A/N: Warning for mentions of underage prostitution and child laundering.
"What the hell was that?!" Jody demanded as she literally collapsed into a random window seat on the bus. Thomas shot her a lazy grin, sliding into the seat next to her as he clearly attempted to catch his breath. "That was your grand plan to get Ella her home back? By chucking orange juice on her dad and trying to get a filmed confession?"
The two of them had escaped Ella's father's men within an inch of their lives and while it was a thrilling experience, she realised it was also something that'd get them into trouble.
"I didn't try to get a filmed confession," he started, leaning back in his seat. "I did get a confession."
She looked at him, confused. "No, you didn't. You only told him to tell the whole world what he told you."
"That's the only part you heard," he informed, taking the camera out of his bag. Now that she had the chance to get a proper look at it, she saw that it was clearly expensive. "I got a lot of good footage while you were distracting the lawyer."
Distracting the lawyer?! Was that what she'd been doing back there? She glared at him as he scrolled through his exclusive footage. "So you were using me, then?! You told me I could help you help Ella but all you really wanted was the chance to film funny videos!"
He sighed. "I wasn't using you," he said, turning the camera off. "I did need your help to help Ella. Thanks to you, I was able to sneak in and get her so-called father to admit why he dumped her in care. The footage will do the rest."
"What do you mean?" she asked, crossing her arms. She didn't trust him one bit. He was turning out to be the worst possible combination of Ryan and Tyler. "How on earth is your stupid footage going to help her?"
"It'll put pressure on him to take her back in to save his own neck," he explained, as if he knew exactly how everything was going to go down. "These blue-blooded folk are all the same. All they care about is their reputation. Like my great old parents. Admitting that they couldn't have a baby was so shameful for them that they bought a stolen baby instead."
"They're titled?" she questioned, wondering how the world could be so small that two 'blue-blooded' children ended up in the same care home for near enough eight years. "What are they? A duke and duchess?"
He laughed humourlessly. "They weren't titled. They were just rich. She was the daughter of a socialite. Only, the top dog didn't know that I wasn't really his grandson until his daughter and son in law went to prison for buying me. He didn't want anything to do with me after that. He didn't like foreigners."
"This isn't going to help Ella," she stated, recalling how Mr Hoyle hadn't even been close to admitting the truth. "They don't want her there. The father, the stepmother, the lawyer... none of them. Even if they do take her back, they'll never accept her as part of the family."
"They will," he deadpanned, the expression on his face terrifyingly emotionless. "They'll have to."
Something suddenly dawned on her just then: Thomas wasn't doing this for Ella, he was doing it for himself. He hated Ella's father because he reminded him of his so-called parents and grandfather. He wanted revenge from Ella's father because it was probably the closest he was ever going to get to taking revenge from the people who'd wronged him. This was all about him. All about his pain, never Ella's.
"Don't do it," she warned lowly, turning to him. "It'll make things worse for her. It might ruin her life."
He turned to face her in apparent bewilderment. "What are you talking about? I'm going to give her her life back!"
"You're just doing this for yourself!" she hissed, jumping as the bus jerked a bit. "You don't care about her! If you did, you would've given your place at Boland House up for her by now!"
"I care about her more than anyone else ever has," he said through gritted teeth. "I've been there for her through everything"—he banged his fist on the metal bar next to him—" for the last eight years. I'm going to get her out of care which is more than anyone else has ever done for her!"
"But..." she faltered, licking her lips. Here she was again, one time too many, after saying something she shouldn't have. She'd been so foolish to presume that she could comment on an eight-year relationship between two people she barely knew. If the roles were reversed, she would've punched the person who accused her of not caring for her friends, especially one she'd known since she was a child. "If you—If you care about her so much, why don't you two talk anymore?"
"I want us to," he admitted, his features softening. "She just doesn't seem interested..." He facepalmed. "We should've never gone out."
"But you two really liked each other... I don't get how those feelings just disappeared." Sometimes, it felt like her feelings for Tyler would never abate even if they both got into relationships with other people. What was the point of relationships if feelings faded so easily?
"They haven't," he confessed quietly, "but feelings aren't enough to drive a relationship. We're just not right as a couple. We're better as friends."
"Why don't you tell her that?" she implored, recalling her heart to heart with Ella who'd described Thomas as her best friend, her everything. Surely, Ella wanted to reconcile just as much as Thomas did? "I'm pretty sure she feels the same way."
