was being abused by the people that were taking care of him from the moment that they had started taking care of him. As far as Bryce was concerned, none of this would have happened if the police had not arrested his father shortly after they had learned that his mother had died in that terrible accident. Bryce had tried everything that he could think of to try to get his grandparents to understand everything about how he had felt about the things that had been happening in his life. The death of his mother had seemed to be only the beginning. Losing his father the way that he did had only made Bryce’s life one long and endless nightmare, even if his grandparents could never exactly understand the reason why.

BRADY ALEXANDER COULD not believe that he had been locked up in this jail cell for the past seven or eight years with nobody honestly believing that he had not been the reason that his wife had died in that tragic car accident. Brady had been the one that had made the phone call that had gotten the police to the scene of the accident and had watched in horror as his wife and son had been rescued from the car that had been completely totaled. Brady had been praying that his family would be okay, but it wouldn’t be until after his wife had been taken out of the car that Brady had realized that this was going to be one of those things that would cause more trouble than he had honestly been expecting. Brady had honestly believed that he would be able to be there for Bryce while he was growing up, but the police had definitely seemed to think that there was more to the story that he had told them when it came to the accident that had killed his wife. No matter how much Brady had told the police that he was completely innocent, it had seemed that they had insisted on arresting him for a crime that he had never committed. A crime that would have him locked up for the rest of his life if he did not figure out a way to prove that he was not responsible for the terrible things that had happened at that particular time in his life.

Throughout the entire time that Brady had been in jail without so much as a single phone call to talk to the only family that he had seemed to have left, Bryce had been bounced from one foster home after another. At least that was what Brady had been told after he had been arrested after the car accident had taken place. Brady had not heard from Bryce ever since these things had taken place, and Brady had gotten the feeling that this had something to do with whatever family he had been staying with throughout the time that he had been serving out this rather lengthy jail sentence. Brady would not find out the truth about where Bryce had been staying until after a date had eventually been set for his trial and his lawyer had learned that Bryce’s grandparents had managed to get custody of him when they had learned the truth about what had happened to their daughter. Brady would have never hurt Dorothy, no matter how angry he might have gotten throughout the entire time that they had been married. He knew that there had been times when Bryce had witnessed the fights that would often happen between him and Dorothy whenever Brady had felt that his wife shouldn’t be doing certain things, but he still would have never hurt her in any kind of way. Brady had tried to get Dorothy’s parents to understand all of these things, and at least let him talk to Bryce before he had gotten to the point where he was too grown up to want to listen to everything that his father would have to tell him during the time that he had been growing up. The other prisoners that Brady had been locked up with during that time had all seemed to have different stories that had revolved around the fact that they had all been falsely accused of a crime that had led to them being locked up for a long period of time. Out of all of these prisoners, however, Brady knew that he really was completely innocent. Many of the police officers that had been guarding the prison that Brady was locked up in had seemed to know everything about why Brady had been locked up in this prison over the last eight years. Brady knew that the case against him had been all over the television and in all of the newspapers throughout the state of New York. Brady knew that many of these officers had believed that he had murdered his wife, even if he had claimed that it was something that was completely unintentional. Either way, Brady had seemed to know that there were all kinds of people out there that would believe that he had used his anger combined with the drugs and alcohol to cause the accident that his wife and son had been in throughout the time that he had been claiming that he was innocent, even after people had been claiming that he had been drinking and doing drugs around the time that this accident had taken place. Brady knew that Bryce could have told the police about everything that had happened, but nobody had ever seemed to listen to Brady about asking his son about the accident and everything that he had gone through the night that his mother had died. That was eight years ago and Bryce was now in middle school or high school, and Brady was pretty sure that he had forgotten about all of the things that had taken place throughout the time that he had been living with his grandparents. Living with his grandparents and unable to take the time to call his father or even take the time to write his father a letter so that he could eventually find out the truth about the terrible things that his grandparents might have told him about his father and the reason that he was locked up for something that he had never really done. Brady had tried on multiple occasions to prove his innocence, but the police and the other members of the court system had refused to listen to Brady or even believe the different things that he had been attempting to tell people when it came to the night that his wife had died. A night that had led to Brady living a night of complete and endless hell because of the things that had changed his life in ways that Brady had never exactly expected, even after the police had arrested Brady for the murder that he had never committed all those many years earlier.

