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Birmingham, 1916
Isabella had been lying in bed ever since Arthur Sr. had dragged her back home from Doctor Rohaug's offices. She wasn't in as much pain as she had been in when she woke, seeing as once she had gotten home, she grabbed the first alcohol bottle she got her hands on and chugged down the entire bottle in minutes.
Arthur Sr. hadn't seemed to care about the pain his daughter was in, the second he had dragged her out from the car and inside the house, he had left, probably to get drunk at some bar or brothel.
He had informed her, before he left, that he expected Isabella to play along with the lie he had told the family regarding her whereabouts yesterday and today. However, he seemed to forget to tell Isabella the lie she was supposed to confirm.
She wasn't a bloody mind reader, how was she supposed to know what he had told?
She was home alone, drunk out of her mind and lonely. She wished someone were home, but as Arthur Sr. informed her, Aunt Pol, Finn, and Ada were having dinner with Martha and the kids. When she had tried to walk to see Nic, she hadn't been able to get up from her bed without being seconds away from fainting due to the pain and alcohol.
She wanted someone by her side. She wanted her brothers to make her laugh. She wanted her mum to stroke her hair. She wanted someone to care for her. Anyone to care for her.
Katarina's form, 'fake mum', had disappeared. Isabella had called for the form that used to follow her every move, the form that had stayed with her ever since Katarina's death, but the form was gone. Isabella hadn't seen 'fake mum' for months. When Isabella needed her the most, she had been left alone.
Isabella didn't know how many bottles of alcohol she had finished since she had gotten home. The alcohol seemed to be her only form of relief from the pain and her only company. She had been drinking for hours without end, and it seemed there wouldn't be any. She didn't want to remember yesterday's events, nor the pain from her back, nor how alone she felt.
"Isabella, you're home!" Finn exclaimed as he walked into her room. "Did you have fun sleeping over at Sage's?"
Ah, so that's the lie Arthur Sr. fed them. Thought he hated Sage?
"Yes, very much." Isabella tiredly smiled as she carefully sat up in the bed, trying to move her back as little as possible. She had drunk all the alcohol she had brought into her room, and she was starting to sober up. Which meant her pain had started to return and her back was on fire again.
"Did you drink all those?" Finn questioned the empty alcohol bottles which were littered everywhere around the room. "Are you drunk?"
"No, well yes. But I am not drunk. At least not anymore." Isabella patted the place beside her on the bed. "Come sit, bud."
