Last Seen Alive

Chapter Twenty-Four

By the time Michael dropped Kelsey off at home, she was a little more refreshed from their light training session. As promised, he'd dutifully held the punching bag while she took her frustrations out on it and they'd finished with a few blocks.

She waved him off and pulled her phone out to check messages as she walked up to the front door. There were two from Liam, one from Natasha, and five from her mother.

A jolt of uneasiness went through her and her finger shook as she rang the doorbell. Her mother opened the door and Kelsey scanned her face quickly for any sign of distress, but all she found was a sort of quiet resignation.

"Is everything okay, Mum?"

Her mother nodded and flashed her a brief smile. "Everything is fine, but there is something we need to talk about."

That sounded ominous but if it was something serious, she probably wouldn't have said everything was fine.

"Where're Kiki and Chad?" she asked just to be sure, looking around the quiet, empty house.

"Your sister is upstairs watching Frozen again," she said with a faint smile, "And Chad went out a little while ago."

She walked ahead of her, heading to the kitchen and Kelsey trailed behind, trying to figure out what her mother could possibly want to talk about.

"Am I in trouble?" she asked, dropping her backpack on one of the kitchen chairs.

"Did you do something that might get you in trouble?" Her mother threw a questioning look over her shoulder from where she was searching through the cupboards.

To Kelsey's surprise, she placed a box of cereal in front of her and handed her a bowl and a spoon.

"Uhh, did I die somewhere between the gate and our front door?"

"Why?"

"I must be in heaven because you're always yelling at me not to eat raw cereal and yet today you're handing it to me on a silver platter," she replied.

"That's porcelain, sweetie," her mother said tapping the outside of the bowl with her nails.

"Hell it is then." Kelsey laughed, instantly relaxing. If her mother was being snarky, then everything was fine.

She happily poured cereal into her bowl and started eating it with her hands, completely ignoring the spoon.

"Giving you raw cereal doesn't mean I condone all caveman tendencies," her mother said, holding the spoon out to her with a pointed look.

"That's cavewoman, sweetie," Kelsey mocked, taking the spoon and shoveling a heap of cereal into her mouth. 

Her mother didn't laugh at her jibe or say anything. She clasped and unclasped her hands, before settling in the chair across from Kelsey.

Kelsey chewed her cereal slowly and swallowed it with an audible gulp, but still her mother didn't react. "Mum, you're scaring me again. What's going on?"

"Hi, Kel-Bel," said a voice from behind her.

"Dad!" Kelsey squealed, jumping up from her chair and straight into his arms, sending colorful rings of cereal flying onto the table in the process.

He engulfed her in a bear hug, lifting her off her feet as she hugged him tightly.

"When did you get home?" she asked, when he finally set her down and kissed her forehead.

"Sometime after noon," he replied with a smile that reminded her a lot of Chad. Kelsey and Keisha were undoubtedly carbon copies of their mother, except for their eyes, which were the same big, round, and brown as their father's. But Chad was a replica of their father, from looks to the build of his body, to his mannerisms.