Chapter 1

December 2015 - Airport in Dallas, Texas

Jessica Loveless was sitting in a small airport restaurant while she had been waiting for the flight that she would be taking from Dallas,Texas to a city called Rome, New York when she had found herself thinking about the things that had led to everything that was currently happening at this time in her life. Long before this decision had been made that would lead Jessica to have to leave the city and state where she had been growing up, Jessica had believed that her life was going to be as normal as it had always been. That was, at least, until Jessica and her mother, Corrine Loveless, had learned that her father had died under mysterious circumstances. Jessica had known that her mother had struggled with the fact that her father was no longer going to be a big part of their lives, but that had not stopped Jessica from making every attempt to help her mother deal with everything that had happened since her father had died. Corrine had not wanted to admit that there were different things that she was going through that she would need to get professional help with, and if that happened Corrine knew that she would have to find someone that would be willing to look after her daughter. At least until she was able to come home from the center where she would be getting the help that she had desperately needed. Sending Jessica to stay with a member of their family was the last thing that Corrine had wanted to do during that entire time, but it was the only way that Jessica would end up being properly taken care of.

Corrine had spent the entire month of November making preparations for the time that Jessica would be traveling to New York where she could visit with a few of their family members until after Corrine had been able to get home and become the mother that Jessica had honestly deserved. When Corrine had discussed all of these things with her daughter, she could tell that the last thing that Jessica had wanted to do was to leave her mother completely alone in the house where she had been growing up with the most loving parents that she could have ever had at different times in her life. Corrine had been more than a little determined that sending Jessica to New York State was something that was definitely going to be for the best. Corrine’s younger sister, Claire Shepherdson, had lived in New York State ever since she had started attending a college in the city of Rome where she would be learning everything that she had needed to know in order to become the nurse that she had always wanted to be. Corrine had known that Claire would be one of the best nurses that the world had ever seen, and she knew that her sister would do anything that she could to help take care of Jessica, especially after everything that they had both gone through the night that Jessica’s father had died. Corrine had known that Claire had been one of Jessica’s favorite family members and she would never exactly complain too much about the time that she would be able to spend with Claire, regardless of the amount of time that they would find themselves spending together. During the time that Corrine had been making plans to send Jessica to spend time with Claire, she was also searching for the one place that would eventually get her the help that she had desperately needed after certain things had happened, and that had included the fact that Jessica would be living her life without her father. Either way, Corrine had made sure that Jessica had realized how important it was for certain things to end up happening, especially so soon after Jessica had learned that she had lost her father. In many ways, Corrine had hoped that sending her daughter to New York would give Jessica the break that she had honestly needed from the stress and terrible situation that she would be living in if she wasn’t entirely careful. Corrine had made sure that Jessica would be lasting at the school she had been attending until the Thanksgiving holidays, and then that would be the time that everything would be changing rather drastically.

Now Jessica was waiting for the plane that was going to be taking her to the airport in Syracuse, where her aunt would be meeting her for the car ride that would last for almost an hour. An hour that Jessica would be spending thinking about her father and the things that would have been happening if he had still been alive. Her mother would have never made these plans for Jessica to leave Texas and start staying in New York with her aunt until her mother had felt that she was ready to accept the responsibility that she had always had when it came to her daughter. Jessica had been told that Claire was happy that she would be staying with her, but something told her that there was honestly something that her mother had never exactly been telling her when she had been telling her about the trip that she would be taking at this particular time. It had taken several days for Jessica to get all of her belongings together and make sure that she was ready for this trip that she was taking to spend time with her aunt, but the truth was that the last thing that she had wanted to do was leave her mother knowing that there was absolutely no way of knowing whether she was really getting the help that she had claimed that she had desperately needed throughout that entire time. Jessica had been thinking about all of these things throughout the entire time that she had been waiting for the plane that would be taking her to New York State with no way of knowing whether she would be returning to Texas after her mother had felt that she was ready to become the mother that she had been meant to be after all of these things had seemed to be taking place. Either way, Jessica knew that she had no way of getting home to where her mother was bound to be staying until sometime the following day when she was supposedly going to check herself into a counseling center that would give her the help that she had needed since she had learned the truth about the terrible things that had happened to her husband and Jessica’s father.

