"How's that possible? He's so little."
"Well, that's what the doctor said." Claire snapped at Abigail. I could see that it was a hard topic for her, hell; it was hard for me too.
"It just started one day; he had a fever so I went down to the pharmacy to get him some drugs, when I got back, Frank and Mom were fighting, right in front of him. When I took him away to his room, I noticed that he wasn't moving at all, it was as if he paused in time." She stopped and looked at me. "That was two years ago. The doctor said it's really rare for kids, yet here we are."
Damn! Why does everything have to be so wrong? Schizophrenia? Isn't that just too much?
"He's coming back." Claire muttered under her breath so that only we heard her. James blinked twice, then stretched.
"Claire!" He sounded cheerful. "There are so many pictures of you here and none of me."
"Sorry, Buddy. It's just that Dad doesn't have any of your pictures."
"What about the ones you took?"
"I didn't bring them with me. Tell you what, I'll go get them for you tomorrow and we can hang them around your room just like before, how's that?"
"Really?"
"Claire, you..."
"Yes. Come on, go tell your Nanny the good news." James was up instantly as he ran up the stairs. He totally ignored the rest of us. I really hoped Mom's attitude wasn't the cause of his coldness. More importantly, Claire was planning on going back to that house?
"What were you thinking? You can't go back there, I'll send someone..."
"I'm going and that's final. What I really want to know is what you all were talking about inside there to trigger James' condition. Did you by any chance mention my Mom?" Luciana, Abigail and I exchanged glances. Of course we did, and we didn't even use the best words. Was James eavesdropping the whole time?
"I can't lose my brother, okay? This is becoming more frequent and I'm scared for him. Please, no one should say anything about my Mom, please." With that, she left us staring after her.
Great! Just great!
Claire was mad at me for the rest of the day. I knew that because she pointedly refused to acknowledge my presence. I tried to get her to explain more about James's condition but she avoided me like the plague, focusing on Mrs Hart and Jacey who helped her pick out outfits. I only stood aside and watched as Claire tried to include Antonio; he kept mute and rudely looked away. It didn't bother me, I knew that he'd talk to her when he was ready. I stayed a few minutes more observing them before I left for my study-room, bored to death of their chatter about clothes.
Things were a huge mess, I couldn't believe James, as tiny as he was, could be suffering from schizophrenia! And it started when he was two?! Damn that Frank! He ruined my family; killed my wife, hurt my daughter and messed up my son's brain. He'd better hope the cops find him before Nick does, 'cause I'm gonna kill him myself.
"It's huge, isn't it?" I wasn't startled to hear Abigail's voice close behind me; no matter how deep in thought I was, hearing her voice rather soothes me.
I turned to her.
"I bet you're planning on how you're going to murder Frank." She arched a tired brow at me, then leaned on my desk, moving aside a document.
"You know me."
"Yes, I do." She paused, looked away for a moment, then looked back at me.
"You have to have a long talk with Claire. She needs to know everything... And I mean everything." She narrowed her eyes to slits, looking deep into my eyes. I felt hot.
"Claire doesn't... I don't think she's ready. Did you see how she nearly choked about schizophrenia? How do you think she'll react on the whole truth about Doris and I?"
"I know it'll be hard but it'll be better she knows now. If you hold out for like, say a couple of months, when she's finally relaxed and have fully accepted you, then the truth comes out; trust me, her anger now will be paradise compared to then."
I looked away. It always sucked when Abigail's right.
"After the funeral."
"What?"
"Promise me you'll tell her after the funeral." I exhaled.
"Alright, I'll tell her after the funeral. I promise."
"Good. Now, tell Nick to quit looking for Frank. Shhh, you don't have to lie; I know Nick's been missing because he's on Frank's tail." I swallowed my protest and looked away again.
"Hey, look at me." She coaxed softly. I turned back to her. "I spoke to Jacey, it'll all be fine. You have to let go and focus on your kids. I mean, they won't let go if you can't. Let the cops handle this, please?"
It was hard for me but she made sense; we're all hurting and it's not helping if I'm so distracted by Frank.
