Fool me Once

Chapter 3

Five years ago…

‘Bart?’ Julia says when she dials his number. She knows she can count on him; he has been best friends with her brothers before she was even born.

‘Hi Juul.’

‘Can you help me?’

‘Yeah, what’s going on?’

‘I kind of need you to give me a ride to the doctors.’

‘Are you alright?’

‘Yeah, it’s just a check-up, but I don’t have someone to take me. Can you come with me?’

‘Of course. I’ll be there.’

Sitting in the room with the doctor, she still wasn’t telling the truth behind her bruises. Luckily nothing is wrong and she is allowed to go home, she just has to wait for the doctor to return with her painkillers.

Group chat with Dylan, Aiden and Bart

4.03 p.m. Dylan:

Dude, where are you?

You were supposed to be here an hour ago. We want to play videogames.

4.04 p.m. Bart:

Oh bro, I’m sorry. I’m at the doctors with your sister

4.04 p.m. Aiden:

What are you doing at the doctors with our sister?

4.06 p.m. Bart:

You didn’t know?

4.07 p.m. Dylan:

NO

4.07 p.m. Aiden:

No!

Did she tell you for what she had to go to the doctors?

4.09 p.m. Bart:

Just some check-up

4.10 p.m. Dylan:

That can’t be, I took her for that three week ago

4.10 p.m. Aiden:

I took her five weeks ago

What’s going on?

4.12 p.m. Bart:

I don’t know… She told me no one was able to take her…

4.13 p.m. Dylan:

Just take her to my place, we can talk to her there

When Bart is back in the car with Julia, he keeps stealing glances in her direction. Something is going on with her.

‘Is everything OK?’

Julia looks up. ‘Yeah, nothing is wrong,’ Julia says as she keeps playing with the hem of her dress.

Just as Bart takes the turn towards Dylan’s place, Julia notices where they are going.

‘Wait, this isn’t the way home.’

‘No, we’re having dinner at Dylan’ tonight, he invited us over, when he found out I was at the doctors with you instead at his place for videogames,’ Bart chuckles.

Suddenly Julia feels panic creeping up. ‘you told him I had to go to the doctors?’

‘Yeah, wasn’t I supposed to?’ Bart asks when he parks in front of Dylan’s house. Julia is dreading to go out of the car and have dinner with her brothers. If they knew about her going to the doctors so often, they are probably close to finding out what is happening. This isn’t suppose to happen.

When Julia steps inside, she tries to be as happy as she can muster. Dylan and Aiden are in the hall looking at her. She sees emotions on their faces, she can’t quite place. ‘Hi guys.’

Nobody says anything. Bart comes in after her and closes the front door. Julia looks at him when she hears him locking the door. ‘What’s going on? Why did you just lock the door?’

Julia is starting to panic. Something is wrong. ‘Why is nobody speaking?’

She sees het brothers sharing a look before looking back at her. It’s Aiden who finally speaks. ‘We need to talk.’

Julia can see that they figures it out. Maybe not the specifics, but they know something. She feels tears in her eyes. This isn’t suppose to happen.

‘A-About wh-what?’ Julia stutters.

‘About why you went to the doctors… again,’ Dylan says.

Julia goes pale. ‘It was a check-up,’ Julia says with as much confidence as she can. ‘Can I go home now? I have to do my homework.’ Julia turns around, but Bart is still blocking the door.

‘Your homework can wait,’ Bart says.

Julia looks at the boys as they keep staring at her. A tear rolls down her face.

‘Juul, what’s happening?’ Aiden asks as he wants to comfort her, but before he has a chance Julia runs to the bathroom and locks herself in. she looks at herself in the mirror. The tears are now flowing down her cheeks. This isn’t suppose to happen. Nothing was ever supposed to go like this. Knock! Knock!

‘Juul, please open the door,’ Aiden says.

‘No!’

‘We just want to talk to you.’

‘There is nothing going on,’ Julia tries again. They are not supposed to know.

‘But you’re crying in the bathroom. We just want to help you,’ Dylan tries. ‘You can’t stay in the bathroom forever.’

Julia leans back against the door. ‘You really want to help?’

‘Of course. Can you please open the door?’

Julia slides down the door and sits against it. She can hear her brothers sitting on the other side.

‘It hurts.’

‘What is, honey?’ Aiden asks.

For a moment Julia is quiet. She has to collect all her courage before she can speak again.

‘Sweetheart, please tell us,’ Dylan tries.

‘The beatings, they hurt so much,’ Julia cries.

She can hear her brothers gasp and getting up again. They’re probably really shocked.

‘Who beat you?!’ Dylan yells through the door.

Julia hears his anger lacing in his words. She cries even harder, not able to say anything.

‘Julia, answer the d*mn question! Who beat you?!’ This time it’s Aiden yelling through the door.