It was a little over an hour before Jessica had heard the announcement that it was time for her flight and that it was time for her to go to the gate where the plane was supposed to be leaving from on that particular day. Jessica had been told that this flight was going to take up to three or four hours to get to New York where her aunt was supposed to be waiting for her. The last thing that Jessica had expected during that time was that she would be on this plane completely on her own with the exceptions of the pilot and a young girl that was always making sure that Jessica had everything that she had needed until they had gotten to the airport in Syracuse. In the few minutes that Jessica had been waiting for the plane to take off when she had realized that her aunt would be waiting for some kind of message to let her know that she would be on her way in just a few short minutes. Her mother had made sure that she had minutes on her cell phone. At least until she had gotten to her aunt’s house, who would take over where her mother had eventually left off. Jessica knew that her mother would contact her as soon as she possibly could, but for now Jessica would have to put her trust in her aunt and hope that her mother would eventually keep that promise that she had made when she had left Jessica at the airport to wait for the flight that she was currently on. After Jessica had sent a short text message to Claire telling her that she would be in Syracuse in about three or four hours, she had turned off her cell phone hoping that nobody would try to contact her with something that had been important until she had gotten off the plane and gotten her bags to make her way to the house where her aunt had been living for the past few years.

DECEMBER 2015 - ROME, New York

Claire Shepherdson had been extremely excited about the fact that her niece, Jessica Loveless, was going to be coming to New York for a visit that would honestly be lasting for the longest time. When Claire had first gotten that phone call from her older sister, Corrine Loveless, asking her to help her to take care of Jessica while she had planned on getting the help that she had needed in order to deal with the struggles that had come into her life when her husband, Fred Loveless, had been found in an old rundown hotel and it had looked as if he had been brutally murdered. Claire had gone to the funeral services and had offered to help Corrine when it came to making sure that she had gotten the counseling that she had needed throughout that entire time. Of course, Corrine had refused to accept the help that her younger sister had been offering her, and now that she was desperate, it had seemed that it was a completely different story. Claire had told her husband, James Shepherdson, about the things that had happened and how she had agreed to let her niece come to stay with them after the hell that she had obviously been dealing with at different times. James had been happy to do whatever he could to help take care of Jessica during a time when she was obviously struggling with her own feelings toward the death of her father. Claire had known that she could count on James to help her, regardless of what was happening at that time, but what she had never seemed to realize was that James had ended up with a secret that he had never mentioned to her. A secret that could eventually ruin their relationship if he wasn’t careful.

James knew that there were certain things that he should have honestly told Claire about his younger days, especially since he was getting the feeling that trouble was starting to chase him down as if it was never going to let him forget the terrible things that he had done so many years earlier. Long before James had met Claire he had been doing so many different things that would help him get the attention of the different members of his family. When he was in elementary school and middle school it had seemed that he was always getting into enough trouble where he had been kicked out of school, especially during those times that he had always seemed to be fighting many of the kids that had been attending the same school that he had been attending throughout that entire time. He had lived in the big city of Syracuse, New York when he had caused many of these things to happen which had eventually led to even more trouble happening that could have eventually led to him spending time in jail for the different things that he had done before his earlier high school days. James would eventually have to admit that he was never exactly the best student, and yet he still managed to get far enough ahead to start attending one of the colleges that had been in different cities throughout New York State. In the end, James had decided that he was going to find a place in Rome where he would be taking different classes that would help him get the career that he had always wanted. A career that would give him the opportunity to fix planes and other modes of public transportation. Of course, James was pretty sure that this was something that he would have to use at a later time in his life if he kept getting into trouble. Trouble that had seemed to follow James everywhere that he had seemed to go throughout that entire time. It was during those early college days that James had met Claire and she had seemed to notice something about him that nobody else had ever noticed. Despite the fact that Claire and James had never had the same kind of classes together, they had always seen each other during the times that they were going to their classes at different parts of the college that they had been attending.

