After the Sun Sets (18+)

CHAPTER 26 - Perish

Carmen heard the shouting before she heard the lock turn in the front door. She had just reached the living room when her daughter walked in looking exhausted, almost caving under the weight of two school bags and what she assumed was a skull-splitting headache.

"Siena, for the last time, no means no!" Lora declared with a strained voice.

"You say no to everything! I hate you!" a fuming Siena screamed as she pushed past her mother and stormed off to the kitchen stomping her feet with each step.

Lora held the door open for a timid-looking Aiden and then shut it behind him with a groan. She rested her forehead against it and closed her eyes, hoping for a moment of relief. Carmen raised her brows questioningly at the little boy, who shrugged his shoulders in response and explained unnecessarily, "Ma and Siena are having a fight."

"Aiden, please," Lora sighed heavily as she turned around and dropped the satchels on the couch.

"Why are you fighting?" Carmen asked concerned. But Lora wasn't in the mood for questions. Her posture was slouched, her pupils were unfocused and she could almost hear her eyes rolling back like they used to when she was a teenager.

Meanwhile, her head was punishing her for the bottle of red wine she opened and drank by herself the night before and every fibre in her body was hating her for it. She hadn't even heard Jess come back from her date, though she knew it must have been late since it was well after midnight when she herself fell back and passed out on the sofa.

"It doesn't matter," Lora grumbled as she made her way through to her mother's kitchen where, to her great annoyance, she found an intrigued Marion crunching on a biscuit and slurping her tea. Lora's insides twisted at the excited glint in the woman's eyes.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lora saw Siena's arm reach sneakily for the plate of biscuits in the centre of the table. "Siena!" Lora snapped.

The tiny hand drew back, but its owner glowered at her. "What? I can't have a biscuit either?"

"Okay, that is enough, young lady," Lora turned to her daughter, resting her hands on her hips and looking positively dragonish. "What are you trying to accomplish first? Falling into a sugar coma or giving me a stroke? Because I'd say you're on to a photo finish!"

"Neither," Siena countered with an equally fierce stance. "I just want a life that doesn't suck!"

"Take a number and get in line!" Lora shouted back, exasperated at the girl's attitude.

"That's enough, both of you!" Carmen stepped in between them and slapped both palms on the table. The pair of them fell quiet, still looking murderously at one another but not daring to make a sound. "Now, what is going on?"

Siena's blue eyes flashed, and her lips curled into a vindictive smile that reminded Lora momentarily of her father. "Mummy had a fight with Owie and now he won't come to see us!"

Lora's eyes widened at her daughter's nerve. "Siena!"

"He was supposed to take us to the beach today," the girl went on. "Do you know how long it's been since we've been to the beach?"

Lora drew in a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm and trying not to blush under Marion's curious gaze. "Siena, that's enough," she ordered through gritted teeth.

"Before Owie, we were stuck at home all the time! The only places we went to were the hospital or school or Auntie Janet's. Owie took us everywhere! Everywhere Daddy would have taken us to if he wasn't sick."

"But he's not Daddy, Siena!" Lora yelled, chest aching at the veracity of her words and mortified that her own little girl was telling the town's eyes and ears precisely what she feared everyone would think.