Forgive us

Five years later

Asher's POV

I had tried to find my sister for 3 months before returning to my father's house. I didn't give up, I just realised that she had left to find her happiness and my going to her was about myself and making me feel better and had no benefit to her whatsoever. I continued to search for her with the help of my brothers. We all agreed that we needed to become better to honour our sister and our mother. We got help together and individually so if Macey ever did come back, we could prove we had changed. The three of us moved out of our father's house seeing how toxic he was. We didn't speak to him for years. How sick could a man be to harm his daughter and encourage his sons to join in? Worse still we did join in to harm our sister.

Six months ago our dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and they could only make him comfortable, it was way too advanced for treatment. Our father got in contact with us and apologised profusely for what he had done. He wanted us to find Macey so he could beg her for forgiveness before he died. I didn't want to do it at first, what could he possibly say to Macey to make up for what he had done? Eventually, I agreed so the boys and I had ramped up our search for her. Macey needed to hear what he had to say for her sake not his. He had explained how hard it was to look at Macey because she looked exactly like mum and he hated that. It didn't come close to an acceptable excuse for what he had done. In fact, there wasn't an acceptable excuse at all but he said he would only explain to Macey his reasons.

We didn't forgive him at all but wanted answers before he died. We needed to know why. We believed Macey needed to know why as well which may help her with her healing because we all knew there would be trauma from what had happened in that house. We had worked with a counsellor and realised that listening to the reasoning may assist us in healing from the trauma of it all. I wanted my sister to have a chance at doing that too.

I had hired a private investigator as well as using Tyler and his connections in the police force to track down Macey. I was lost in thought when my phone rang "Asher speaking" I said into my phone without checking the caller ID. "She changed her name" Tyler rushed out. "What? What are you talking about?" I asked. "Macey changed her last name, she is no longer a Byrnes she is using mum's maiden name. It's now Macey Turner and I know where she is" Tyler said excitedly.

"Where is she?" I asked my brother. "She is in Wollongong. She attends uni there and is in her 3 year studying social work. She lives on campus" Tyler told me. "Do you have a number I could call her on?" I asked. "I just texted you her number which I managed to get from her university" Tyler replied. "Great I'll call her" I replied. As a group, we thought it was best if I talked to her as I had caused the least amount of physical damage to my sister.

Once I hung up from Tyler I immediately rang the number which went to the message bank. She was probably in class I surmised.

Third person POV

It was now 7 pm and Asher was at the house he shared with his brothers. He was going to try calling his sister again to convince her to come back and see their dying father. Asher had the phone on loudspeaker so his brothers could hear the conversation too. It rang four times before Macey picked up "Hello?" She asked into the phone.

"Macey that's really you" Asher said shocked he was actually speaking to his baby sister. "Who is this?" Macey asked. "Macey please don't hang up. It's Asher" Asher replied. "Fuck. How the hell did you get my number?" Macey fumed out. "Tyler, Macey I need you to come home. You have been gone long enough" Asher started only to be interrupted by his sister chuckling.

"Screw you and your home Asher. Don't call me again and tell your brother using his position to gain my personal information is illegal" Macey yelled before hanging up the phone. "Well, that went well" Diesel stated. Asher immediately dialled Macey's number again only for it to go straight to the message bank.

Asher continued to try for an hour until Tyler spoke up "She has probably blocked your number" Tyler stated. "OK give me your phone and block your number she might answer then," Asher said to his brother. He was upset that Macey had reacted that way but couldn't blame her, to be honest.

Tyler turned his caller ID off and handed Asher his phone. Asher dialled Macey's number again having the phone on loudspeaker and it started ringing "Hello" Macey answered. "Mace it's Dad he is dying" Asher rushed out. "And?" Macey asked. "He wants to see you" Asher replied. "I hope he rots in hell. I'll dance on his grave when he is in the ground. Don't call again" Macey spat out before hanging up her phone.

After a few minutes of silence, Tyler spoke up. "Now what?" He asked. "I can't say I blame her, we were awful to her and so was Dad. Maybe we should just let her be" Diesel said. "No, she has a right to answers and this is her last chance. This is for her not him. She may regret this when she is older" Asher told his brothers.

"She might not. She remembered everything he did, what we did to her over the years and maybe she just wants to leave that in the past. Who are we to make her relive it?" Diesel stated. Diesel didn't want to face his sister at all. He never forgave himself for what he did to her. He also knew he didn't deserve his sister's forgiveness, none of them did.

"This isn't about you and your feelings Diesel. This is about closure for Macey" Asher replied. "It's not about you either Asher, it's not about you being able to say sorry to her and her forgiving you. You heard her on the phone, she could barely speak to you for a minute" Diesel argued. "Right well, I'm going to go speak to her in person. She will change her mind once she knows how sick Dad is and why he wants to speak to her" Asher said. Asher was fuming, he needed to tell his sister how sorry he was and it had been long enough. He just needed to make sure his sister was ok.

"I will come with you" Tyler replied. Tyler also wanted to apologise to his sister for what he had done. Diesel nodded his head to his brothers, he would go too, as much as he didn't want to go he also wanted to see if his sister was ok. "Right, how does Friday work for you all?" Asher asked his brothers. "Fine, I have days owing to me" Tyler answered. "Yeh I'll let my boss know I need the day off for a family matter" Diesel stated. "OK, we will leave early. Tyler grabbed the address for where she is staying by Thursday night and we will leave early Friday morning" Asher told his brothers. They discussed different scenarios of how a Macey would react and if they would know it was her when they saw her before they all headed to bed.