The first time that James had seen Claire had been during those first few days that they had been preparing for the different classes that they were going to be taking. The school housing that had been part of the school property had never exactly been the best apartments in the city, but they were the only ones that were close to the buildings where their classes had been held throughout the day. The plans that James had actually started making after he had started his classes that August was that he was going to search for a bigger and better place. A place that would give him the chance to study without dealing with the endless noise that he was dealing with at different times since he had started attending this college. James knew that many of the students that had been attending this college in the city of Rome had been doing it for their own personal reasons. Of course, there were others who had seen this opportunity to party without their parents ever finding out the truth about what they were doing. Parties that were often getting so far out of hand that James had wanted nothing to do with the dormitories that many of the students had found themselves staying in. James had been hating these dormitories, but had to admit that being able to see Claire on a daily basis until he had found the apartment or house that he could easily afford had been something that was rather easy for him to handle.

James and Claire had started dating during those earlier college years, and there wasn’t a single time during the day that they were not seen walking to their classes together. James had noticed that there had been times that Claire had not talked about her family much, but he had still managed to find out about Claire’s older sister, Corrine, during one of the parties that had been held at the student housing that they were staying at during that time. Claire had never talked about Corrine if she could honestly help it, and James could never really understand the reason why. Most of the students that had been taking the same classes that James and Claire had been taking had always talked about the people in their families and the love and support that they had given to each of them at different times. James knew that his family had often tried to give him that support but at different times it had seemed that it had been rather difficult for them to understand the reason that James had always seemed to be the family troublemaker. James had been an only child throughout the entire time that he was growing up, but it had seemed that his family had completely ignored him unless he had found himself starting all kinds of serious trouble. Now that he was older it had seemed that everything was completely different. After he had graduated from his college classes things had gotten to the point where it was a bit more serious between him and Claire. The problem was that Claire had not seemed to want him meeting any of her family members, and he just could not understand the reason why. From the things that Claire had told James when it came to her family, there had never been anything all that bad about them, but he had noticed that she was often complaining about her older sister and the fact that she had seemed to always get everything that she had ever wanted without having to beg for it or work hard for it in any way. James had never known whether Corrine had realized how her sister had felt, but now it was obvious that something had seriously changed between them.

James had noticed these changes over the years, especially when it came to the way that Claire was willing to drop everything so that she could help her older sister during a time that she was going through such a difficult time. By the time that Claire had agreed to take her niece until her mother was able to get the help that she had obviously needed, James had known that this was something that would be better for them as well as Jessica. He had hoped that this would eventually be the one thing that would bring Claire and her sister closer together, even if it had taken Claire taking care of her niece in order to get her to see how much her older sister had desperately needed her. It would only take a few hours for Jessica to get to the airport in the city of Syracuse, and yet James was dreading the time that he would be driving to the airport in order to pick Jessica up and bring her to the house where he was living with Claire. Many years ago, James had done something that he wished he could have changed after one of his closest friends had been arrested when his wife had died in a tragic car accident. James knew that Brady had nothing to do with that accident, but he was not about to admit that he had done something that had caused all of these things to happen. At the time James had been hired to get rid of Brady’s wife when she had witnessed a crime and the person had wanted to make sure that there was no way that she would be able to testify against him. James had tampered with the brakes that had been on the car that Dorothy had been driving, but he had not expected that Brady and his son Bryce were going to be in that car when Dorothy had lost control. There had been drugs stashed in the trunk in case the accident had not worked, and the smell of alcohol throughout the car would have definitely caused Dorothy to be questioned about whether she had been drinking and driving. When Brady had been arrested James had gotten as far away from the scene as he possibly could. Living in Rome had definitely been the one way that he could escape, even when he had found himself using his college classes to do the things that would have helped him escape the fact that he would have eventually been arrested if the police had ever learned that he was the reason that this accident had taken place all those many years earlier. One thing that James knew for certain was that when he went to pick up his niece he would have to avoid any and all police cars that would often be seen at different times throughout the entire city.  Police officers that would do just about anything to arrest him for a crime that he had committed many years earlier

