Chapter Ten

A/N: Thank you to Linneagb, LeilaTheGalaxyDefender, Cookie05, strawberrymagic01, Laura, cindywilliamsjr, Guest, 2nd Guest and Katniss Bella Potter for reviewing. It makes me so happy!

For the second time in a row, Amethyst awoke with an unexplained pounding in her head, and once again, she could not remember the reason for it. It was becoming a little unnerving for her, constantly finding herself in these awful kinds of situations and being unable to remember the cause of them, but discovering this cause was not her current priority. No; first, she needed to get out of there.

However, it was only when the young girl turned to try and figure out a way to loosen the bonds on her hands that she realised there weren't any. In fact, come to think of it, she was lying completely with complete freedom of movement, in a comfortable bed, though she lay in a room that she did not recognise at all.

Immediately, her heart welled with hope. 'He must have found me.' she thought, unable to keep the bright smile from her face. 'Mike must have called the police and found me, then brought me here.'

But her happiness was short lived, as a key turned in the lock of the door, and the panel of white wood slowly began to open. Amethyst glanced in its direction, hoping that it was Mike carrying the tray of what she could now see to be a few breakfast items. However, the person was too small to be Mike, and before she could speculate further on their identity, their face was exposed to her, and she realised with a gasp of shock exactly who she was with.

"Mum." she breathed, her mouth hanging a little open with the shock of seeing the woman. After all, it had been weeks now since she had last seen her mother, and that experience was not one that she particularly wished to recall.

"Oh, Amethyst, you're awake." the woman said, and she seemed to be relieved by this. She placed the tray down on the table beside her bed, and took a seat on the edge of the mattress, taking the girl's right hand in her own. Amethyst frowned. Her mother was never so caring with her, with any of them, and so she found it highly suspect that she had begun to behave in that way now. She wanted something; there was no other explanation for it.

"What am I doing here, Mum?" she asked, her throat aching a little as she spoke at a normal volume for the first time since she had been taken here. For a moment, the woman did not answer, though her lips moved a little, forming silent words. It was almost as if she were considering what she was going to say, what she could tell her elder daughter and what she could not, as if she were afraid of getting herself into trouble. Knowing who else she had seen since she had been taken away from Mike and Tee, it was almost inevitable that she was.

"Well, I wanted to see you, and so did your brother." she began, her speech tentative and slow, as she carefully measured each word she said. "So, we thought that we'd bring you here, to spend some time together as a family."

"But Mum, you can't just take me away. You have to talk to my social worker first, and wait for them to tell you if it's okay or not, you know that." Amie tried to tell the woman, but she had little success, as the woman only shook her head a little impatiently. Her daughter could not say that she was much surprised. Over the years, as her brother had grown older, he had gained more and more influence over their mother. It must have gotten to the point now that he had more influence in the household than she did, and if he wanted something, he would make sure that he got it.

"Well, we didn't want to wait to go through all the rigmarole just so that we could spend a little time together as a family." her mother told her, smiling widely as she ran her fingers through her daughter's golden brown hair, which had been darkened considerably by the days of grease accumulating in it. "Come on, love. Didn't you want to see the three of us?"

"I wanted to see you." Amethyst responded, deliberately making no mention of her brother. She was not pleased at all to have Jacinth involved in her life once again, as the last time he had decided they should be together as a family, it had ended terribly for all of them. This was not completely his fault, however, and the young girl's mind drifted to the other man responsible for the events of that day. "Not looking forward to seeing Barry."

"Oh, Barry's gone, love. I'm through with men." the woman explained, with a harsh forced laugh. Her daughter was quite relieved by this, as she had never liked her mother's long-term boyfriends, particularly not Barry Malone, the most recent of them, who had lived with them for three and a half years. 'Half of which I spent in care because Mum cared more about him than me.' Amethyst thought bitterly.

However, the reality of this suddenly dawned on her, as she realised the significance of this. If Mrs. Jayden was telling the truth, then there would only be three of them in the house, the two of them and Jacinth.

"There's only three of us, Mum. Not four." the blonde pointed out, the confusion not lost in her tone. But it seemed that her mother had been expecting the statement, as there was a mischievous glint in the woman's eye, not dissimilar to her own on certain occasions.

"I told you that we were going to be together as a family, Amie, weren't you listening?" Mrs. Jayden sighed goodnaturedly. Seeing that Amie was still none the wiser, she continued, raising her eyebrows in a mysterious way, suggesting that she still knew far more than her daughter did. "That means all four of us."

Suddenly, as if on cue, the door to the room opened once more. As the figure moved around the door, the blonde girl lying on the bed gasped, having noticed at a time when she was so desperately trying to leave the one reason that might persuade her to stay.

"Ruby."

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