"You're right, Abby. I thought finding my kids was the hard part, but this... it's so damn complicated! I so badly want to tell Claire everything so we'd finally be on the same page, but she keeps blowing me off. It's not any easier for me, I mean..." I trailed off and looked her squarely in her eyes. Her eyes were sad, they didn't have their usual glitter which was alarming.
"Is something wrong?" I asked, hoping she'd smile and pour it all on me. But I knew that wouldn't happen. Abigail wasn't someone who'd burden you with her problems, rather she would want you to tell her all of yours, she would want you to vent and curse as much as you'd like, pour it all out, then she would think of a solution and give you relief.
I didn't like it, I've always wanted to know what was going on in her head, what matters to her most, but she never gave in. Abigail could take everyone's problems on her shoulders, yet you need not know what hers was.
Even when Doris brought the news of her pregnancy, Abigail was the one who encouraged me to do the honorable thing of marrying Doris and being a father to my child.
It was almost as if it didn't bother her that I was going to be married to someone else! I knew we weren't dating but we were sort of together. I loved her totally; I mean, I still do but I couldn't tell her that, not when I wasn't not sure how I fit in her life. Besides that, things were totally confusing to even bring up the past. Basically, what I'm saying is, I'd pay whatever it cost to know what she was thinking.
"No. I'm sorry, I have to go." She stepped away from me and headed for the door.
"Abby?!" She stopped. For a moment, she slouched, then she regained her posture.
"I'll be here early tomorrow so we can go to work together." With that, she left.
ClaireAs much as Jacey couldn't stop talking, Antonio couldn't even say a word. All day, I've tried different ways to get him to talk to me but it was as if I was talking to a rock. He never responded and I couldn't take it personal because he didn't speak to anyone else either. Maybe it was his thing, the deep melancholy. But I couldn't give up on being great friends with him; it made more sense since he's only a few months older than me.The next morning, after I had gotten ready to leave for my old home, I decided to ask Antonio to join me. Even though I told my Dad I would go and was very stubborn about it, it spooked me out to go back there. I would have easily asked Jacey but she's just ten and she mentioned going somewhere with Grandma. Dad had insisted that I take a bodyguard or he'd ask some cops to escort me but I turned him down flat; I made him promise to let me do it myself.He would have kept pestering me if Abigail hadn't interve
I put my hands over my mouth to suppress the frightened cry that left my lips. I was looking at him, I was looking at my mother's killer. I pressed my eyes closed to calm myself down, and when I reopened them, Jason was already making his way towards Frank with a kitchen knife. I didn't know what was going on in his head; was he about to commit murder? I turned to Antonio, he had his eyes fixed on Jason but he made no attempt to stop him."Jason, stop!" I screamed, going after him. Frank opened his eyes immediately and in a flash, he went for the knife, fighting to get it out of Jason's grasp. I stopped in my tracks, unable to do anything. I turned to Antonio, only to find out that he was gone! Gone to where?! I just couldn't imagine Antonio running away, more like fleeing and leaving me to deal with the situation myself.Jason successfully pushed Frank away from him as he stood beside me, reaching for my hand."Clary? Who's this brat?" Frank was panting hard, m
MattIt was bad enough that I couldn't discourage Claire from going back to the murderer's house; I also had to deal with my jackass business partner Nathaniel, who just wouldn't stay away from Abigail. Don't get me wrong, I know she doesn't belong to me and she's a free woman; yet it's so annoying to see him all over her.Abigail doesn't even like him! I mean, she's definitely not entertaining his flirting.But, it would have been a whole lot better if she was speaking properly to me. Forget about speaking properly, she was clearly avoiding me; speaking formally to me, barely touching me. In fact, she only made physically contact with me when she pushed me out of Claire's room, every other time, she either looked away from me or spoke with monosyllables.I didn't know what her deal was and she also refused to tell me. I felt I did something wrong, but how do I apologise for something I don't even know about?
