The following Monday as Joseph was getting ready to leave for work, he discovered that Serena hadn't woken up. Usually she was up at least an hour before he was, but today she was fast asleep in bed with her head under the covers.

"Honey, it's time to get up and leave for Grandma's house."

The blankets rustled and her head emerged, "Do I have to go to grandma's today? I wanted to stay here and build a house for Harry."

He looked surprised, "Harry?"

"My huntsman."

"Your huntsman!"

"I already started building it," she replied, stepping out of bed and running over to her little table, "See, that's where she eats, that's where she sleeps, that's where she does her yucky business and that's where she watches TV."

Joseph looked at the poorly crafted mess of cardboard and sticky tape trying to imagine a spider living in it, "It's nice."

"Of course I still have to make her a tunnel to hide in and a place for her to shower. Oh, can I have the toilet roll when it's finished?"

"Sure, but can you get ready to go now? My boss said if I'm late today, I shouldn't bother showing up tomorrow."

"Good then, I can stay here and build my spider house."

She sat down on her stool and started cutting out cardboard.

"Get in the car," Joseph spat out quickly, before exiting the room.

As the two were heading out the front door, Serena noticed a strange car in the driveway and alerted her father at once, "Daddy who is that?"

Clarisse emerged from the car and walked quickly towards them, "Oh my god she's absolutely beautiful! Oh I want to just pick her up and squeeze her."

Realising the words were directed at her, Serena hid behind her daddy and stared evilly.

"She's a shy one," Clarisse smiled, looking up at Joseph.

"I thought I made it clear I didn't want you here."

"You did, but I can't stay away. I came back to be with my daughter and I want to spend some time with her, get to know her," she tried to peek around Joseph's legs to catch another glimpse of her daughter, "Don't you want to get to know your mummy, sweetheart?"

Serena's eyes welled up with tears, she was scared, she didn't like it when new people spoke to her and she was confused as to why she was talking about her mother. She knew she didn't have a mother, Joseph had never spoken of a mother, so what was this lady talking about?

"Clarisse, I've said it before and I'll say it again, we don't want you in our lives."

"I want to hear it from my daughter's mouth!"

"Darling, get in the car."

Serena ran as fast as she could to the car, then climbed inside, locked the doors and stared out the window, trying hard not to be seen.

"I have a question for you Clarisse," Joseph muttered coldly, "Why have you come back here? Really? Why have you chosen this particular point in time to come back into our lives?"

"I'll explain everything if you just agree to have tea with me. I'll tell you everything."

He thought silently for a moment, considering her offer, then nodded his head, "My lunch break starts at one, I'll meet you at the Bubba's, they do a great roast, we'll talk then. Don't make me regret it."

He turned on his heel without a farewell of any kind and jumped into the car.

Serena was in deep thought trying to make sense of the conversation she had overheard, she had not yet realised who the woman was, nor why she kept hassling her father. She decided to ask, "Who is she?"

Swallowing tightly he replied, "That was your mother."

Her mouth fell open as she registered his words, "B-but I don't have a mother."

"I'm sorry to say it, but you do."

"Where has she been?"

"Africa, apparently."

"What does she want?"

"I don't know."

"Why does she make you angry?"

He paused, "Because she broke my heart."

Serena wasn't in her normal state of mind, so instead of rambling on about nothing, she stayed silent thinking about what it meant now that she finally had a mother.

At nine 'o clock Joseph and Serena walked into his mother's house, she ran straight for the television and inserted an educational video into the VCR. Within seconds, she was engrossed. Joseph watched her and turned to his mother, "Clarisse is back."

Josephine's hand flew over her mouth, "Oh my this is terrible! Uh…darling…who is Clarisse again, refresh my memory?"

"The mother of my child."

"Oh yes, yes of course. Oh dear, she's back? But why?"

"I'll tell you when I know for sure."

"You mean she hasn't told you?"

Joseph made sure Serena wasn't listening, then whispered, "I think she wants custody."

"No?"

"I know!"

"No way?"

"Yes way."

"Surely she knows she can't take care of Serena."

"Actually, I've been too busy trying to push her away to explain Serena's condition."

Josephine clasped her hands together and held them to her mouth, "You will tell her she doesn't stand a chance won't you?"

He nodded, kissed her forehead, waved goodbye to Serena and left for work.

Joseph was dreading his lunch break, yet at the same time he anticipated it. He tried to engross his thoughts into his work, but ended up throwing sugar in the spaghetti and meat in the cake batter. Cursing himself he threw out the tainted dishes and started again, being sure to pay attention to what he was doing.

When lunchtime came he found himself glued to the sidewalk, it would only take a minute on foot to get to Bubba's on foot, but he was reluctant to meet up with Clarisse. Slowly but surely he took the first step, then the second, then before he knew it he was running, then he realised he'd run past the restaurant had to run back.