DECEMBER 2014 - SYRACUSE, New York

Jessica was just getting off of the plane when she had realized that her aunt had not been there waiting for her the way that she had promised that she would be. It had been almost two years since she had seen Claire and her husband James, but she had never forgotten about the things that they had done for her and her mother during the time that certain things had been happening in their lives. After Jessica had gotten the few bags that she had packed and brought with her she had found a place where she could sit down and after turning her cell phone back on she decided that she would send her aunt a message to find out exactly where she could possibly be. Jessica knew that her aunt would have never forgotten about when Jessica would have been getting off of the plane that was coming in from Texas, but Jessica knew that her aunt had been living a rather busy life even before Jessica had learned that her father had died in a rather strange and mysterious way. While Jessica was waiting for her aunt to get to the airport, she had taken a few minutes to send a message to her mother hoping that she would answer the text message and let her know that everything was still working out in the way that they were hoping that it would after she had gotten to New York where she would be staying with her aunt and uncle. Jessica knew that Corrine had not exactly liked the fact that she was sending her daughter to a different state, but she had not exactly felt that she would be able to take care of Jessica in the way that she had rightfully deserved. At least that was the way that Corrine had explained these things to Jessica during the time that she was trying to make the plans for everything that was currently happening. Jessica had been completely lost in her own thoughts and her own world when James came walking up to her. Claire had decided that she was going to stay at the house where she would be getting everything ready in Jessica’s new room, which had left it up to James to get to Syracuse and hope that Jessica was not going to be waiting at the airport for a rather long period of time after everything that she had currently been going through after her father’s death and after all of the mysterious things that had ended up happening at different times in her already tortured life.

James knew that he had not seen Jessica for a while and he could already tell that she had grown up quite a bit since the last time that he had seen her several years earlier. The emotional time that she was having because of her father’s death and the fact that her mother had not exactly been able to take care of her due to her own emotional turmoil was just one of the many things that he had known had been happening in her life. Claire had filled him in about all of these things several hours before he had to prepare to pick up their niece and hope that things would eventually start getting better for Jessica after she was away from all of the stress that she had been going through during the time that she had been living in Texas. He knew that Jessica was bound to be feeling a bit homesick, but he had hoped that the time that she would be spending with her aunt and with the new friends that she would be making would help her forget about the constant and endless hell that she had found herself going through since her father had died. The minute that Jessica had realized that her uncle was right there and was attempting to get her attention she had stood up and given him a hug. She knew that the last time that her uncle had seen her she had not exactly been in the best of moods. She had just learned that her father had died and planning everything for his funeral had not exactly seemed to be something that had been all that easy for her and her mother. Claire had been the one that had called him once she had gotten to Texas hoping that there was something that he would have been able to do when it came to making these plans, but even he had seemed to find it difficult to help them out when Corrine had made it quite clear that she would never consider James as a member of the family after the things that she had supposedly found out about James and the different things that he had done in his past.

James had absolutely no idea how Corrine had learned about the different things that he had done in the past or even how she could make the decision that this was the reason that she should be able to judge him since he had not been that person in the longest time. Claire had obviously understood that there were things in his past that he had not exactly been proud of, and he was sure that Jessica was bound to have heard a few things about her uncle from her mother but had decided that she was not going to judge him for whatever he had done at different times in his past. All that Jessica had honestly seemed to care about, even after she had learned that her aunt had gotten married without telling anybody in the family, was that James had been there for her and her mother when nobody else had seemed to give it a second thought. Claire had known even then that her older sister had needed to get professional help after she had learned all about what had happened to Jessica’s father, but Corrine had never accepted the fact that this was something that she had desperately needed. At least not during that particular time. When Corrine had started to realize what kind of help she had needed, the first thing that she had done was explain everything to Jessica and hope that she would agree with everything even if it meant leaving her friends behind and forgetting about her life in Texas.

