[UNEDITED]

        Meet your sister? Sounds like an amazing girl?

        They were the only words which stayed in my mind the moment Erin had left to see to Amanda.

        I didn’t know how to tell her that she was never going to have the chance to actually meet Chloe. She wasn’t going to have the opportunity to see for herself just how amazing she is as a person, especially after everything she’s been through in her life.

        I always thought I was protecting her by not telling her the truth. Only now do I realise just how selfish I was actually being and I have only doubled the pain on her heartbreak by not bothering to tell her the truth when I discovered it.

        I should have run to her and told her when I found the two of them together. I shouldn’t have given them the time to come up with the perfect story which they could use, I should have told them and then we wouldn’t be here now.

        I wouldn’t be out in the cold, Matthew would have been punished a long time ago and my sister wouldn’t be disappointed in me as her brother.

        “Uncle Jason. Didn’t you hear the door?” Amada’s voice filled the room and I turned to see Erin stood there with our dinner. The pizza box in one hand and a bag with Amanda’s nuggets in the other hand.

        “No. I was lost in my thoughts,” I smiled at her as she walked over to me and pushed herself onto the sofa next to me.

        “Where are you going Erin?” Amanda asked and I chuckled, looking at Erin who was walking over to the other sofa. I knew she was only being thoughtful because she didn’t know how Amanda would react but, from the way this evening has been going, I think Amanda has taken a definite shine to Erin.

        “I was going to sit over here,” Erin replied.

        “No. Sit with us,” Amanda said, moving herself from the sofa and onto my lap. She had the cheesiest grin I had ever seen on her face. “Please?”

        “If you don’t, then she’s only going to come over there,” I finally spoke up with a slight smile.

        “Alright. Fine,” Erin said, moving from the sofa and taking the now empty space beside me. She handed Amanda her nuggets, which she wasted no time in opening and putting one into her mouth, and then opened the box. She took a piece of the pineapple pizza and handed it to me with an innocent smile on her face.

        “So? What were you talking about up there?” I asked.

        “You,” Amanda replied quickly.

        “Me?”

        “Yeah. Amanda was telling me about how you don’t see your parents anymore and how Chloe is angry with you about something, so she kicked you out,” Erin replied and, though she was smiling, I could tell by the look in her eye that she wasn’t going to let this go and she was going to want to know what happened.

        She was also probably going to want to know when I planned on telling her I had been kicked out completely so I wasn’t going to be staying here for a few days as I told her on the phone.

        “Mummy is always angry. Especially with daddy,” Amanda added.

        “She is?” I asked.

        “Yeah. I hear them shouting at each other when they think I’m asleep,” Amanda shrugged with an innocent smile on her face. I didn’t know that Chloe and Mathew had been having problems, she never told me anything about that and she usually told me everything; certainly when Mathew had done something to upset her.

        “What do they shout about?” I enquired.

        “Mummy tells daddy that she doesn’t love him anymore and tells him that agreeing to marry him probably was a terrible idea. What does that mean?” Amanda replied.

        Marry him properly? I didn’t know they were planning on getting married properly. I thought they had accepted their marriage as real and were happy with things the way they were.

        “Nothing sweetie. Just eat your dinner,” I muttered, already knowing there was no way in hell I could tell her the truth. She was a child and I wasn’t going to subject her to that kind of cruelty, telling her that her parent’s marriage was nothing more than a sham to please our father.

        “Will I still see daddy?” Amanda asked and I could almost hear the sadness in her voice as she asked the question.

        “Of course you will. Mummy will never stop you from seeing him,” I sighed. I hoped for her sake that I was right and that I wasn’t giving her false hope for anything. I didn’t want her to go home tomorrow to be told that she wasn’t going to see her daddy again for a while.

        “Amanda. How about I take you up to bed and you eat your dinner in front of a film?” Erin suggested.

        “Mummy doesn’t like me eating my dinner in bed.”

        “Well, if you don’t tell then I won’t tell either,” Erin grinned at her and Amanda quickly agreed, jumping off my lap and following Erin upstairs with a smile on her face.

        I loved that Erin was getting along so well with Amanda and I hoped this meant she would forgive me for lying to her. I have never been one for telling the truth, preferring the lie instead because it at least one person can remain happy even if the other person is miserable.

        Crappy reason. Right?

        I helped myself to another slice of pizza as I looked around the room in silence. There was a painting hung above the fireplace, a TV in the corner, a glass coffee table in the middle of the room and two sofas. It looked just like any normal living room really, just a little bit bigger than I was used to.

        I had never taken the time to look around at what there was here before. Each time I came to this house, it was for us to end up in her bed at the end of a heavy night.

        I would usually leave before the sun came up. I didn’t have the time to stop and admire the place because I had places to be, places which were more important than being in bed with a woman I was merely fucking at the time.

        “Jason Parker. You are going to tell me what’s going on and you are going to tell me now,” I heard Erin’s voice state from beside me.

        “What do you want to know?” I sighed.

        “When were you going to tell me that your sister had kicked you out?”