Clarisse arrived on time and was waiting for him out the front. He didn't greet her, instead he motioned for her to go in. Removing the dark glasses she wore so as not to be recognised on the street, she followed Joseph into the eating area and sat opposite him at a table in the corner of the vacant room. They ordered their food, then got down to business.

"I'm glad you agreed to talk to me," she told him, picking up a menu and making a wall across their table with it, "I have a lot I need to get off my chest."

He focused his attention on the menu to avoid having to make eye-contact with her, "You have one hour, I suggest you get talking."

"Alright," she said, crossing her hands on the table, "I suppose I'll start from the beginning. The reason I left is because you stopped loving me. I wanted to take Serena with me so we wouldn't have to go to court and I wouldn't have to live with the pain of seeing you every day and not being able to love you. But when she wouldn't stop crying despite my efforts to comfort her I couldn't handle it, I knew raising a child on my own would be too much for me. After I left her on the doorstep, I went to live with my cousin Angelica for a while. I cried every day over the two of you and almost came back, but decided to be strong and continue trying to get over my pain. Eventually Angie grew annoyed with my moping around all day and suggested I do something with my life. She tried to persuade me to go back to Rupert, but I didn't think it wise. One day I saw an ad in the national paper for relief workers in Africa, so I joined up, left the country and flew over without a second thought. Ever since then I've been helping starving children receive cases of food and fresh water, it's such a joy to see their faces light up when they see a truck coming down the road."

Clarisse was smiling as she spoke, but paused when she noticed Joseph's sad expression, "What's wrong?"

"Why didn't you try and contact us?"

"I couldn't. I wanted to forget about that chapter of my life and move on. It was too painful to even think about the two of you, let alone make contact."

Joseph raised his voice, "Then why are you making contact now? Why this particular point in time, huh?"

Drawing in a deep breath, she sighed, "I met someone."

He rolled his eyes and looked to see the food coming, as soon as it was placed on their table he used it as a distraction, "This looks delicious."

"Joseph," she called seriously, "Did you hear what I said?"

"You met someone - big deal," he moaned, shoving a spoonful of peas into his mouth.

"Actually it is a big deal. His name is Brian, I met him at the relief core. He asked me to marry him…I said yes."

Almost as soon as she said the last word, he spat his food all over her and ss the half-chewed peas slid down her face, she moaned, "Charming."

Clarisse wiped her face with a napkin and placed it beside her, "I need you to sign the divorce papers, I sent them to your house two days ago."

Joseph was red in the face, "I can't sign what hasn't arrived."

"Well that's okay, as long as you sign them."

He glared at her, "Oh I'll sign them, don't you worry."

"I sent something else as well, custody agreement forms. I want Serena to live with me."

Joseph giggled, then he started laughing, then a minute later he broke into hysterics.

"What's so funny? She's my daughter too, you know."

"Haha, you can't honestly think I'd agree to that, aha," he laughed.

"If we can't settle this here, I am willing to go to court and win her fair and square."

Joseph's face became extremely serious, "Our daughter is not a prize to be one. You have no rights to her, you made that clear when you dumped her on the doorstep. I've spent the past five years raising her to become the girl she is today and I'm not going to let you, nor anyone else take her away from me. Even if I did agree to 'give' her to you, you can make damn sure she'll put up a fight."

"You seem to forget, I have money, I have power and I will have my daughter."

"Over my dead body!"

"That can be arranged."

His eyes narrowed, "Why do you want her so badly? I mean in five years you couldn't find time to pick up the phone or write a stupid letter, and now you come here out of the blue and suddenly she's the only thing in the world that matters to you?"

Clarisse massaged her temples and stared him in the eye, "When I was in Africa I caught a terrible disease and was bedridden for three weeks. Every morning I would wake up in severe pain and by the afternoon I wished I were dead-"

"Spare me the details," he grunted.

"The experience left me practically infertile, Brian and I have tried and tried for a baby, but the doctors say it'll be nearly impossible. I have less than a one percent chance of ever conceiving another child."

"And you want Serena to fill in the time until you do conceive again? Interesting…tell me, what will you do to her when the new child is born? Hand her back to me?"

"It's not like that at all!"

"Well it sounds like that to me!"

"If or when a new baby arrives, of course she will be welcome to stay. I love her and I want to her to live with me."

Joseph, despite his anger began laughing, "You wouldn't last five minutes with her in your care Clarisse."

"Oh bull-"

"She doesn't know you!"

"What has that got to do with anything? She can get to know me."

He stood up, "Clarisse! You don't know your daughter, trust me when I say it, she won't want to live with you!"

Clarisse rose as well, "You're not going to hand her over then?"

"NO!"

"Then I shall get a court order and we can battle this out in a humane manner."

She put on her shades, exited the restaurant and was gone without a trace. Joseph paid the bill and went back to work, he desperately wanted to get his mother's opinion on the matter, but that would have to wait. In a fit of anger he continued his day and eagerly awaited 5pm.