Are you going to see Divergent this week? - Unfortunately, no. I have to go to a track meet all day tomorrow and then on Sunday I'm celebrating my grandmother's birthday and hopefully finishing a ten-page physics paper...:/
What do you do in track? - My main events are discus and javelin but I'm working on every event right now because I'm hoping to do the decathlon at championships.
What's your favorite color? - Don't have one!...no really, I don't.
What happened to Amberly when Clarkson took over again? - She ran off to watch Clarkson self-implode from a remote location and plotted her return.
Why did you decide on an evil Amberly? - I don't know honestly. I love making a good villain though. I think there is so much more to Amberly than meets the eye and after years of being mistreated by her husband, I have trouble imagining her as a calm, in-control person. I like to think that after years of being under Clarkson's thumb, she grew this sickness for him and was just waiting for the perfect time to exact her revenge.
"Sometimes the best thing you can do is keep your mouth shut and your eyes open; the truth always comes out in the end." - Mandy Hale
She shook her head on time, refusing. "No, it's fine. I have a lot to do. The Italians are coming and…"
Maxon put his hands on her head. "Marlee said she has it all under control. Besides, the Italians love you so much that you could decorate the room in Russian flags and they would still think the world of you."
She sighed, knowing that he was right but she still wanted to work. "Maxon, I'm fine," she insisted for the hundredth time that morning. But as she said the words, nausea swept over her and she ran the other direction to the bathroom, barely making it in time as she sprawled on the marble floor by the toilet. Maxon knelt next to her, feeling queasy himself from watching her get sick.
He sighed as she finished, getting her a glass of water. "You still want to work?"
"I'm pregnant, not dying," she mumbled into the toilet. A little voice in the back of her head was telling her to just give up and let Maxon get to work because he had so much to do but she had no desire to lie in bed all day. Her stomach was making a pretty good case for it though.
"Well I think it'd be best if you stay here for the day. It would give me peace of mind if I knew you were comfortable up here and being well taken care of," he said, rubbing her back. She rolled her eyes at him. "Why don't I just bring your stuff up to you? You can tell me what you need and I'll get it?"
"Now we're talking." She nodded and then retched again, groaning. "I hate this."
"Only a few more weeks of it, okay? I think we can survive."
She nodded and took another sip of water. "You're wonderful," she sighed, relaxing into his arms.
"I know, I know." He lifted her and carried her to their bed. He arranged the pillows behind her and sat down with her feet in his lap to rub them. "How about now? Am I still wonderful?"
"Stop fishing for compliments." She groaned and sank down further into the pillows. "I feel like crap. Look what you've done to me. This is all your fault." He just sat there and grinned, continuing to massage her feet. "Why did I want to go through this again? It is terrible."
He shook his head and checked his watch. "Okay, I have to be going." He put her feet down and got her a new glass of water, setting it on the table next to her bed. "I'll send Lucy down to get your folders for the party next year and I can also send for your sisters."
"That'd be perfect," she agreed.
He bent down and kissed her, picking up his suit coat as he walked out. Her sisters were there within ten minutes. May admired the pictures hanging on every wall of their bedroom and America realized that her sisters had never been in her room before. Lucy came and went with America's work but Kenna had brought along Astra, prompting America to summon for Christian. The cousins had bonded a lot over the last several weeks, bringing America and Kenna even closer.
May sat with her sisters, looking disinterested and slightly disgruntled. "May, what's wrong?" America asked, reaching for her younger sister's hand.
"Nothing. I just see how happy you both are with your husbands and families and it makes me want that for myself," she admitted, not looking at them.
America looked over at Kenna. Maybe May had been a little distant lately but was it actually because she and Kenna had been leaving May out? "I'm sorry May," Kenna apologized quietly, playing with Astra's hair lightly.
America nodded. "Yeah, May, I'm sorry if you've been feeling left out. But trust me when I say that not everything is sunshine and butterflies in my marriage and I'm sure Kenna can say the same."
Kenna frowned. "What's going on with you and Maxon? I thought with the baby you both are so happy and excited."
Sighing, America told them everything. The assassination attempts, Amberley's return, the halt in their plans for the country. "I think Maxon's just putting on a brave face; it's what he does best but I can tell that he's really heartbroken. And it's not something I can fix. If anything, it's all my fault."
"Well if Amberley wants to be a tyrant you can't help that," Kenna told her. "Can't Maxon find a way to overturn her authority?"
America shrugged. "He's looking but he's pretty sure he can't do that without overturning mine. It's all so complicated and he told me to let him handle it."
"How do you know Amberley is the one behind the attacks?" May asked suddenly.
Shrugging again, America said, "We know it has to be someone on the inside. We're upping security measures with the guards and making all staff go through another background check but that'll take weeks to finish and who knows what'll happen before then. All clues point to Amberley too so we need are kind of treating her like a person of interest for the time being."
May nodded, taking it in. "But Ames, you can't just blame her with no proof. It sounds to me like she's just trying to defend the country she's helped to build."
"May, don't defend her," Kenna snapped.
"I'm not defending her!"
