Chapter Fourteen
"Are you ready?" Gabriel asked, knocking on her door quietly before opening it slowly.
"Yeah, I guess so." Evangeline said, turning from the mirror to face her boyfriend, holding the ends of the sleeves of her thick black sweater.
"What's wrong?" he asked, his eyebrows knitting together in concern as he walked toward her.
"As fine as I could be." she said with a sight, "My migrane's back."
"Yeah, that's just what you need today." Gabriel said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
It was now Saturday. When the girls had returned on Monday, they had found Darius, the man who they had thought was their father, dead in his bed of a supposed heart-attack. By Tuesday, everything was in a chaotic state. Evangeline had such a terrible migrane that she could hardly talk or even see, Sapphire had barely talked at all and spent all of her time at Tancred's, and Liam seemed to be in a daze.
Evangeline was fed up with the entire thing. By noon on Friday, her migrane had faded enough that she could function normally, but she was still in pain. Once she was able to get up and move around, she couldn't stand seeing Liam and Sapphire in such a state. They both just sat there, staring off into space, not saying a word, just sitting there.
Evangeline couldn't handle it. She had called Gabriel and asked to speak to his mother. On the phone, she asked Mrs. Silk if she would be able to stay the night there. Mrs. Silk had allowed her too, and Saturday morning, the day of Darius' funeral, Gabriel had driven her home and allowed her to get ready, coming back several hours later to pick her up.
"You going to be okay?" Gabriel asked when Evangeline faltered slightly as she walked.
"Yeah, I'll just taking some pain pills." she said, walking past him into the kitchen. She grabbed a bottle of pills that was nearly empty due to her consumption over the last few days. She took a sip of water and swallowed the pills.
"I thought you said those didn't help." Gabriel said, leaning against the cabinet beside her.
"Actually, I think they do. When I woke up on the days I had the migrane, it was so terrible, I almost blacked out completely, but when I took the pills, the severity subsided some what."
"I didn't realize how bad it was."
"Can we just leave and get this over with?" she asked, pushing her bangs out of her eyes.
"Yeah, I suppose." Gabriel said. As Evangeline walked toward the side-door, Gabriel pulled her back and hugged her. At first, her body was tense against him, then her entire frame went lax and she held onto him for dear life. That's when she finally lost it.
Her face buried in his neck, she started to cry silently. All the stress of the last week finally amounted to this. For the last week, having to be the adult in the house, really wore down on her. Along with the migrane and the silence from Liam and Sapphire, she had no down time, except for the previous night.
After five minutes of sobbing, she let go of him. Watching her dry her eyes, he said, "Evie, it's going to be okay."
"I know." she said, her voice cracking slightly. She gave him a small smile. "I'm okay."
"Yeah, you are." Gabriel said, putting his hands on her small waist.
"Now your neck and collar are all wet." Evangeline said, placing a hand on the side of his neck.
"It's fine, don't worry about it."
"Thank you, Gabriel." she said, looking up at him through tear ladden eyelashes.
"For what?"
"For everything." she said, moving closer to him. "For dealing with me for the last year almost. For waiting calmly those nine months before I kissed you. For even walking to the dance just to be with me." she paused. "Just for everything."
- -
"What is she doing here?" Sapphire asked through gritted teeth.
"Who?" Tancred asked, trying to follow Sapphire's vision line.
"It's her." Evangeline said with great disgust and Tancred and Gabriel knew who thay were talking about.
"What right does she have to be here?" Sapphire said, still glaring toward a cluster of trees where a woman with dark blonde hair hanging in her face, dressed in all black.
"That's just the thing, Sappphire. She doesn't have one." Evangeline said, scoffing.
Without a word, Sapphire strode toward the woman, a grim look spread across her face.
"Sapphire, lis--" Marnie started, Sapphire cutting her off.
"Get out of here." Sapphire spat at her mother.
"Sapphire, I wanted to apologize."
"Well, you can take that fake apology and shove it right up your hairy--"(props to anyone who can tell me where that came from!) Sapphire started.
"Sapphire!" Evangeline said, coming up beside her sister.
"Evie, talk some sense into your sister, make her listen to me!" Marnie begged her oldest, yet unwanted daughter.
"Now why would I do that? Why should we believe a single you say to us? It'd just be a lie. A lie like you you told us every damn night before bed that you loved us!" Evangeline shouted, tears springing to her eyes.
"Let me at least talk to the two of you futher. There were things left unsaid that needed to be said." Marnie said, a pleading look in her eyes.
"From what Evie and Sapphire have told us, everything that they needed to hear was already said." Tancred said, putting an arm around Sapphire's shoulders.
"Tancred, shut up, this doesn't concern you." Evangeline shot at her sister's boyfriend.
"Fine." Marnie said, straightening her jacket. "I'll just be going then. A word of advice, girls, watch out for Mortola."
- -
"So, what is going to be done about the girls?" Mortola asked that night, around ten, as she sipped her tea that was spiked with brandy.
"We'll continue living here. The girls will be going back to school in two weeks and will stay here on the weekends. We've already discussed this and none of us have any problems with it." Liam said, stirring his tea absent-mindedly.
"Liam, wouldn't that be a strain on you, having to deal with you work at college and your life-style in general." Mortola said, sounding concerned but Liam, Sapphire, and Evangeline could see right through the act.
"No, it won't. I've told the girls that we'd stay together and we've agreed on those terms." Liam said, glancing at the girls.
"Well, how about since Evangeline will be turning 18 in late September and will therefore, be of age, I take custody of Sapphire and you can keep Evangeline."
"No, absolutely not." Liam said standing up. "I refuse to let you split them up! I am their next of kin and Dad granted me custody in his will. You are simply their grandmother, I'm their guardian and I over-rule you."
Mortola simply laughed. "How are you fit to raise two growing, endowed children when you are simply an un-endowed, adolescent fool!" she shrieked. Sapphire glanced over at Evangeline in shock. "You think you are so special, but you are nothing!"
"Leave him alone!" Evangeline shouted, her chair toppling over as she stood up suddenly. Mortola seemed to be shocked that Evangeline had shouted at her. "Get out, leave! You're not welcome here!"
"Fine." Mortola said tartly. "Just remember this conversation, Liam. I will get Sapphire." (and your little dog too! lol, jk!)
After Mortola slammed the door behind her, an akward silence hung in the air around the three siblings. Liam broke it.
"I'm not going to let her split you guys up, I promise." he said, sounding extremely sincere.
"I know, Liam, I know." Evangeline said, nodding as she picked up her chair. "Sapphire, are you alright?"
Sapphire, who had been staring off into space snapped her head toward her sister and said, "Hmm?"
"Never mind." Evangeline said, "I'm going to bed."