(I own only plot.)
Hi, everyone! Now, first of all, I am SO sorry for the very late update. Thank you for putting up with me. Second, thank you all for the reviews, favourites, follows and your kindness toward me. You're fabulous and you know it. This is for the guest reviewer, who said (and amused me with) and I quote directly 'Could ya please update? It worked for the other Guest so maybe it will work for me.' So here I am, updating. :) And I must admit, I am exhausted right now...
The next day was filled with tension. Mara could have cut it with a knife. She watched as her parents, who had clearly had a row of their own, avoided each other's gaze and were frostily polite to each other. She watched them both freeze Victor out, as if it had been entirely his fault. (It had only been partially on him, Jasper and Trudy's evident row hadn't been.) It was dancing a little number on everyone's nerves, because even Alfie was grateful to see the school halls. Jerome captured his girlfriend and said "You and me, lunch time. Wear a smile."
Mara laughed and hugged him. "Okay."
She sat in class, thinking of how sweet her boyfriend was. She loved him more than life. She felt her twin sons kick her at that exact moment and she hid her smile. She adored her babies, even though she hadn't actually met them. She imagined two tiny Jeromes, both with poofy dark blonde curls and sparkly winter blue eyes and his pale complexion. She found herself praying for two little Jeromes. The only thing she hoped they'd have of her was her love of learning. "Mara!" A voice awoke her from her images of two little Jeromes.
"Yes?" Mara jumped to attention, focusing her eyes on the urgent and worried face of the headmaster of the school.
"It's your mother. Your father just called." Mr Sweet gestured Mara toward him and she didn't hesitate.
In the hall, she blurted "What happened to Mum? Is she okay?"
"Apparently, she and Victor were arguing. Your father had taken your brother out, but as it's her job to keep the house clean, your mother was still there and Victor lost his temper. Jasper never said how bad it actually is, but that it was enough to get you pulled out of class."
Mara's stomach churned. Her mother being injured in anyway made her want to be violently sick all over the school hall. She swallowed it back, praying that her mother would be okay. Mr Sweet let Mara into Anubis house. She was met by her anxious father, whose worried expression made her stomach churn again. "Dad? Where is she?"
"Uh, yeah... About that... It wasn't too pretty, sweetpea... Your mum's really injured. She's had to go to the hospital."
Mara was horrified, to say the least. "What did he do to her?"
"She wasn't in much of a way for talking. It was obvious he'd beaten her up, but that didn't explain why she was lay just a few inches from under the chandelier, in a puddle of her own blood and incapacitated from the waist down with at least three open fractures and a cracked skull. She just managed to say that he's thrown her over the railing upstairs before she passed out. We were lucky, the paramedics arrived and brought her around, she should have gone into a coma with those injuries. The only issue is... If she can't walk again... We're all getting kicked out." Jasper told his daughter, no expression of a joke in his eyes.
"What do we do, Dad?" Mara asked, sadly, worried sick for, not only her mother, but for her whole family.