"I will," he decided, nodding to himself. "But not before I get her back with her family."
She sighed inwardly. He seemed to really believe that quickly reuniting Ella with her family would save her from the horrors of Burnywood. However, having to live with a father like that swanky deadbeat would probably be worse than spending a few weeks at Burnywood. "What about her mum? She might be a better option than that posh idiot."
He smiled sadly. "She's the idiot's wife... that woman you called the stepmother? She's the cold witch who gave birth to Ella."
She stared at him in shock, swallowing deeply. Even Denise Jackson had stuck around despite Kingsley Gray abandoning them all. She couldn't believe that there were people like Ella who were rejected by their parents for being illegitimate while those same parents doted over the legitimate children they had together. Being ditched for a stepparent and half-siblings was fairly common, especially when it came to fathers, but she couldn't imagine what it was like to be cast aside knowing that one's full siblings had the love and support of their mutual parents. It had to be awful.
.:. QK .:.
"Feeling better?" Jody asked, sitting down next to Tyler on one of the sofas in front of the TV.
Immediately before dinner, the pair of them and a few others had dressed up as zombies at Floss' request—in order to scare Finn—in return for her doing all of their chores for a whole week. After that, Jody had gone up to her room for a lie down because she'd started to feel the effects of the lurgy Tyler had passed on to her and had groggily re-emerged a couple of hours later. By now, the younger kids were all upstairs, (hopefully) fast asleep, and there were only a few other older kids in the lounge with them, all of whom were quietly watching Look North on very low volume so as not to wake the night care worker up.
"Yeah," he replied, smiling at her. "But I wish I could milk the being ill thing until tomorrow. I'd love another day of lazing about."
"At least you got a day off," she pointed out. It'd been school as usual for her before she got back home to check on him and subsequently go out with Thomas. Now he was recovering steadfastly but she was getting progressively ill at the same rate. "I'm not going to school tomorrow," she declared with a sniff.
"Tyler, mate, you seen that clip of that royal getting dunked in mango juice?" Alex asked from the other sofa, sniggering at something on his phone. Jody raised an eyebrow as Tyler answered in the negative—today seemed to have been the day to humiliate the 'high-class' on camera. Her eyes drifted to Charlie who was sitting right next to Alex, hiding a smile behind her hand, and Ryan who was sitting on her other side, looking over at Alex with a cold expression on his face.
"He's a noble, not a royal," he corrected, smirking when Alex shot him a dirty look in response. Jody straightened her back in alarm; two different nobles being dunked in juice on the same day was too much of a coincidence.
"Same thing," the Scottish boy muttered nonchalantly, and Charlie nudged him, nodding towards the TV. Jody followed her line of sight to see the usual regional news presenter prattling on about something. She exchanged a glance with Tyler, wondering if he was having as much trouble making out the presenter's words as she was. Apparently, whoever was controlling the remote was also having trouble because they turned the volume up.
"...the peerage faced a security breach from a teenager who doused him in mango juice and released footage of the incident on the internet which has since gone viral," the newsreader announced, her voice ringing loud and clear. "In the footage, the perpetrator accused the Earl of Newcastle of abandoning his own daughter, who is now allegedly in the care system, solely because she was born out of wedlock. The Countess was said to have been at home at the time of the incident but did not appear in the video. The Earl, who has three young children with his wife, has declined to comment on the claims made by the intruder. "
Jody shifted in her seat as her heart skipped a beat. There was only one explanation for this but she just couldn't believe it. How could Thomas do this? Did he not care about how Ella would feel after seeing her life exposed on TV? While the seventeen-year-old hadn't been named in the video or the report, attention had now been drawn to her and it wouldn't take long for someone to look into the Earl's past and post details of Ella's life, particularly her life before care, all over the internet.
Had Jody herself been naive in trusting Thomas? She had honestly thought that he would blackmail Ella's father with the footage to urge him into taking Ella back. She'd never imagined that he would do something like this. She'd thought that Thomas loved Ella. How could he do this to her?
The poor girl was probably devastated.
.:. QK .:.