During the ride in the car that had lasted for almost an hour James had tried to talk to Jessica and find out about the different things that had changed in her life since the last time that they had seen each other. He knew that with everything that Jessica and her mother had gone through in the past couple of years. Jessica had often remained rather quiet about certain things, and in some ways, James could understand the reason why. When Corrine had seemed to be dealing with whatever her issues had been, Jessica had never really had anybody that she could talk to about the way that she had felt when she had learned that her father had died under mysterious circumstances. Claire knew that the police were out there searching for whoever had caused these things to happen, but ever time that they had gotten a new lead to what could have taken place something would end up happening and they would find themselves heading in a completely different direction. She had hoped that Corrine would understand that getting Jessica away from all of these things until the police had managed to figure out exactly who or what had caused these things to happen, and now it was more than a little obvious that Corrine was willing to do whatever she could to take her younger sister’s advice. Advice that Claire had tried to give her sister right from the moment that all of these things had taken place.

Almost an hour later James had pulled into the driveway of the house where he was living with Claire. They had hoped that by the time Corrine had listened to Claire about getting the help that she had needed, that there would have been some news that Claire was going to be expecting their first child, but that had not exactly happened. James had hoped that having Jessica staying with them might help them out as well as Jessica since the house had seemed to be too big for just the two of them. Either way, James was pretty sure that Jessica was going to get used to staying with them during the time that her mother was doing everything that she could to get the help that she had needed, but during those first few days he was pretty sure that things were going to be rather crazy for Jessica while she was attending a different school and making an attempt to make a few friends at the school that she would eventually be attending after she had gotten settled in the room that Claire had set up for her throughout that entire time. James had decided that Claire and Jessica would want to have time where they could talk and spend time together without having to worry that he was always around. James knew that there had been a few things that had needed to be done, especially since Jessica would be spending time living in the same house with him and her aunt knowing that it was likely going to be a long time before Corrine had managed to get the help that she had needed. The amount of time that James had been wandering through the city of Rome to do the grocery shopping and a variety of other things that he knew had to happen at that moment.

James had been pretty much hiding out in the city of Rome ever since he had learned about Brady and how he had been arrested. James knew that he should have gone to the police station all those years ago and stood up for a man that he had claimed had been his best friend, but he knew that doing something of that nature would lead to him spending a rather long time locked up behind bars, and that was something that he had not wanted to take place. Even after he had married Claire it had seemed that people were still talking about that tragic accident and the fact that Brady was still doing whatever he could to prove that he had not been the one that had caused the accident and that he had not been the one that had been drinking and doing drugs the night that these things had eventually taken place. James had started having the strangest dreams about the night that his best friend had been arrested for being under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and even then he had refused to mention these things to his wife and other members of his immediate family. James was pretty sure that if Claire had ever found out about the terrible things that he had done before they had gotten together, that he would end up losing her forever. At least that was the way that James had been seeing things after he had started thinking about everything that Corrine had told him when it came to whether she would ever consider him as a member of their family. James knew that Corrine had found out all about the things that he had done in the past, but he could not figure out exactly how she had learned all about the things that he had started to regret from the moment that they had started taking place. No matter what had happened James knew that he would eventually have to tell Claire all about the things he had done all those years earlier and hoped that she would find it in her heart to forgive him once she had learned the truth about everything that had taken place.