        “I thought I would be able to work things out with her when she had calmed down. I thought she would see that I was only trying to help her and I would never deliberately hurt her, but then she told me that she was disappointed with me as her brother and that she never wanted to see me again,” I muttered.

        “Why did she kick you out in the first place?”

        “I discovered that her husband was cheating on her with my ex-fiancé and, instead of telling her, I kept it to myself.”

        “You did what?”

        “At the time I discovered them, Chloe had just suffered from a miscarriage. Imagine you’re in my shoes and you have to tell your sister that you caught her husband in bed with another woman while she was dealing with the death of their son. Would you be able to tell her?” I snapped, sending the pizza flying onto the floor, but I really didn’t care.

        I know I should have told her, but at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. I didn’t want to tell her that Matthew was cheating on her when she had just discovered that she had lost their son. She would never have been able to deal with that much devastation in such a short amount of time.

        “You should have told her,” Erin muttered.

        “There was never a right time to tell her. I didn’t want her to hurt any more than she was already hurting,” I sighed.

        “If I was in your shoes, then I think you did the right thing, but I don’t think you did the right thing in keeping it from her fully,” Erin finally spoke after what felt like an eternity.

        I was glad that she didn’t hate me. I don’t think I could deal with losing her so soon after I had just got her.

        She had been there for me. She had listened to me when I complained about Charlotte and how much I still loved her, despite the fact she had slept with another man. She listened to me when I cried over how alone I was feeling. She even listened to me when I talked about how the female population were all the same and there was only thing they were interested in.

        She had just been there for me and she had never moaned about it or told me that she didn’t care, she was just there and now she had fallen for me. She wanted me and I can’t bear the thought of losing someone else.

        “She’s my baby sister. It’s my job to protect her and keep her safe. Instead, I am the reason for her pain,” I almost cried when I said those words.

        “Give her time. I am sure she will soon come round to your way of thinking.”

        “I don’t think she will Erin. When she has something in her mind, she will stick to it and she won’t change. She’s bloody stubborn,” I managed to chuckle.

        Right now, sitting here, all I could think about was the fact that Chloe hated me. She was disappointed in me and I guess she had every right to be.

        Like she said, if I was really on her side, then I would have told her the moment I found out. By not telling her, that meant I took Matthew’s side and he got away with it. Though, if what Amanda says, the two of them apparently been happy for a long time now and neither of them have done anything about it.

        I thought I knew everything there was to know about my sister but, on reflection, I don’t know the first thing about her.

        I assumed she was happy but Amanda has proven looks can be deceiving. A person can have the biggest smile on their face but, in reality, they are one of the most miserable and broken people you will meet.

        “Why don’t I take Amanda back for you tomorrow?” Erin suggested.

        “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Chloe hates you,” I shrugged. I didn’t want to give Chloe another reason to hate me.

        “I know. Amanda told me,” Erin laughed but she didn’t seem bothered by the fact, she didn’t even seem a little bit annoyed that someone who didn’t even know her, hated her. “If I drop Amanda off, it’ll give me a chance to talk to her. I can show her I’m not who she thinks I am and perhaps even get her to speak to me.”

        I thought for a moment about her offer. All the thoughts of what could go wrong went through my mind and I was tempted to decline but, they say when you are afraid of something, you should half that fear and then half it again. Apparently that makes you see sense and, if that’s the case, then the worst thing which could really happen is that Chloe shouts at Erin and slams the door shut in her face.

        “Well, I do have work in the morning,” I lied. I had tomorrow off but I was going to pop up to the building site to see just how they were getting on. “I guess it’s worth a shot. Just make sure Amanda doesn’t open her mouth about you letting her eat her dinner in her room, Chloe will not hesitate to murder you.”

        “I have a cousin around Amanda’s age and I am always going against the things his mother says whenever he’s here. I know how to deal with kids her age, don’t worry,” Erin smiled and she really wasn’t worried about anything, she was just taking this in her step and not allowing it to bother her.

        “Does this mean I am forgiven?” I smiled hopefully.

        “No. it just means I don’t wish to beat the crap out of you anymore.”

        “Harsh,” I muttered.

        “I am going to bed now. You can clear up the mess you made and then Amanda wants you to watch the film with her,” Erin grinned like she had just won the lottery.

        “Please tell me she’s not watching Frozen?” the smirk on Erin’s face told me all I needed to know and I couldn’t stop the groan which slipped past my lips.

        I had lost count of the number of times I had been forced to watch that damn movie now. And she always wanted to watch it whenever I was looking after her.

        Any other time, she wasn’t interested in the film, but as soon as her parents were out of the house, it suddenly became the most amazing film in the world. She knew it word for word, as well every single bloody song. I am sure she did it on purpose because she knew how much I hated the film.

        “Enjoy and I’ll see you in the morning,” Erin smiled, waving as she walked out of the room. I watched her leave and I am sure she put extra sway into her hips on purpose. “Oh, by the way, forgot to mention. You’re also on a blow up bed on the floor with Amanda.”

        They were the last words she said before she disappeared up the stairs. Now I knew she was doing this on purpose.