Seven Years Ago

Third Person's POV

"I don't think we should be doing this." Scarlett whispered to her older siblings, she might have been the youngest, but at this moment she felt like she was the most responsible one out of all of them. She didn't know why they thought it was a good idea to vandalise a building, she didn't even want to be here, but her parents were out of town, and they were watching her. The fourteen-year-old would have been fine to wait at home, but they hadn't let her, so now here she was doing things she didn't want to.

"Stop being such a scaredy-cat." Tristian rolls his eyes at her, all Scarlett did was shrug at the next youngest sibling, she wasn't scared, but she didn't want to do this. Tristan was four years older than her, having just turned eighteen. The next oldest was Kaitlyn, who was only eleven months older than Tristian at nineteen. Then there was Hadlee who was twenty-one and Elliot who was twenty-two.

It was clear Scarlett was unplanned since all her siblings were so close together but that never made a difference to her parents, she was just as loved as all the others, maybe a little more, but that was because she was often left out by her siblings leaving her to spend the most time with her parents. They were all really close, who never had any time for her until they were forced to. Scarlett never minded that though, while they were all extroverts who loved going out and partying, she preferred staying home to read or draw.

"We're going to be in trouble, if not with mom and dad, then the police." She stressed, but her concerns fell on deaf ears like they always did. Her siblings believed since she was younger, her words didn't hold as much weight as theirs did.

"Goody two shoes." Hadlee teases, looking back at her baby sister. All five of the Lawson siblings were almost identical with almost white platinum blonde hair and green eyes, with the exception of Scarlett who had inherited her paternal grandfather's striking gray eyes everyone was secretly jealous of.

Scarlett pursed her lips, not saying anything more. She followed them through the now silent dark alleyways when they found a spot that they liked the older Lawson siblings took off their backpacks taking out the spray cans they had brought along. Instead of participating, Scarlett takes a seat somewhere on the concrete floor where it doesn't look dirty choosing to read her book instead.

Leaning against the dodgy brick building, Scarlett got lost into a world much better than her own where dragons live, and the heroine saves the day. When she glances back up at her siblings who had got increasingly more rowdy the longer they had been there, they were now smoking cigarettes despite the fact that only Hadlee and Elliot were legally allowed to. She didn't get them, sure she got that some people needed the adrenaline rush but didn't it really have to involve painting vulgar images onto people's property, they would all throw a fit if anyone did that to them so why do it to other people.

"It isn't the best idea to smoke while there are still paint fumes." Scarlett tells them, but once again it just sounds like nagging to all of her siblings, they hated looking after her, but they didn't want to disappoint their parents again.

"Just shut up, Scarlett."

Rolling her eyes and pushing a stray piece of blond hair out of her face, Scarlett does what she was told to go back to her book.

The sun was now setting, and the older siblings were still at it, momentarily forgetting that their little sibling was sitting behind them waiting for them, they were high on the cigarettes they were smoking as well as the paint fumes. They were all calm, doing something they loved, but that bubble popped when they heard a booming voice shout at them from further down the alleyway.

"Oi, what are you doing there?" With that, the four siblings took off, completely blanking on the fact they had left Scarlett behind.

Without realising it, one of the Lawson siblings drops a newly lit cigarette onto still wet spray paint lighting everything around them quickly. The fire gave all four of them a chance to escape, they managed to all disperse and hide themselves in the crowd who had formed to see what the chaos was.

"Where's Scarlett?" Hadlee asks terrified, she might not be the closest to her baby sister, but she still loved her and seeing the huge flames now climbing up the building she felt sick to her stomach.

All four of them were distraught until they saw Scarlett exit out of the alleyway. They would have been fully calm at this point if it wasn't for the fact that she was handcuffed by a huge police officer who made her look like a small child.

Scarlett was a child. They had all seemed to forget that recently, she was by far the most mature of the siblings, the angel on their shoulder who they should listen to but choose not to.

All scratched up by being manhandled, Scarlett looks up into the crowd catching the eyes of her siblings, with tears dripping down her cheeks she mentally pleads with them to help her, to get her out of this scary situation and get her home.

But they don't.

Silly me. Scarlett thinks to herself while she was tossed into the back of a cop car They won't help me because then they will be in trouble too.

♦

Scarlett was good at staring games, it was something that came naturally to her. So the staring game with the cop who was trying to interrogate her wasn't going anywhere.

He wasn't letting up,, so neither was she.

"Who was with you?"

No answer.

She had read somewhere that it wasn't mandatory to answer cops, she could answer if she felt like it, but they couldn't hold it against her if she chose not to.