During the entire time that James had been dealing with the shopping and the other things that had been taking place, Jessica and Claire had been getting her belongings unpacked and put in their proper places while talking about the things that Jessica had been dealing with since the day that her father had died. Jessica had always felt that she could talk about anything with her aunt, especially when there had been so much trouble that was happening in her life. After Claire had left Texas and started attending a college in New York State it had seemed that everything had completely changed. Now Claire was a nurse at the local hospital and she had been helping so many different people that had been hospitalized for a variety of different reasons. Jessica had known that being a nurse was something that her aunt had always wanted to do, and it was definitely the one thing that Claire knew that her older sister could never take away from her no matter how much she had eventually tried to over the years. Jessica had finally decided that this was going to be one of those times where she would just have to make the best out of a rather bad situation and just hope that her mother was doing everything that she could to get the help that she had honestly needed after everything had started happening a short time after Jessica had lost her father. That evening when James had returned to the house, he was carrying a large pizza and a few bags of groceries which was the last thing that Jessica had honestly expected. When Jessica had been living in Texas, her mother had always expected her to do all the shopping, especially after she had lost her father in the way that she had. James had not only done the grocery shopping but he had also thought about something for dinner that night that would eventually help Jessica to feel that she would not have to do much during the time that she was living with them in this huge house.

That night while they were all eating dinner, Jessica had decided that it was time that she had mentioned some of the things that her mother had told her about James and the reason that so many people in the family had seemed to hate him, even before her father had died. James knew that there would be times that Jessica would find herself asking a variety of different questions about the things that she had heard, but he had never expected that she had heard about his past from her mother and that there was that part of her that just might want to believe everything that she had honestly heard throughout that entire time. James had never exactly been the kind of person that would ignore the questions that Jessica had for him, but these questions were difficult for him to answer. At least at this particular time. Claire could tell that James was hiding something, and she was determined to find out exactly why. That night when Jessica had gone to her new bedroom she had noticed that James and Claire were talking about something that had been rather serious. She was pretty sure that some of these things had to do with all of the questions that Jessica had been asking during the time that they had been eating dinner. Jessica had not meant for these questions to cause all kinds of trouble between her aunt and uncle, but it had seemed that these questions had caused so much trouble that her aunt and uncle had started fighting for the first time since Jessica had learned that they had gotten married several years earlier. One thing that Jessica knew for certain was that things were definitely going to be getting rather difficult for her during the time that she was staying here.

For several days Jessica had been feeling rather nervous about the things that were happening during the time that she was living with her aunt and uncle. The arguing and fighting that had taken place during the previous evening had been the one thing that had shown Jessica that her stress levels were definitely going to be all over the place until after she had learned that things were slowly starting to get better for both her and her mother. When Jessica had gone downstairs to get breakfast, she could tell that Claire had been looking as if she was scared about some of the things that James had finally admitted to her at some point during the night that they had been arguing and fighting. Several times during that fight he had threatened to leave and make sure that she would have to take care of everything entirely on her own, but by the time that everything had seemed to calm down that night Claire had already decided that she was not going to sleep in the same room that James was sleeping in. At least not until she had felt sure that she could trust him after everything that she had heard from him throughout that entire time. By the time that Jessica had gotten up and had been eating breakfast, she had noticed that James had not been anywhere near the house or even in the kitchen the way that he would have been at any other time during the day. Claire had explained to Jessica about the place where James had been working for the past few months. Claire would be the one that would bring Jessica to the local middle school that she would be attending hopefully until the end of the school year and they had all hoped that there would be something happening that would lead to Corrine returning home after certain things had officially been dealt with after Jessica had left Texas to live with her aunt and uncle. Jessica had hoped that her mother would get the help that she had needed, even if it meant that she would be away from her daughter and other family for the longest time. Either way, Jessica would spend her time doing whatever she could to get used to living in this house and used to living in the city of Rome while her mother was doing whatever she had felt that she would have to do throughout that entire time. Either way, Jessica had to admit that her first night of living with Claire and James had been rather eventful, and it had been bad enough that Jessica had not been able to sleep a wink throughout that entire night.

