Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Max's POV

"So dude, what are you gonna do about the girl?" Miles asks.

I sigh and roll my eyes, "Try to be friends, she's probably terrified of us," I say.

Paisy sighs, "She's our age, right?" she asks and I nod, "She's probably only lived with girls, so if you need any help, call me," she says.

I sigh, "She's an orphan. Her parents died. She's probably just a girl with a really deep depression. Especially after living in the Sunnyside Orphanage, that place is horrible," I say.

"Just be nice," Tyler says to me.

I roll my eyes, "Always am, Ty. Always am," I say.

"Is she hot?" Miles asks and Paisley hits his arm, "What? It's gonna be harder for you, if she is," he says.

I groan, "I don't know. Dad hasn't even seen her. I don't know," I say.

"But is—" Miles starts.

"I don't wanna talk about it. I've never seen her," I say. They all sigh but nod.

Rich's POV

"Can I see her today?" I ask the woman.

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Collins," she says.

I puff in anger, "I've been here for a month, all the paperwork is done. I'm demanding to see her," I say furiously.

She sighs and takes the table phone and dials someone.

"He wants to see Estelle," she says, "I know. But she's going with him anyways," she says.

I furrow my eyebrows. Is there something, that I don't know?

"Yes. Thank you," she says and ends the call, getting up. I get up as well and follow her.

We go to a part of the house where are only rooms. I've never been here before. It looks horrible. There are windows on the upper sides of the doors, probably to control everyone.

We go through one more door and then there are about 5 doors and the Hallway looks even worse.

"Why does she live in here? It's the worst place in the house," I say.

"This is Estelle's room," she says and looks through the window for a second. She looks to get mad while she opens the door.

I see her on the bed, crying, looking into the ceiling. She looks just like Julia. My heart breaks, seeing her like that, even though I don't know her.

She looks at us and her eyes widen as she rapidly wipes her tears away. She sits up on the bed. Something irritates me. She's skinnier than on the picture.

"Estelle," the woman says, but she keeps quiet and wipes away all the tears she has left.

"Mr. Collins, can you give us a minute?" the woman asks, looking mad at her.

Her eyes widen and she looks at me, looking scared. "No," I say and the woman raises her eyebrows.

"Excuse me?" she asks.

"I said no," I say, "Why is she so skinny?" I ask madly.

She ignores me and slaps her. Estelle keeps looking at me sadly, not even caring about the slap.

"You have 15 minutes, Mr. Collins," the woman says and leaves.

I look at Estelle worriedly, but she's just staring at me, looking at my jacket and my face and hair.

"I'm Rich," I say. She nods and sniffles.

I furrow my eyebrows, "You know me?" I ask and she nods again.

"How?" I ask, wanting to hear her voice.

She doesn't say anything and sits back onto her bed. She pulls her legs onto the bed and rests her chin on her knees.

I sigh, "What should I call you?" I ask, but she's still quiet.

"What about... Stella?" I ask.

She smiles a little, sniffles, and I sit on her bed, "Can you talk to me?" I ask. She ignores me again.

I sigh, "Fine. You don't have to," I say and she smiles a little, wrapping her arms around her legs now.

"Do they give you food?" I ask her.

She shrugs her shoulders and I furrow my eyebrows.

"Honey, when was the last time you ate?" I ask. She looks kinda sad, ignoring me again.

I sigh, "Come on, I'll get you something," I say.

She shakes her head and sniffles, and I sigh, "Why not?" I ask and she ignores me. I look at her black eye.

"I'm sorry, I just need to know... Do they hit you a lot?" I ask, worriedly.

She lowers her head on the knees a little and closes her eyes. I see that a few tears roll down her cheeks as she hugs her legs tighter. In a few seconds, I hear quiet sobs coming from here. I sigh and go closer to her.

I wrap her into my arms and hug her. She tenses up a little and pulls away, looking at me in shock, but with tears.

"Sorry, I," I start, but she wraps her arms around my neck and hugs me so tightly, while shaking a little.

I sigh in relief and hug her back. Soon, I kiss her hair and she pulls away looking calm now.

"Do you remember your family?" I ask. She sniffles and shakes her head. I sigh as well.

"What do you like to do?" I ask.

She grins big and looks around the room. I follow her eyes and look too. The room is filled with so many books and like 10 pens.

"Reading," I say and she nods with a smile.

"My son loves that," I smirk, remembering Max. She raises her eyebrows, wanting an explanation probably.