The next day, Jody dragged herself downstairs to get some breakfast. The others had all left for school an hour ago and the house was actually quiet, for once. She walked into the kitchen to find Ella sitting at the breakfast bar, eating cornflakes. The older girl looked way too happy for someone who was about to have her privacy invaded by Daily Mail writers. Perhaps she somehow hadn't come across the footage of her dad or been told about it?
"All right?" Jody asked casually, popping two slices of bread in the toaster. "Bunking college?"
"I'm great," Ella responded, beaming, "and my classes don't start for another hour. How are you feeling?"
"Like shit," Jody answered, turning back to the toaster. Yep, Ella definitely hadn't heard about what Thomas had done to her dad. Eventually finding out would come as a nasty shock to her. She impatiently tapped her fingers on the counter, trying to picture the older girl's inevitable reaction. She imagined a lot of tears. The toaster pinged just then, interrupting the sound of footfalls approaching the kitchen.
"Ella, can I have a word?" May-Li questioned as Jody grabbed a small plate and placed it on the counter. Her voice was tinged with a sense of urgency and Jody didn't have to turn around to know that her carer had a concerned frown on her face.
"Oh, absolutely," Ella replied demurely.
"Why don't you come to the quiet room with me?" Taking the piping hot toast out of the toaster and placing it on the plate, Jody wondered if May-Li knew that she was overly involved in Ella's affairs.
"Oh no, I'm fine for you to talk to me here," Ella said, surprising Jody. Since when did Ella trust her enough to not spread her business around the entire household, especially after she had falsely 'revealed' her to be a prostitute?
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Okay, so, I had a call from your social worker today," May-Li stated, cutting to the chase. "She told me that random people have been calling social services up all morning, asking for you."
"Me?" Ella asked as Jody sat down at the table, trying to pretend she wasn't there at all. This she needed to hear, even though she felt like she was about to fall asleep any minute.
"Not you, per se, but a daughter of your father," May-Li clarified, sighing as she put her hands on the counter. "Do you have any idea who might be responsible?"
"Tabloid journalists?" Ella guessed, shrugging her shoulders. "They prefer dukes and princes to earls but I wouldn't put it past them."
"You're at the top of the waiting list for a flat so it won't be long before you're out of here. The sooner you're out of care, the better."
"That's good to hear," she commented, hopping off the stool. "I'd better go and get ready for college."
"Okay." May-Li smiled at Ella as said girl walked to the sink with her bowl before she turning to look at Jody who was trying to stuff some toast down her throat. "You feeling any better?"
Forcing herself to swallow the piece of toast she'd been chewing for the last few minutes, Jody reluctantly peered up at May-Li. She felt rubbish. She was still only halfway through her first slice of toast and was struggling to keep her burning eyes open. "I think I'll need to go and lie down again," she admitted truthfully, yawning.
"Alright, shout for me if you need anything," May-Li said, pushing herself away from the counter. "I'll leave you two girls to it," she added before leaving the kitchen, presumably to get back to the office. She and Mike probably used the quiet time to get the most paperwork done as possible; it was downright impossible when all of the residents were home, especially the ones who required constant attention.
Blinking rapidly, Jody jumped to attention when she saw Ella turn away from the sink and start walking to the door. "You not going to Burnywood then?" she implored curiously. From what May-Li had said, it seemed like Ella was going to go straight to the semi-independent flat.
Ella stopped by the door, facing Jody. "Doesn't matter," she responded, throwing Jody off a little with how serenely she was smiling. "Doesn't matter at all when one considers where I'm going."
Jody raised an eyebrow, feeling a headache coming on. There went her afternoon plans of boxing. "Where are you going?" she managed to ask, leaning her face against her propped up hand.
"The sort of place you people all dream of," Ella simply answered, slipping out of the kitchen before Jody could question her any further.
Taking another (forced) bite of toast, Jody stared off into space as something in her head pulsed. She didn't know what Ella thought they all dreamt of but her only dream for a long time had been to be a good, proper family with her brothers and mother. Now, she had no dream; life was just about slogging along from one day to another, trying to keep her anger under control. What had Ella really meant? What dream had she been referring to?
A/N: I think the Ella story will wrap up by the end of the next chapter. Thanks to yourfire and CharlieSMarts12 for the reviews. Yourfire—I'm glad it wasn't predictable. CharlieSMarts12—hopefully, his plan has become clear now, though it remains to be seen whether it actually worked or not. Still going to thank you each and every time!