"Don't tell me your going to go back to him!" He shouted angrily "After what he did to you? After as the pain he caused you?" Tears strolled down my cheeks as he stood on the other side of the room

"What choice do I have? I can't just not go back!" I sobbed trying to calm him down

"Yes you could! You have loads of people here, Colleen, Graham and the kids…Me" he added quietly, I hadn't quite realised how close we had gotten in the past few moments, physically there was not two inches between us. We stared at each other for the longest time when slowly his lips came towards mine

I woke with a start in my bed oh okay, okay it was just a dream… a memory even. "Mummy" a small voice came from the door and I sat up to see my daughter at the door

"Yes darling?" I asked tiredly

"Aunty Abbey said its time to get up" I nodded at the young girl and said

"Okay tell her I'll be there in a minute" Perrie nodded and toddled off down stairs. I Got up slowly and walked down stairs where Abbey was looming over her laptop, she glanced up and saw I was awake and smiled

"And it's awake!" she joked

"Thanks" I said sarcastically giving her a small glare

"Did you sleep well?" Abbey asked as she poured me a cup of tea

"Yes thanks, best I've had in… well since I can remember" I thanked her as I took the cup and sipped on the nice warm tea, as it went down my throat it instantly calmed the tense muscles in my body.

"Well, I looked online and the best plane I could find leaves tomorrow night at ten o'clock in the evening and you should get there around eight in the morning" I nodded as I took in the facts "I talked to Graham" she paused before she continued "on my phone, and he said he doesn't mind picking you up from the airport when you get there" I took in a deep breath and nodded

"That sounds great, I'll book the tickets and pay you back as soon as I can" Abbey smiled but shook her head

"No, that won't be necessary Fran" I looked at my friend confused.

"Why? it's not trouble really" Abbey just laughed and continued to shake her head

"No Fran, you can repay me by going to America being happy" I smiled and hugged my friend; we were both close to tears when she said "Come on then let's check if you need anything in your suit cases!" We spent the next few hours going through my clothes and Perrie's when we decided to go shopping. We bought the necessaries like toiletries and then we went to all the clothes shops getting more trendy stuff and throwing out the old clothes, I think it is safe to say me and Perrie had a whole new wardrobe by the time we were done!


Then the next morning I double checked for our passport and plane tickets and made sure our suitcases were labelled, pretty soon it was time go and Abbey drove me to the airport. We were in the car park and I was a bit early so we waited in the car "I can't believe I'm doing this" I shook my head, tears stung my eyes as I looked to my blonde haired friend who looked similar to me with watery eyes "I won't forget this Abbey, I'm serious! You've been a god send!" we laughed lightly and hugged from our seats

"Hey and don't you worry about Merrill, the awkwardness will go after a while"

"But what if he asks about Perrie?" I said so quietly that even I had trouble hearing it. Abbey gave me a small smile and put her hand over mine

"Then you say what you think is best, he doesn't have to know" she reassured me and I gave her a weak smile before glancing over to the clock

"Right I need to go! Come on Perrie sweetie we need to get on the plane" I called to the two year old and we got out of the car. Abbey picked up Perrie and I got the suit case and threw my shoulder bag over my shoulder because clasping my daughter's hand in mine as we shared out hugs with Abbey

"Thanks Aunty Abbey" Perrie said giving her a hug

"You be good for Mummy" the little girl nodded before returning to my side. We said our last tearful goodbyes before I walked into the Airport I decided it would be a good time to call Graham after we checked in. I did everything that needed to be done at the desk then I got out my phone and called Graham's house again.

"Hello?" I said as someone picked up

"Hello" Graham said on the other line and I gave a sigh of relief that it wasn't Merrill

"Hi Graham, my flight leaves in an hour so I should be there around eight tomorrow morning" I told him

"Okay, I'm glad you decided to come" I smiled at his kindness

"so am I, Perrie is beginning to miss her friends, she'll be glad to make some new ones" I told him

"I told the others you might be coming this morning, they seemed pretty happy" I gave a breath of laughter

"Thank you for doing the Graham I'll see you tomorrow" I hung up and grabbed my daughter's hand "Hey Perrie, guess what?" I smiled at her excitedly

"What mummy?" she said

"We are going to live with Uncle Graham in America, we're going to be okay!" I said and she giggled softly and hugged me

"Does this mean you wont cry at night anymore mummy?" she said so innocently, it made my heart tug to hear her say that

"No, no I won't princess" I whispered

"Good" she said "Because I don't like it when you're sad" she looked me in the eyes and I was slightly in shock of how grown up she sounded, I hugged her and rubbed her back

"Neither do I sweetie, neither do I"


The plane ride was boring and uneventful apart from a weird fat man who snored down my ear half of the journey. Soon (but not soon enough) it was time to depart from the plane "Mummy I'm tired" Perrie complained rubbing her eye's with her tiny hand