"He is 15, his name is Maxwell," I say, making her smirk and I roll my eyes with a smile, "Yes, it's a weird name, but we call him Max," I say and she giggles quietly.

"Well, you have a nice voice, why not use it?" I ask.

She smiles a little and rests her chin back onto her knees, still looking at me.

"Would you like to meet him?" I ask.

She looks kinda scared and shakes her head a little. I smirk, "Seriously?" I ask and she giggles quietly again, making me smile.

"I'm gonna adopt you," I say, and her eyes widen, "You're getting out of here in a week," I say.

She lets out a shaky breath and I see so many tears starting to come out of her eyes. She basically jumps into my embrace and hugs me so tightly.

I smile and hug her back. I hear the door open, so we pull away and both look there. The woman is here again and Stella quickly wipes her tears away.

The woman looks at me and I sigh, looking at Stella, who seems so sad and broken as she's looking at me.

"I'm coming back tomorrow, okay?" I ask, my hand on her hair. She nods sadly and I kiss her forehead.

"Bye," I say and she smiles sadly.

I sigh and stand up from the bed and walk out of the room with the woman while Stella falls on the bed onto her back and keeps looking at the ceiling.

*Time pass*

"Max, I need to talk to you," I say as he comes downstairs and into the kitchen.

He sighs and takes a cheeseburger from the fridge and sits down next to me, "About her?" he asks.

I sigh and nod. He takes a big bite, "I'm all ears," he says, making me smirk.

"She's coming to live with us in a week," I say and he nods, "But.. She didn't talk to me," I say and he furrows his eyebrows.

"What?" he asks.

"Yeah.. She can talk and all, but she didn't say one word," I say and he sighs.

"That's gonna be harder than I thought," he mumbles, making me smirk.

"She's great. She loves reading and probably writing, seeing all the trash cans full of papers and pens," I say.

He smiles a little, "Is she damaged?" he asks.

"She's not a thing, Max," I say.

He sighs, "You know what I mean," he says.

I furrow my eyebrows a little, "Yeah," I say.

"Okay, you look really worried... What's up?" he asks, confused.

"They probably starve her and she gets beaten up," I say and his eyes widen.

"She's the daughter of your best friend, dad.. You're supposed to take her with you, not leave her there," he says.

I sigh, "I couldn't.. Anyways. I'm going back there tomorrow. I'm trying to get her to talk to me. You wanna come?" I ask.

He sighs, "She should probably just get used to you. I'll come in a few days," he says and I nod.

*The next day*

I follow another woman into a garden. I see other girls doing something, that I'm not sure, but Stella's just sitting, head and back rested against a push, reading a book.

I smile a little as we walk to all of them. The other girls all look at us, but Stella keeps reading, probably not caring.

"Estelle," the woman says and she sighs, placing her finger on the place that she was stopped.

She looks at us and starts smiling, seeing me. She raises her finger up and keeps reading for a few seconds. Soon, she closes the book and jumps up. She basically runs to me and hugs me. I chuckle and hug her as well and kiss her hair.

"What are you reading?" I ask.

She hands me the book. "Romeo and Juliet," I smirk, "Nice choice," I say. She smiles at me.

"You wanna go somewhere we can talk?... Well, I can talk," I say and she nods with a little smile.

"Okay," I say and we walk somewhere out of everyone's sights.

"Eat that," I say, handing her 3 huge bars of chocolate as we sit down on the grass somewhere. She looks at me with furrowed eyebrows.

"What?" I smirk in confusion.

She takes all the chocolates and places them on her lap. She looks around for a sec and hides them under the end of her dress. I know that they can't eat these and I can't give her anything either.

She opens one of them and just bites a piece from there. It annoys me, cause it's not how you're supposed to eat it, but Max does it too.

"You know that you can break it into pieces and then eat it?" I smirk.

She chuckles quietly and takes another bite. "Great," I say and she chuckles again.

"Estelle," a woman says. Stella's eyes widen and she hides the chocolate. We both look at her.

She gives her one cup filled with something, "It's time for our candy," she says.

I furrow my eyebrows. What the fuck. Stella sighs and swallows it, her eyes squeezed together. She gives the cup back to the woman.

"Bless you, my child," she says and walks away. Stella sighs and looks at me sadly.

"What was that?" I ask.