The cop stared at the young girl in front of him, they had identified her as Scarlett Lawson, a fourteen-year-old who had grown up right here in their town, about half an hour out of New York City. She wasn't scared, she might have been at first when they first brought her in, but that had evaporated quickly after they had sat down, not that she was sitting unblinking at him. He felt like her striking eyes could pierce his soul, and at the moment he was feeling a bit self-conscious.

His head turns when he hears a tap on the glass, he gives the girl one last glance before turning to leave the room. When he finally left the room he felt like he could breathe again, that child seemed to take up all the air.

"You're getting intimidated by a child?" His partner teases and he just glares at him.

"You try talking to her, she has such a daunting aura surrounding her, like she knows every wrong this I have ever done."

"Who are you talking about?" Both men's heads turn to the tall woman moving towards them. They both stand up a little taller, smiling politely at the older woman. Meredith Vanderburg was someone they saw every so often, the lawyer was friends with their chief and came to see him sometimes or when someone needed a good lawyer. Everyone at the station loved her.

"That." The first cop pointed through the mirror. "Is Scarlett Lawson, she was caught on the scene of a vandalisation, to what then turned into a fire. Right now she is looking at least four years in juvie until she turns eighteen, but I have a feeling she didn't do it. He has a problem right now if she isn't saying who was involved."

Meredith stared at the small girl, even though she looked bored and unfocused, Meredith knew she was hyper-aware of her surroundings. She was smart and what she had witnessed in the few moments of the interrogation was that the girl was a firecracker, just hidden deep underneath her shyness.

Sometimes Meredith had gut feelings, and the one thing she never did was ignore them. And right now, that feeling was telling her to take that little girl with her and train her to take over her empire someday.

Meredith Vanderburg had opened her law firm with her husband when they were in their early twenties and after all their blood sweat and tears it had started thriving, it was almost on the brink of collapse five years ago when her husband had suddenly passed. When she realised this, she threw all of herself into her business again, using it as a way to ignore her grief. And even though now her firm was thriving, the best firm in America, there was one problem, there was no one to take it over.

She didn't want to keep doing this forever, nor did she just want to give her company away to whoever. But seeing that girl, she knew she was going to take over her company one day.

All three of their heads snapped to see an older couple come barrelling through the door.

"Um, excuse me." the woman spoke. "We were told our daughter was here. Scarlett Lawson?"

"Officer Marshall, I'm in charge of your daughter's case." The first cop introduces himself and starts filling the couple in on the situation.

"I think you have the wrong person, Scarlett, would never." Thomas Lawson stresses, obviously believing every word she was saying, and Cassandra Lawson nods along.

"Well we believe you, we don't think that Scarlett did, in fact there were four people who ran out before her. But there isn't anything we can do, Scarlett won't admit to other people being there, so all the charge goes onto her. Right now, she is looking at least a couple of years in juvie for damage to property for over five thousand dollars."

Both parents looked both exhausted and distraught,, so Meredith decided she had to help.

"I hope I'm not overstepping, but I think I can help." She moves in front of the couple. "I'm a lawyer who deals with high profile cases, my success rate is almost a hundred percent and have closed all my deals to go in my favour. I think I can help your daughter."

The Lawson couple glanced at each other than at the dark haired woman, seeing nothing but honesty on her face.

This might be their only option.

♦

"Where am I going?" Scarlett peaks up for the first time. "You want to send me to the rich people delinquent school, why don't you just send me to prison?"

"Scarlett Julianna." Her mother chides, frowning.

"You either spend four years going to the Atkins Prep School studying anything you like and interning at Vanderburg & Co and you will have no permanent record, and you will still have any scholarships you have been trying to work towards, or you spend four years in juvie, not being in the real world until your eighteenth birthday, your record will always have a mark and you will definitely have a hard time getting into collages much fewer scholarships." Meredith lays her options out, it honestly wasn't too hard to get those options for the girl, after all it couldn't be proven she was involved at all in the case and the chief owed her a favour.

Scarlett stared at the older woman, wanting to go to juvie just because the other option sounded nicer, but then she caught a glimpse of her parents in the corner of the room. The only two people on Earth who cared about her more than anything and just wanted the best for her.

She couldn't let them down like that, she never wanted to.

So she relented, off to boarding school she went. At least it was only an hour's drive away from her parents.

♦

The silence on the car ride home was deafening, both parents were waiting for Scarlett to speak up first,, and she knew it.

"I'm sorry."

"We're not stupid, Scarlett." Cassandra said softly to her daughter, not raising her voice. "Why are you covering for your siblings?"

Scarlett pressed her lips together not wanting to talk but when her mother gave her the famous look that only mothers knew how to pull off she gave up. "Two reasons, first they are all over eighteen, so the charges would be more severe and damaging for them, and two I don't want them to hate me more than they already do."

Scarlett was definitely the most sensitive of all of her siblings, she hated people being upset or angry with her. She also hated disappointing people, so right now she was stuck in between two things she absolutely despised.

