Chapter 23

Serena awoke to the feeling of a pair of arms around her chest. She frowned in confusion, knowing they couldn't be Hanssen's. Turning over, she came face to face with her daughter, her big blue eyes gazing back at her.

"Before you say anything..." she whispered, taking her mother's hand in her own "...I heard you crying. Now, I don't know what happened this weekend, with you calling me telling me you're coming home one minute and the next, sounding the happiest I've heard you in a while, saying you were staying on longer. Then tonight, you come in from work, come straight upstairs and fall asleep crying." she paused, taking a breath. "Now, you don't have to tell me anything, but I happen to know that in these situations, being cuddled can help." Serena stared at her daughter and laughed lightly, feeling the tears forming in her eyes once again. Eleanor simply stared at her, a loving expression on her face as she stroked her mother's back, letting her cry. She leant forwards and kissed her forehead as Serena wrapped her arms around her daughter, pulling her close and burying her head in her neck.

When she felt she had no more tears to spare, she pulled back and smiled awkwardly at her daughter.

"Sorry." she mumbled, wiping the damp from her face.

"Don't be sorry. Now, you've done stage one, time for stage two." Serena's eyes narrowed as she looked at her daughter.

"What's stage two?" Eleanor smiled and wiped her mother's cheek.

"Only the best stage there is. We move from the bed, to the sofa...with ice cream." Serena chuckled as Eleanor sat up and climbed off the bed, pulling the duvet off her mother and pulling her up. She followed her down the stairs and dropped onto the sofa as she looked up at the clock and groaned.

"Eleanor, it's too late for ice cream." she complained as her daughter appeared in the doorway, a mock-horror look on her face.

"Mother! It's never too late for ice cream!" she scolded as she held up a tub of cookie dough ice cream and two spoons. Taking a seat beside her, she handed her a spoon and popped open the lid. Serena watched as Eleanor dived in, a look of satisfaction on her face. Smiling, she took a spoonful herself and instantly went back for another. "Do you want to talk about it? What's said during ice cream time stays in ice cream time!" she joked as Serena smiled, wondering where to begin.

"So you're going to let this Cunningham guy ruin things for you and Mr. Hanssen because..." her daughter raised an eyebrow waiting for a reply.

"I've just told you. Mr. Hanssen will lose his job. Mr. Cunningham is the Chairman of the Board...he could make a whole heap of trouble for us."

"How?" she asked as Serena shrugged.

"In lots of ways. The fact we have been seeing each other is not enough alone for Mr. Hanssen to be dismissed outright, but Cunningham will make life difficult for him. There's already been a lack of faith in Mr. Hanssen's leadership abilities, which is utter nonsense, but with this on top...there is a strong possibility the Board will vote to replace him." She took another spoonful of ice cream as Eleanor suddenly brought her legs up under her and turned to face her.

"Unless I'm missing something here, this all seems fairly simple to work out." Serena looked at her expectantly as a sly look crossed her daughter's face. "The way I see it, you have two options. You can either end things with Mr. Hanssen, both of you will be miserable and probably unable to work together, forcing one of you to move anyway..." she paused as Serena had had to agree with her logic "...or...you tackle this head on. You either talk to this Cunningham face to face or you go to the Board. I don't suppose there were any cameras in the stairwell of the hotel?" Serena thought back, trying to visualise the stairwell and shook her head.

"No, I don't think there were."

"Does Cunningham know that?" Serena narrowed her eyes at her daughter, sensing where this was going.

"No...but it wouldn't be hard to find out."

"Yes, but if you claim you have the footage, he's not going to argue with you, is he?" Serena thought about it for a moment and nodded slowly in agreement. "Wait...has he actually got any proof that you and Mr. Hanssen have been seeing each other?" she asked and Serena shook her head. "Well then what the hell are you doing!?" she asked exasperatedly.

"Don't blaspheme, Eleanor." Serena scolded lightly. "We can deny it all we like, but we'll trip up at some point, then he'll have us." Eleanor frowned, edging towards her mother.

"I have an idea, you probably won't like it..." Serena looked at her nervously, waiting. "...what you need is proof of his misconduct, right? Well you need to catch him on video, threatening you. You don't have to do anything with the tape, simply tell him you will unless he backs off." Serena mulled over what her daughter had told her and shook her head.

"No, this is still the best solution."

"Mum, you can't let him bully you! He's done it before and he'll keep doing it!" Eleanor said angrily, snatching the ice cream from her and putting it on the coffee table. "Get this other woman, Amelia to help. If she tells the Board what he was doing to her, they're more likely to believe you!" Serena sighed and patted her daughter's leg as she stood up.

"Thanks for trying to help Ellie, but there really is nothing we can do." she headed from the room and ascended the stairs, Eleanor remaining behind, pondering her mother's predicament.

It was Thursday morning, Serena opening her eyes and feeling the effects of last night's bottle of wine. Turning onto her back, she raised an arm across her forehead and attempted to blink the sleep away. She could hear Eleanor moving around downstairs and looked at her clock, 6am. Her daughter had been getting up earlier the past few days, doing small things to try and raise her mother's spirits...including cleaning the house on a daily basis. She groaned as she pushed back the duvet and switched off the alarm, as unnecessary as it had been so far this week. She entered the bathroom and switched on the shower, climbing in wearily. She hadn't seen Hanssen since that moment in his office on Monday, him keeping his distance. It hurt, she couldn't deny that, she had thought he'd try to fight for her, but instead he had simply disappeared. She climbed from the shower and went into the bedroom, opening her wardrobe trying to choose an outfit. Her gaze landed on her pink shirt, smiling at the memory of the last time she had worn it. Picking it out with a suitable black top to go underneath, she dressed quickly and brushed her hair before heading back to the bathroom to put on her make-up. When she appeared downstairs, there was the sound of cursing coming from the kitchen, followed by the sound of crashing. Serena opened the door to see Eleanor sprawled on the floor, half of the contents of her pan cupboard surrounding her. She couldn't help it, in that moment she felt such love towards her daughter, she burst into fits of laughter.

"Well I'm glad you find this funny!" Eleanor fumed, standing up and wiping herself down.

"Oh...I'm sorry..." she breathed between laughing and trying to breathe.

"I suppose it's good to see you smile." she sighed, rolling her eyes and kissing her mother's cheek. "Can we please try not to stack the pans so haphazardly!?" she asked as Serena nodded, looking sheepish.

"Sorry." Suddenly, her phone rang and she fished it from her pocket, freezing at the caller ID. Eleanor leant over and, seeing it was Hanssen, urged her mother to answer the call. "Hello..." she said hesitantly, wondering how he was going to behave.

"Good morning Ms. Campbell. Simply a courtesy call to inform you of our 9am meeting today. All Board members will be present, including us."

She began to tremble slightly at the thought of having to be in a room with Hanssen and Cunningham so soon after everything that had happened.

"Umm okay, thank you..." she said as he replied.

"See you then."

Serena stared at the phone as it went dead and raised her eyes to Eleanor's. "Well, I guess we're back to normal." she said sadly, pocketing her phone and heading to the hallway, putting on her shoes. Eleanor watched her mother leave the house, throwing a sad smile her way as the door closed. If only she knew, Eleanor smiled.