She gives the chocolates to me rapidly and runs a little further, to many bushes. I furrow my eyebrows, not knowing what she's doing.

She looks around, controlling that no one can see and then puts her fingers into her throat. My eyes widen. She pukes all of it out, with all the other food she has eaten probably.

Then she comes back to me, sits down, and takes the chocolates to start eating it again.

"You shouldn't do that," I say. She looks at me, wanting to say something.

"You can talk to me," I say. She ignores me and keeps eating the chocolate.

*5 days later*

"Hi. I'm here to get Estelle Porter," I say to the woman.

"Name?" she asks.

"Maxwell Richardson Collins junior," I say.

She looks at my jacket and her eyes widen for a second, obviously scared of the leader of the Norfille Hawks.

"Follow me," she says while getting up.

We go into some weird room, where is one more door and then inside the door one more door.

"Why is she in here?" I ask.

"Estelle has found some ways how to escape. She has tried that many times, so we needed to lock her up somewhere else," she says, opening the last door with two locks. I raise my eyebrows and smirk a little. That girl is great.

We go into the room. It's literally just a mattress and a toilet. It's just like prison. And I would know..

She's sitting in the furthest corner, facing the walls. Her arms are around her legs, what are curled up to her chin. Her hair is bloody from what I can see.

"Stella," I say. Her sobs end for a second, she wasn't probably expecting anyone and now got scared, "It's okay, it's just me," I say.

She turns her head to face me. My eyes widen. Her face is full of bruises and I can see that it has been bloody before, but now it's washed off. She gets up and walks to me, but I can see, that she's either too tired or hurting too much, cause she's doing it really slowly.

"What have they done to you," I whisper to myself, but she starts sobbing again as she reaches me.

I wrap my arms around her, but she doesn't hug me back. She clings onto my shirt and I hold her up.

"You still want to take her?" the woman asks.

I look at her madly, while Stella's looking at me sadly, "Yes. I would take all of them, just to get them away from you," I say and the woman seems annoyed.

"Estelle, do you wanna go with him?" she asks. Stella nods inside my shirt and I kiss her hair.

"I want to hear a yes or a no," the woman says sternly.

Stella snuggles her face further into my shirt and I put my hand on her head and hold it, cause she's obviously scared of her.

"Estelle, I want to hear a yes or a no," she says madly again.

I furrow my eyebrows and look at her, "What's your problem? She doesn't have to say anything," I say.

"The girl needs to speak, Mr. Collins. Now, Estelle," she starts again.

"No wonder she's not saying anything, you're terrifying her," I say furiously.

The woman looks so mad, "She's not going anywhere in that case," she says.

"Stella, you wanna come with me, right?" I ask Stella.

She nods and looks up at me with tears. I kiss her forehead and the woman rolls her eyes, taking us with her.

We follow her through the Hallways, "You okay?" I ask Stella, quietly.

She sniffles and nods. I sigh, "I promise you, you never have to come here again," I say. She smiles a little.

"Did they beat you up, cause you tried to escape?" I ask her.

She sighs quietly and nods. I kiss her hair, "Good job," I say.

She looks up at me with raised eyebrows. I've been spending lots of time with her by now, so I know what she means.

I chuckle, "You must be really good, if they locked you up in that cage," I say.

She smiles a little, looking down. We reach the Hallway, where her room is at and walk there.

"Estelle take all your stuff," the woman says.

Stella narrows her eyes a little, looking at her. She goes into the room and takes three books from one pile on the ground and then one book from the table.

She walks to her bed, throws the pillow on the ground, takes the sheet off of the mattress almost and then looks at the woman, who looks really mad. Stella smiles a little, probably enjoying it. She takes away some cut open pieces of mattress and then a picture that is in there.

"What is that?" the woman asks.

Stella smiles a little and puts it between one of her books. She walks to me and hives them all to me.

"Something else?" I ask.

She shakes her head, smirking a little. She looks at the woman and narrows her eyes a little. She looks back at her room and starts grinning bigger. She walks to the window.

"Estelle. No," the woman says. I furrow my eyebrows.

Stella looks back at her with raised eyebrows. She turns back to face the window and takes one book.

"Do not do that," the woman says.

She throws the book through the window and my eyes widen and I start to laugh. Stella smirks and walks back to me.

"Wow," I say.

She just walks out of the room. I look at the nun who seems so mad.

"I should've burned that girl alive when I had the change," she says to herself.

I smirk and go after Stella to take her home.