Julia gets up, she needs support before saying anything more. As she opens the door, she sees her brothers and Bart all staring at her with anger in their eyes. They all seem to calm down a little when they see Julia appearing. Julia lets herself fall into the arms of Dylan before breaking down. She hides her face in his chest, before saying the next word. ‘Mom.’

Dylan feels the vibration of her voice, but can’t hear what she says.

‘What was that?’ Dylan asks as he takes Julia’ face in his hands. Julia is forced to look at her big brother. ‘What did you just say?’ He asks again.

Julia takes a deep breath. ‘Mom.’

‘Mom? What’s it with mom?’ Dylan asks with confusion written all over his face.

Julia is quiet, she can’t say it.

‘Was it mom?’ It’s Aiden asking.

Julia looks down at the floor, before nodding.

After a call from Dylan, Marc walks into his son’s place. His son sounded very upset over the phone. Apparently, something happened to Julia. Marc walks into the living room and sees his daughter crying on the couch. She hasn’t heard him come in. he goes to sit besides her and pulls her to him. Julia cries in his chest.

‘What is it, sweetheart?’ Marc asks.

Julia cries harder. ‘I’m so sorry, dad.’

Marc tries to loos his daughter in the eye. ‘What is going on?’

Julia looks down and starts playing with her fingers, not able to look at her father. She knew she wasn’t going to be able to handle his reaction. Before Marc could say anything else Dylan and Aiden come into the living room. Marc looks to Julia and then at his sons. ‘What’s going on?’

He has no clue of what is going on and why Julia is so upset.

‘Do you want to tell him or would you like us to do it?’ Aiden asks.

Everyone is looking at Julia for a reaction. ‘Juul?’

‘I’m sorry, I just can’t. I have to get out of here,’ Julia says before running out of the house.

Julia keeps running. The tears falling freely down her face. She can’t tell him. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not like this. She needs time to think. Still running, Julia knows the one place where ono one will find her and she can think of what to do next. As she runs into the garden of her house, she climbs into the treehouse. The first time she came here she was six. She was playing hide and seek with Dylan and he didn’t come to look for her for a few hours. Ever since then she sometimes came up to the treehouse to escape. Now it was the perfect place to be. As she sits up in the treehouse, Julia was finally able to catch her breath. She feels so tired. Now that people knew her secret it was like she was finally able to breathe again. She felt too tired. She just wants to close her eyes and shut the world out. Her phone vibrates in her pocket. It’s her dad. She isn’t able to answer, she wants to sleep first. She makes herself comfortable in the treehouse, as she feels her eyes getting heavy. She falls asleep quickly as she feels emotionally drained form today.

Julia wakes up from a hand on her cheek. As she opens her eyes, she sees her mother staring at her. Julia gets scared and backs away as far as possible. This seems to anger her mother.

‘What are you doing here?’ Her mother asks.

‘I- I needed a place to- to think, so I came here,’ Julia stutters. She doesn’t want to anger her mom.

‘And why are you not at Dylan’s for dinner?’

‘We… we got into a fight.’ Julia looks away from her mother. She knows this is getting her into trouble. She can see the anger growing.

‘I want you to go back to your brother and apologize.’

‘But m- mom,’ Julia tries, but she gets interrupted by her mother taking her jaw. Julia can’t say anything as her mom keeps squeezing her jaw. It hurts. The braces are cutting in her cheeks, as she tastes the blood filling her mouth. Julia feels the tears welling up in her eyes.

‘You don’t argue with me! You’re going to apologize to your brother! I didn’t raise you to be a spoiled little br*t. am I clear?’

Julia nods in response. Her mom squeezes her jaw harder. ‘What did I tell you about using your d*mn words?’

‘I’m sorry mom,’ Julia whispers. She can’t even look her in the eyes. Suddenly she feels a sting on her cheek and she can taste blood on her lip. Her mother hit her hard. The ring on her finger made a cut on Julia’ cheek. ‘Look at me when I talk to you.’

Julia cries. ‘I’m sorry m- mom,’ Julia says looking her in the eyes.

‘That’s better. Now go apologize to your brother.’

Julia gets up to walk out of the treehouse. ‘Yes mom.’

As Julia is halfway down from the treehouse, she feels a foot on her shoulder. It pushes her. Julia falls the rest of the way out of the tree. She hits her head on the trunk and she feels dizzy. She feels her head and notices the blood going down her cheek. Her mother laughs evilly at her from the treehouse. Julia quickly gets up and walks back to Dylan’s house.

Julia takes a deep breath after reaching Dylan’s house. After knocking on the door, she gets face-to-face with Dylan. As he sees her, she takes a step into the house before breaking down and falling to the ground. The tears cloud her vision and she blurs out incoherent words. ‘I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.’

