Dear Jolene

Chapter 6

"Dear Jo, I told you to clean your room up", Emily said with a scowl.

Emily had been storming in and out of rooms since the morning because today was the day of the family dinner. She wanted everything to be perfect but it was proving to be impossible if you had a 15-year-old teenager who had just survived her final exams.

Jo sulked and got up from her bed, she started picking up her socks when she noticed Emily still glaring at her.

"What?" Jo asked.

"Is it so bad that I am getting married", Emily asked softly, "If you think I have forgotten about your father, you're wrong I just moved on okay?"

"Stop it, stop with all this nonsense, I just don't get why I have to meet all these people, they are so many, can't you send me to some boarding school", Jo said, "You know, like their half-brothers?" 

Emily's eyes widened, "How do you know about them?"

"The internet, it knows and sees everything", Jo answered in a heartbeat.

Emily let out a deep sigh, "You're stuck with me not just because I promised Malcolm but also because you're my daughter, my Baby. I know you feel like you will be a burden in this new chapter of my life but trust me, it's you or nothing for me".

She walked up to Jo and pulled her into a tight hug. Emily cupped her face and placed a motherly kiss on Jo's forehead and suddenly pulled her cheeks hard.

"Now you're gonna clean this room spick and span", Emily said in a threatening tone, a smile adorning her face.

Jo was left pouting and a messy room to clean.

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The Knight Brothers were lined outside Apartment 11A as their Father was doing the last inspection of them just like he did before the last dinner.

"Axel, I can see the paint blobs on your socks, didn't you have cleaner ones", Andrew pointed out.

Axel looked away, avoiding his father's reprimanding words.

Andrew sighed and said, "Now listen, Jo is a lovely child, very adorable and sweet, though she is not some fragile doll, please treat her with respect".

The boys straightened themselves because their father rarely used the word, please. Andrew never repeated the same thing twice. If he wanted something to be done, he would order it or make it happen by himself. However, this Mother-Daughter had put their Father, The Andrew Knight, into some sort of enchantment or so it seemed to Alexander. Andrew's third son, who never understood how a person can love someone with no boundaries. All his thoughts and decisions were based on rational ideas and logic.

Before Andrew could continue his speech about how to be a good boy, Axel rang the bell multiple times. All of them looked at him horrified, Andrew was ready to throw his youngest son off the 17th floor of the apartment building.

There was a lot of running around heard from inside, suddenly it went all quiet and the door opened.

There stood a little girl wearing a pink dress, her short dark brown hair was pinned on the sides, and her glasses looked sat crooked on both her ears.

"Good evening Jo", Andrew greeted.

Jo gave him a tight-lipped smile and said, "Beware of the lasagna, I repeat the lasagna". She moved away giving all of them space to enter.

Jo shut the door behind them and turned around to see Axel waiting for her. Today he looked much cleaner, with combed-back hair and the pale blue dress shirt tucked into mid-waisted white pants, and tan loafers.