In the morning my alarm went off and I turned it off, Kevin didn't need me at all. Suzy was really tired, Arin Barry and Danny were still sleeping when I went in the room and Ross… wait where's Ross?

"Suzy, where's your brother Ross?" I asked.

"I don't know, do you want me to come and help you look?" She knew what it meant at least.

"No, stay here and get your brothers up. I'll be back before you even know it." I said as cheerfully as I could. Goddamnit Ross. I looked all over the house, on the balcony and even at the front of the house. Ross had managed to go downstairs, open the sliding doors and got himself covered in mud so I couldn't see him. When I got him in side while cleaning him up and severely scolded him the other kids were downstairs drawing.

"Uncle Mark?" Barry was tugging at my pyjama bottoms.

"Yes, Barry." I sent a clean but upset Ross out of the room and bent down to talk to him.

"Can I ask two things?" Oh no, what am I gonna say?

"Yeah sure little buddy!" Oh Jesus god no!

"The first question is- What's for breakfast?" He said wondrously.

"What do you guys want?" I asked back… Oh no he's gonna ask any second now!

"Umm, cereal! Um, second question is- Where's Aunt Aletta?" He asked me, that question of everything he could ask, it was that one.

"I'll tell you guys after breakfast, ok?" I gave myself sometime to think about what I was to tell them.

When I was getting the bowls out of the cupboard, my thought process started 'She didn't leave me, at least I don't think she did. Why don't I just be honest… but they might get upset and I don't want that… oh what should I do? Maybe if I tell them that- no, no, no I don't wanna lie! Screw it, I'm gonna tell them the truth… erm, maybe not… Man up, Mark that's what she'd say I'm gonna tell them the truth!'

I sat down with them after feeding the baby, it was awkward because each child made eye contact with me and they hardly ever blinked.

"So… kids." I said awkwardly.

"Were listening Uncle Mark, you can tell us!" Suzy said. I felt so bad to have to bring them in to things like this.

"Aunt Aletta, is…" I sighed and then continued. "Missing… she took off without us 2 nights ago and I don't know where she is." Suzy looked as mortified as I did when I first knew.

"Uncle Mark," she said. "You're not a bad man, you did nothing wrong." The little girl was out of her chair standing in between me and Danny at the table rubbing my back sympathetically.

"Just know," Arin climbed out of his chair and went on the other side of me, rubbed my back and completed his sentence. "We are all here for you. You helped us, now we help you."

Today, we'd have a chilled day. We started drawing for most of it but we ended up all sat on the couch watching TV in our pyjama's. It was 9pm and I woke up surrounded by children all using me as a bed. Since I knew their sleeping circumstances, I put them all to bed in a matter of 10 minutes. Now, I was sitting on the couch, watching TV and waiting for that phone call. For once I was waiting on a call that is pure white noise.

It was about midnight when my mobile phone rang I picked it up…