Kenna rolled her eyes. "She tried to kill America and Maxon. She killed Marcus. Who's next? Me? You? Gerad, Mom, Dad?"
"Ken, it's okay," America said quietly. She looked to May. "I know it's complicated May and you may not understand everything that's at work here but…"
May stood up. "Stop trying to tell me what I do and do not understand! I'm not a little kid anymore. I'm more than capable of understanding all of this. I'm sorry if I don't share the same opinions as you guys but I think you owe it to me to at least hear me out." She stormed out, slamming the door and frightening a maid who had just walked in.
Kenna and America sat in stunned silence. "That escalated quickly," Kenna eventually said, still looking at the door to the room.
The door opened and Maxon poked his head in. "What's wrong with May?" he asked, walking in.
"We just upset her. We'll handle it later," America told him as he sat down next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders.
Christian was curled up in her lap, asleep. She was thankful that May's outburst hadn't woken him. Maxon reached over and pulled Christian toward him so that he was tucked between him and America. "You feeling any better?" he asked America.
She shrugged. "A bit. I'm still a bit dizzy," she confessed.
"Don't worry Maxon, I've been taking good care of your girl," Kenna assured him.
Maxon smiled at her. "I'd trust no one else more than you for that." He looked back to America. "Now, I don't want to worry you, but Marlee just told me she needs to talk to you about a flower shortage…I don't know exactly what it was that she was talking about but it seemed urgent."
"Did you send her up here?"
"I told her you were up here but I think she was going to talk to Mary about it first…" He was cut off by the rebel alarm. "Dammit," he sighed, tilting his head back to the ceiling with his eyes closed. Christian started to stir as Astra cried and put her hands over her ears. Maxon opened his eyes and picked Christian up in his arms, helping America get out of bed. At least she had changed into yoga pants and a sweater so she was fully dressed.
Kenna carried Astra in her arms as they went through the dark passages to the safe room. America clutched Maxon's elbow, the movement making her a little nauseous. "It's only been a few days since the last attack Max," she said to her husband.
"I know," he answered, his voice sounding tired and annoyed.
The guards ushered them inside the safe room. America did a quick head-count and noticed that everyone was there with one exception. May. "Maxon, May isn't here!" she exclaimed as the guards were closing the door.
He had just set Christian down on the floor with Astra to play and when he heard America he snapped his head up. "I'll find her," he told her and took off through the door and into the passages.
Kota watched him go. "I'll help," he volunteered.
"Me too," James agreed and the two men chased Maxon out.
America felt Kenna hug her and she smiled at her older sister. "She'll be okay," Kenna whispered to her. Their parents looked frightened, Mrs. Singer on the verge of tears.
James and Maxon came running in again, Kota not far behind them. "A guard came and told us that she's in one of the safe rooms upstairs," Kota explained as James stood and caught his breath.
"You run fast for a king," he said to Maxon who barely looked winded.
He shrugged. "I like running," he answered vaguely, not telling James the real reason he had always been so conscious to stay in good shape as he grew up.
The attack only lasted a few hours and the guards reported that the damage was mostly superficial. May was okay; she met her parents in their rooms on the second floor. America was grateful to hear that her sister was okay but when she heard May talking about the attack, May said she was on the first floor in a safe room. The guard had told the boys that she was upstairs.
"Maxon, who was the guard that told you where May was?" she asked Maxon when they were at dinner that night.
Kenna eyed him carefully, sharing the same suspicions as her sister. Not that they knew what to be suspicious of but they both had an increasing feeling of uneasiness when it came to May. "I don't know, he had a mask on," Maxon told them. He frowned. "What's wrong?"
America shook her head. "Not here, okay?" Maxon shrugged and went back to eating. America looked down the table to May and saw her lift her cup, not touching it to her lips and only pretending to take a drink. Gerad was just taking a drink as America called out.
It was too late. The liquid had already passed his lips and he fell on the floor, thrashing and seizing and foaming at the mouth.
Poor Gerad! I am so sorry it took so long to review. I have a HUGE (like, words can't describe how huge) physics research project and lab due on the 31st and I'm still working on my rough draft. it's really difficult work so I've been working as much as I can. now, I do have some general housekeeping to attend to so here we go:
1. please send me more reviews and questions!
2. MandLMacerForLife: thanks so much for the review! I just started your fanfic and I love it! I can't wait until your next update. I was going to review but I figured I may as well give you a shout-out here.
3. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE YOU HAVE TO READ THIS! so there's two different ways this story could go; the long way or the short way. the short way everything kind of just ends with a nice, neat bow tied around it. with the short version, there'd only be about 35 chapters total. now the long version significantly adds to this story and skips ahead a bit to when all of Maxon and America's kids are teenagers. unlike other fanfics floating around right now, it would still be focused on Maxon and America's relationship and not their children's selections. there'd be mention of them but that wouldn't be the plot of it all. so please, just let me know which version you want. I can't give you the synopsis for the long version because it would give away a lot of stuff that is going to happen in these next few chapters. yeah, so, like I said, tell me what you think and i'll debate it for a few more days and hopefully get back to you in the next few updates.