As expected, Abigail focused solely on James and I didn't get any chance to talk to her at all. I didn't want to say anything in front of James but I needed to know what her problem was. When she wouldn't give me even the tiniest attention, I left them alone and stayed in my study room burying myself in work.I called Antonio again and asked how Claire was doing. She was still unconscious. It worried me but since Antonio assured me she'll be fine, I had to wait for morning; no matter how tormenting it was. Usually, it's times like this I have Abigail beside me. Now, I'm alone and Abigail somehow hates me. We've never argued before so seriously, never. It felt as if we're just going around in circles.I couldn't remember doing anything wrong, so why did she want to break up? Why am I saying breakup? We're not dating, right? Do I want to date her though? Yeah, definitely. Forget about dating, I want to marry her. She's the only person I want by my side every second.
ClaireWhen I awoke, rays of sunlight were already peeking through the curtains. I sheepishly yawned and stretched on the bed, absentmindedly reaching for Antonio. He wasn't there."I might as well get up." I turned to the bedside clock, it was already past 7 am.I went to the bathroom to wash my face or maybe shower, but I didn't want to wear my old clothes on a clean body. Luckily for me, there were clean clothes on the bathroom sink with a sticky note on it. It wrote: 'It's a good thing we're the same size. You won't mind me lending you this, right? Tyler'. How sweet of him! I held up the tee-shirt and skinny jeans; definitely guy fashion but they would do. With little touch ups here and there, no one would guess they belonged to a guy.I took a quick bath and dressed up; I knotted the tee shirt at the side to fit me more and pulled up my hair in a loose ponytail. For all it's worth, I looked ready for a jog at the park.
I was so thankful when we pulled into my Dad's house. Dad stopped the car at the entrance and turned to me. "James believes you spent the night at your Uncle's because you missed Tyler. Nick dropped by with the stuff you got from..." He didn't finish that statement and turned to Antonio instead. "Lucy's here, she knows about yesterday. What did you see?" Antonio quickly put up a hand to his cheek, looking down. "She's in a bad mood, I'll definitely get slapped." "Then I guess I'll try to slow her down while you make a run for it." Dad said with a grin. I was like, totally confused. What were they talking about? "Too late, she's coming." I looked up at the entrance and Aunt Luciana was really coming towards us; James was behind her. That wasn't important; what I wanted to understand was, how could Antonio know that when he's been looking down?! "Seriously, Claire, not now." He snapped at me. Uhm, excuse me? "I didn't even say anything."
I decided to mind my business and finish my meal. Antonio did the same, although he had a huge frown on his face."What happened?" Aunt Luciana was by the door, looking disappointed."We had an argument about Dad." Antonio's reply was nonchalant."I've told you, don't indulge her. Jacey is fragile and this whole situation is not easy for her." Antonio threw away the egg he was about to eat and got up so fast, his stool fell over."You know, I feel like you care about everyone else more than you care about me. I'm a boy, I need to protect Claire, but you didn't think that I could have gotten hurt there as well. Rather than scolding Jacey for hiding important stuff from us, you want me to be less normal and do more. Now, Jacey is fragile and this whole situation is not easy for her, what about me? I'm an outsider, right? You don't think it affects me?" No one needs to be told how hurt Antonio felt; his voice was really pained. Aunt Luciana couldn't even say
Few minutes later, I had barely just finished brushing my hair and smearing lip gloss on my lips when Emma came in."Ooh! Someone looks pretty." She teased. I suddenly felt stupid. Why did I take Antonio's advice and dress up for Jason? He's definitely crazy if he thinks I can date my cousin and I'm more crazy to actually patronize him."Going somewhere? Because you have a visitor downstairs and he's so cute! Are you two going out? Is he your...""Cousin!" I shrieked. What the fudge is going on around here anyway?!"He's my cousin.""Aww, too bad. You two would have made a nice couple." Emma said almost sadly."Emma?!""I'm just saying." She laughed. "He's waiting for you though.""Okay, I'm heading down now." I took one last look at myself in the mirror before leaving my room to go find Jason downstairs. I forgot to ask Emma where he was and goodness knows I still don't know my way around the house yet."Claire!" That was Jacey; running up to me with a bi