The Untitled Job

-29- Questions

"Mummy!" Taylor screams as she runs out of the fort towards Madison. They hug and Madison smiles sweetly at her daughter.

"Oooooh pancakes?" I stand up from where I was crouching and make my way towards Madison to offer her some pancakes.

"Yeah, sorry about the....mess." I hesitate. "Would you like some? There's plenty to go around."

"Oh would I? I'm famished." She grins at me as she takes one off the plate. "Oh my...you made these? I knew I had a good feeling about you." She laughs before leaning towards me. "You know I haven't been home to a 'mess' like this in a while, it's nice."

Madison crawls into the fort to speak to Daniel and Aidan as Taylor follows closely behind her. I walk into the kitchen to tidy up the mess I made while making the pancakes. As I wait for the washing up bowl to fill with water I hear footsteps behind me.

"Hey Lexi, can I have a word with you a sec?" Madison asks with a kind smile. I turn the tap off and turn to face her nodding my head, "Of course."

There is an awkward silence before Daniel's voice breaks the silence, "What did you want to talk about, mum? They won't stay distracted for long."

"What happened to your car Daniel?" I feel the colour get drained from my face. The silence is deafening.

"It's my fault." I mumble, unable to make eye contact with either of them.

"Wha-" Daniel starts to speak before Madison looks directly at me in shock horror.

"You? What happened, Lexi?" Her eyes bore into me as I stand there shaking from the memory of last night.

"I got Daniel in trouble, it's my fault that his window is smashed. I'll pay for the damage and I'll leave. I'm sorry." Unable to look either of them in the eyes I make my way out of the kitchen. I start to gather my things while I hear muffled talking from both the kitchen and the fort.

"Lexi, wait. Please." I hear Madison shout from the kitchen. I stop dead in my tracks as she appears from the kitchen doorway. "Can we talk about it more?" I nod hesitantly as I make my way back towards the kitchen.

"Look, Daniel has said that it isn't your fault and I need to hear you out. What really happened?" As I sit opposite Madison on the table, her hand reaches out for mine as if she knows I need the comfort to be able to talk.

"It technically is my fault. It happened because I was staying here." I look at Daniel who is watching me intently.

"Who did it?"

"My brother." I say matter-of-factly.

"Why would you brother do this?" She looks between Daniel and me. "Oh, I see. Overprotective brother. I wasn't expecting this in all honesty but I'm not mad about it. The relationship I mean, the car I am mad about..."

"That's not why he did it mum." Daniel stated bluntly. "Wait here, I'll show you." Daniel leaves the kitchen and I hear the front door shut before it opens and closes again a few seconds later. The footsteps get closer to the kitchen.

"Here. This is what he threw at my car window." He slams the brick down on the table in front of his mother as she looks at the note attached to it.

"What is this?"

"He likes to control me. He thinks of me as his property, some play thing for him to torment. To top it all off, because of me being here it's now caused this to happen and I don't want the kids to...."

"Lexi, don't." Daniel jumps into my explanation.

"Lexi...I don't know what to say. I'm sorry." Her hand gives mine a squeeze as my eyes fix onto the brick still on the table.

"It's ok. I can handle it. I just don't want it to be brought here. I don't want the kids to get hurt because of me." I feel a couple of tears roll down my cheeks. "I should go. I'm sorry for causing trouble." I go to leave the kitchen but Daniel stands in the doorway blocking me.

"Don't leave. Trust me." He grabs my hand in his as the other lifts my chin to make me look at him.

"Lexi, can I just say something?" I turn around to Madison and nod. "If you need to go then by all means but if anything, and I mean ANYTHING, happens then please come back." Madison gets up from the table and walks towards me. Her arms wrap themselves around me in a strong hug. I feel the tension leave my body.

 

"Thank you." I whisper.

 

After packing my things I make my way home after spending the day with their family, helping to clean up the mess from the fort and BBQ. As I sit in my car outside my house I decide it's best to ring the girls to explain what happened. After a few rings Lyla answers.

"Hey Lex. How you feeling?"

"I'm drained. Madison came home today."

"Oh no."

"Yeah....she saw what happened and asked. Rightly so."

"Was she alright?"

"I think so. She was shocked I think. But she was lovely about it."

"That's good. Umm...I wanted to ask something."

"Go ahead, what's up?"

"Is it ok for Josh and Tyler to know? It's just they were so confused and worried last night. They didn't understand what the note meant or who would write that. The only way I thought I could get them to calm down was to explain what was going on. Is that ok? I'm sorry Lexi. I know I shouldn't have said anything."

"It's alright Lyla. I can see why they were confused."

The rest of the conversation went normally and the same with my conversation with Mel.

After hanging up the phone I make my way into the house.

"Hey mum, I'm home." I shout into the air. I received no response so made my way upstairs with my bag. As I start to put my clothes in piles for washing I hear a creak on the floor behind me. I turn around to see Cody in my doorway.

"Got the message then?" He says with a smirk on his face.

"Leave me alone, Cody." I make my way to the door and slam it.

"BITCH!" The door swings back open in an instant. "You think you can get away with that?!" Cody starts shouting and waving his hand around. I catch a glimpse of blood on his thumb. I must've caught his thumb when I slammed the door.

"Hey Ky! Think you should come and see this." I look behind Cody and notice Kyle now standing in the doorway.

"Look how weak she is." I hear him chuckle. Kyle walks towards me and Cody backs away. Each step he takes closer to me I step back not wanting to be near him.

"Aww come on now Lex, don't be like this." His hand grabs a hold of my upper arm. I wince as his grip tightens. I'm pushed back and I feel myself fall onto my bed. Kyle places himself leaning over me, his teeth gritted.

"You thought you could get away huh? When will you learn?" I felt a dull pain hit the side of my face between my cheekbone and jawline as my head was thrown to the side. Another one reached my side in the same place that was a fresh bruise not so long ago. I closed my eyes admitting defeat as I realised how Kyle was leaning over me. His legs were either side of me. If I just....I bring my knee up to collide with his privates, he cripples over in pain. I use all the strength I have to push him as far away from me as possible before I make a break for my door.

"Going somewhere?" I hear Cody say before he steps in my way. I try to side step him but his arms wrap around me holding me in place. In the struggle he ends up stood behind me. I launch my head backwards and hear the familiar ringing in my ears as the pain starts to spread over my head. In shock, his arms loosen from around my sides. I run as fast as I could to the front door and even further before I find a hiding spot in a garden a few houses down the street from us.

"DAMN IT KYLE! HOW COULD YOU LET HER GET AWAY?! YOU DO REALISE SHE'S JUST GOING TO GO RUNNING BACK TO HIM, RIGHT?" I hear Cody shouting from our front garden as he looks around frantically for where I might have gone. He walks back inside the house and slams the door.

Reaching into my pocket, I pull out my phone and dial a number.