Marc, Aiden and Dylan kneel in front of her. As Marc takes her chin in his hands to look at her face, Julia winces in pain and she pulls back. Then Marc notices the bruises on her jaw, the cut on her cheek, the blood on her mouth and the wound on her temple.

‘Juul, what happened?’ Marc asks concerned.

Julia still isn’t able to answer. Aiden lifts her off the ground and brings her to the living room. She cries in his neck. Dylan brings her a glass of water. Julia needs a couple of minutes to catch her breath. Nobody speaks. They’re all looking at her, all patiently waiting for her to start talking.

‘I need to show you something,’ Julia says as she takes of her dress. The bruises on her middle and hips are getting visible. Everyone looks at her in horror. Julia can’t stand them looking at her like that and tries to cover herself, by holding up her dress. Aiden is the first one to stop her.

‘Did she do this to you? Is this way you have to see a doctor so often?’

‘Yeah,’ Julia sniffs.

She looks at her dad, who is still staring at her. ‘Dad?’

‘Who did this?’ Marc asks as he gets up from the couch. ‘I need you to tell me everything.’

Julia gulps. This is the moment she dreaded the most. ‘Please don’t get mad at me, OK?’

‘Why would he get mad at you? This is not your fault,’ Dylan says angrily. Julia flinches at his tone. Dylan notices. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you, but I mean it, this is not your fault.’

‘But mom says it is…’ Julia tears up again, but tries to be strong. This is her chance to tell everything. ‘When I do something bad, she hits me. She thinks I look so much like my dad, so she beats me. Every time I have to see a doctor. Last week she bruised some of my ribs by pushing me into the kitchen counter.’ Julia tells her father and brothers everything. The beating, the name-calling, the threatening, everything! At the end Julia is crying and her family stares at her with their mouths agape. This wasn’t supposed to happen like this, but now there is no way back. For a long time, everyone stays quiet. Marc is the first one to move and talk. He pulls Julia to him. He hugs her tight. She feels tears on her shoulder. Her dad is crying. She looks up at him. ‘I’m sorry dad, I didn’t know how to tell you.’

‘It’s my fault. I should’ve noticed. I just have one question. How long has this been going on?’

Julia looks down, before looking at her dad again. ‘Three months,’ Julia whispers.

Julia is lying on the couch as her father kneels besides her. He strokes her hair behind her ear. ‘Honey, I’m going to fix this. You can stay at Dylan’s place tonight. Everything is going to be OK. I’ll call you later.’ He presses a soft kiss on her temple. ‘I love you baby girl.’

Julia smiles at the nickname her dad used to call her when she was little. ‘I love you too.’

Marc walks into the kitchen, where Sandra is cooking.

‘Hey honey, you’re home early.’

‘YOU HIT OUR DAUGHTER?!’

‘What?’

‘I’m only going to ask you this once. Did or didn’t you hit our daughter?’

‘Marc…’

‘JUST ANSWER THE D*MN QUESTION!’

Sandra looks at Marc. She feels a little guilty. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘So, it’s true?’

‘Marc, please let me explain,’ Sandra tries.

‘There won’t be an explanation for hitting your daughter.’

‘I wasn’t going to lose you, because of her. You said nothing was going to change, but it did. And now that Thomas is back, it just hit me that I’m never going to have you back until Julia disappears.’

‘You can’t blame Julia for this. YOU cheated on me. This is YOUR fault.’

‘Marc, but…’

‘No, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care what you thought, I want you to leave!’

‘What?!’

‘I want you to leave. I don’t ever want to see you again and Julia will stay with me.’

‘You can’t keep her away from me!’

‘Oh, you don’t know half of what I can do. YOU DO NOT WANT TO TEST ME!’

‘She is not even your daughter!’ As soon as Sandra says this, hurt flashes over Marc’ face. He knows she is right.

‘You should just be happy that I’m not having you arrested for child a***e!’

‘You’ll hear from my lawyer!’ Sandra screams before she storms out.

Marc leans against the counter. He calls Julia. He’ll protect her.

‘Dad?’

‘Hey honey. How are you feeling?’

‘I’m OK. Dylan and Aiden are picking stuff up from home.’

‘I’m just calling to say I love you no matter what.’

‘Is something wrong?’

‘Everything is going to be alright, but you might want to stay at Dylan’s for a few days.’

‘What? Why?’

‘We’ll talk about it tomorrow.’

‘OK, goodnight dad. I love you!’

‘I love you too baby.’ Marc hangs up. He looks at his phone. ‘Even though you are not my real daughter,’ Marc mumbles.

‘Dad?!’ Aiden says.

Marc looks up and sees his sons staring at him.

‘Did you just say Julia is not yours?’ Dylan asks.

Marc sighs. He tells Aiden and Dylan everything. They are in shock at first, but then they promise to keep it quiet. They want to protect her from any future pain.