"I know sweetie but it won't be long now, uncle Graham should be here after we collected the bags" I won't lie; I was a little emotional from being tired and the flight combined and I just hoped the journey to his house would be short. The baggage collection seemed to drag on and on as if the bags were moving in slow motion along with the people, one by one reaching down slowly and heaving their bags off the conveyer belt, I was so wrapped up in my thoughts I didn't even notice my suitcase come nearer. "Mummy! Mummy there it is!" Perrie said pointing a small finger towards our purple case I snapped my head towards the case and lunged forward before it could drift out of our reach Perrie seemed to give a sigh of relief as it touched the floor beside us

"You okay?" I asked her and she gave a small nod

"Yeah, fine" I smiled and grabbed her hand just as my phone went off "Hello?" I said

"Hey Fran we're in the car park" Graham's comforting voice said and I furrowed my brows slightly as I stopped

"We're?" I said confusedly

"Yeah Me, the kids and Merrill, do you want any help with your bags?" I sighed and rubbed my forehead

"No, no I'm fine I'll see you in a minute, drive up to the Airport entrance where the taxi's are and I'll see you there" He agreed and hung up. I took my daughters hand once again and walked swiftly towards the entrances where straight away I saw their car outside, I mustered up the best smile I could while Perrie ran towards Graham "Uncle Graham!" she shouted and giggled as he lifted her up in the air

"Hey kido!" he said "How are you?"

"I'm okay" Her eyes seemed to light up slightly when she was set on the ground and saw Morgan, Merrill, and Bo coming out the car but she still seemed slightly nervous

"Hi are you Perrie?" Morgan said with a friendly tone and she nodded shyly "I'm Morgan" he intorduced "and this is my sister Bo and Uncle Merrill" Merrill seemed to sense the little girls discomfort and said

"Hey its okay, we don't bite I promise" He gave warm smile and his eyes glanced at me quickly, giving me a sign of a sort of parley or truce. I nodded and he extended his hand toward Perrie who trotted over and took it gentle she stay by his side just holding his hand making me smile slightly as I turned to Graham who had taken my bags inside the car

"Thank you so much for doing this, you don't know how much this means" I gave him a big bear hug, similar to one that you would give a brother or a dad.

"Hey listen, its the least I could do" He smiled pulling away "Does Perrie know the full situation?"

"No does she heck! she's only two" I hesitated slightly and looked to her and Merrill who were talking with Morgan and Bo "She just thinks we're here for a holiday" I sounded almost guilty in away that I hadn't told her the real reason why we were here I looked down ashamed

"Don't worry, as you said she's too young to know yet" he gave me a reassuring nod then said "Right come on guy's lets get home!" I smiled and walked over to were Merrill was standing with Perrie

"Hey" I said with little confidence "you guys okay?" Merrill looked at me and gave a crooked smile

"Yeah, just fine" I gave him a nod and we kind of stood in this awkward silence for a few moments "We should probably go to the car" Merrill said and I cleared my throat

"Oh right, yeah lets...Lets go" I took Perrie's hand and led her to the car with Merrill slightly behind me. Well this wasn't going to be awkward in the slightest!


To say the car ride was awkward would probably be an understatement I don't even know why if I'm honest, what happened between us wasn't that big a deal. Did Graham even know what had happened? well he seemed to sense something was up because he tried to keep all of us talking for as long as possible so that the awkward silence that was waiting to creep up on us wouldn't come. Getting out the car Merrill didn't so much as glance at me so I went up and unpacked our things while Perrie played with Bo down stairs it made me laugh how quickly she became close to Bo and Morgan, I made a mental note to ask Graham about the schools here.

Once I unpacked I went down stair only to be attacked by Bo, Morgan, and Perrie "Hey Aunty Fran!" Morgan said happily "will you play outside with us?"

"We're playing catch the mice!" Bo chipped in and I smiled

"Great! sure! but, I don't know how to play" I smirked slightly and they took me outside and showed me how to play. Basically one person is the cat and they have to catch the others-the 'mice'- and turn them into cats, I actually thought it was a pretty good came considering they made it up them selves. we began playing and surprise, surprise I was the cat! they were actually pretty fast if I'm honest we must have played for ages before Graham came out with Merrill and told us dinner was ready... that's when in happened.

Something moved in the corn fields causing us all to whip round to face the field "What was that?" Morgan asked breaking the silence Perrie grabbed my hand and buried her head in my leg, I reached down and stroked the top of her head and we just stood like that for a while

"I think we should go inside now guys" I said turning back to the others, my blonde hair swishing behind me as I did. Graham gave a small nod before everybody walked uncertainly into the house to eat our dinner.

Later that night I tucked Perrie into the single bed on the other side of the room to mine "Do you like it here miel?" I asked her as her small figure lay in her bed

"Oh yes mère!" she said excitedly "Morgan and Bo are my best friends!" I smiled and gave a small laugh

"I'm glad you like it here" I kissed her forehead and stood up "I will be up later, sleep well" slowly her eyes closed as she drifted off to sleep and I went to join Graham downstairs; we were filling out the paper work for Perrie's new school. "Thanks for helping me with this Graham" I sighed as I sat down "I would'e have a clue what to do"

"That's what family's for" he smiled as his eyes skimmed the paper work. We had family, that was all we needed.