Chapter 2

December 2014 - Syracuse , New York, The Home of Annie & Leonard Smythe

Bryce had just gotten home from school when his grandmother had told him that he had a letter waiting for him on the kitchen table. Bryce had been living with his grandparents for a few years now and during that time he had only gotten a letter if something had happened that had caused his father’s lawyer to decide that he had needed to know about everything that his father was currently dealing with during the time that he had been locked up after the accident that people had claimed that he had caused the day that his mother had died. His grandparents knew that there had been times when his father had made several attempts to contact him after his arrest and his grandparents had felt that Bryce should not have to deal with the stress that came from his mother’s death. They had refused to let Brady contact his son in any way. Every time that he had tried to call Bryce so that he could explain the different things that had led to that accident and how he was completely innocent Annie and Leonard had found different excuses to keep Bryce from receiving these phone calls. Even going to the point where they would not accept the charges for the calls that had been coming from the pay phone at the jail where Brady had been locked up. Bryce had no idea that his father had even made every attempt to write to him so that he could eventually learn the truth about the things that had taken place around the time that this accident had happened and Bryce had lost his mother. Annie had known that talking to Brady in any way during the time that he was in jail would have caused Bryce to struggle with a bunch of things that had already stressed him out beyond anything that his grandmother had ever seen all those many years earlier. Either way, Bryce had found himself having to be rather sneaky when it came to finding out just what his father’s side of the story had been when Bryce and his mother had been in that car accident and Brady had been arrested.

Bryce had waited for several hours before he had taken the chance to read the letter that his grandmother had told him about. Over the years he had heard his grandparents talking about his father and the reason he had been arrested the night that Bryce had learned that his mother had died. Bryce had been sent to speak to a counselor so that he could deal with his feelings that had stemmed from the death of his mother. The last thing that Bryce had wanted to deal with all those years ago was the fact that his father had been accused of causing the accident that had killed his mother. Now that his father had stood absolutely no chance of getting out of jail because of the evidence that the police had claimed that they had against him. Brady had done everything that he could to prove his innocence, but there was nothing that he could do to get the jury to see past the evidence that the police had against him. Evidence that had proven that Brady had been addicted to all kinds of drugs and had been drinking throughout that entire night. In the end, Bryce had found out that his father was going to be spending the rest of his life behind bars unless someone had decided that they were going to do what they could to prove that someone out there had been attempting to blame Brady for these things in order to keep themselves from getting into all kinds of serious trouble. Trouble that they knew would have led to getting arrested themselves if they weren’t entirely careful, especially after everything that had happened the day that the accident had eventually taken place.

When Bryce had gone into his bedroom with the homework that he had gotten from the school that he had been attending after he had started living with his grandparents, the first thing that he had done was open the letter that he had received from the lawyer that had been representing his father since the day that he had been arrested and sent to jail. Bryce had reached out to this lawyer several years earlier hoping that this would be the one way that he would be able to talk to his father and eventually find out the reason that certain things had happened during the time that he had been in that terrible accident with his mother. Bryce knew that his grandparents, at least his grandmother, had blamed Brady for everything that had taken place the night that their daughter had died. They had often told Bryce that the only good thing that had happened during the time that his mother had died was that they had been able to bring him home with them and never have to worry that he was going to end up in some foster home where he would have been abused or treated even worse than he had been during the time that he had been living with his parents. Bryce had never told his grandparents about the things that had taken place before he had been in that terrible accident many years ago. Even when he had been expected to tell everything to the counselor that was hired for him to talk about his feelings about his mother and the way that she had died that had caused Bryce to be in the situation that he was currently dealing with over the last few years.

The first time that Bryce had decided that he was going to reach out to his father’s lawyer so that he would stand a chance of learning about the things that his grandparents had kept from him after he had started living with them. Bryce had always figured out different ways to write his letters to his father and make sure that his grandparents would not find out about the real reason that he had wanted to talk to his father about the night that his mother had died and the police had found things in the car that Bryce had insisted had never belonged to either of his parents. Bryce had talked to the police for what had seemed like hours and that had all been after his father had been arrested and sent to jail. Now that he was older Bryce had decided that he wanted answers. Answers that his grandparents had refused to give him whenever he would ask them about the reason that he was not allowed to receive letters or phone calls from his father while he was in jail. There had been several times that Bryce had tried to ask his grandparents about why they were refusing to let him spend time talking to his father, despite the fact that Brady was likely going to be in jail for the rest of his