The couple glanced back at the girl in the back seat, Scarlett had always been a little small for her age, but right now she looked even younger. She was looking out the window, dirt covered her face and her hair was flying in every possible direction. They were a little upset with her, but ultimately knew that none of this was her fault and everything was her selfish siblings.

Where did they go wrong, they gave them love and lots of attention? They never over spoilt them, but gave them everything they needed.

"Hey Lettie, we're going to finish discussing this later, but we need to punish your siblings first." Thomas tells his youngest daughter, his eyes briefly meeting his wife's as they share a look. "When you get home I want you to act like you are in serious trouble, take a shower and go pack everything you can't live without until we can bring you your stuff okay. Don't look at them or talk."

Scarlett immediately catches on to what her parents were doing and looks at them in disbelief.

"You want to make them think I'm going to Juvie, and it's all their fault."

"Exactly, we won't punish them, this will be more rewarding in the long run."

Scarlett looks at her parents with a renewed energy. "Remind me to never piss you off that bad."

"Oh no, missy, you're not off the hook just yet." Cassandra sternly gazes at her child. Thomas turns the car onto the driveway. "But right now put on your acting A-game, okay?"

"Okay."

And that she did.

♦

"They're home." Tristan whispers to his older siblings.

"Is she with them?" Elliot asks back, the guilt burying him alive.

"Yeah, but it looks like she is in mega trouble." The four siblings watch as their parents and little sister walk through the front door in absolute silence, Scarlett refuses to look up from where her eyes were trained on the floor.

"Go pack your bags, Scarlet, the cops will be back here to pick you up just now." They had never ever heard their dad speak as harshly as he had just done, especially not to Scarlett. And cops, where the hell were they taking her? Scarlett rushes up the staircase in a hurry, not waiting any longer.

"What's going on?" Kaitlyn asks, acting oblivious to the situation.

"Your sister has got herself into some big trouble." Their mother grits out, glaring up the staircase. "She vandalised a property then set it on fire, the costs are over five thousand dollars. She has to go to juvie until she's eighteen. What the hell has got into that child?"

Four years.

Their baby sister was going away for four years, and it was all their fault.

Just as they were about to say something, confess something, the doorbell rang. Both Meredith and the cops had we're filled in on the Lawson couple's plan,, and they were more than willing to be a part of the execution.

The two officers from earlier were welcomed into the house by Cassandra. "We just need you to sign this." he spoke to both Cassandra and Thomas,, and they did what they were told. A couple seconds later Scarlett reappears holding a backpack and the matching duffle both filled to the brim, with teary eyes she headed straight into her dad's chest circling her arms around his waist. Thomas couldn't hold it back any more and held his daughter so tightly, like it was the last time.

The Lawson siblings thought it was.

He kissed his daughter's head repeatedly and soon Cassandra joined the hug holding her daughter in her arms. When they separated all of their eyes were misty, Scarlett looked around the house she had lived in all fourteen years of her life, her eyes moved over her siblings, but she never met even one of their gazes, but they all saw the watery pools of silver.

This was all their fault, but they couldn't do anything now.

Scarlett slid into the back seat with Meredith, the cops had dropped her by the corner where Meredith was waiting to take her to her new school where she would be boarding weekly. She watched the last glimpse of her parents fade away and was left feeling miserable.

She had changed her mind, she was ready to rat out each of her siblings just so she could stay in her bed, in her own house with her mom and dad. But looking at the change of scenery, she could tell it was too late.

"You're a lot braver than I would have been." Meredith says softly, sure the girl had tears when she was saying it to her parents but when those had dried up she hadn't let it show how much it affected her, but Meredith just knew. "You know it's admirable, how much you stand up for others. That's why I wanted to give you a chance at something bigger."

"You don't think I would have survived juvie?" She asks.

"Of course you would have, with that determination flowing through your veins, juvie would have been easy but would it have been worth it." Meredith pauses, letting her words sink in. "You see I'm putting a lot on the line here for you Scarlett, I have pulled a lot of strings to get you out of your predicament."

"Why?" Scarlett interrupts, burning with curiosity as to why Meredith had done what she had.

"Because you remind me of someone, that fire and determination. You can do anything you want to, so Scarlett I'm just helping you redirect your path. I see something I want in all my lawyers at my firm, but the trait is so rare. I want to build you to take on anything, but if at the end of the four years you don't want to work at my firm, okay? You can walk away.""That's it?" Scarlett questions sceptically. "I might be fourteen but I'm not stupid, I know you're a lawyer and I know that you must read the fine print, so may I please have a paper copy."Meredith laughs, she knew right then that she had made the right choice. With a bit of guidance, this girl would be unstoppable, and she couldn't wait to see it happen.