Limited

Chapter Three

I closed my eyes for a short second before glancing into the safe. A thought crossed my mind quicker than a flash. Would I be invading someone's personal belongings? Did they belong to me and my Mum now we owned the house?

The questions echoed in my mind until I finally opened my eyes. I chose to close the safe before my eyes witnessed the contents inside. I placed it back where I found it and covered it up with the floorboard. I stood up from the floor and opened the box storing a few of my belongings.

After taking the things out of my box and placing them in small places around the room, I decided to take a look downstairs to see if our neighbours had gone.

They hadn't.

As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I heard Nixon on the phone in the living room.

"I'm sick of your games!" He spat. "I don't understand why you need to do this, Shelby. It's pathetic!" His tone grew firm yet the nerves sounded as if they were creeping up on him. "You can forget about meeting up later. We're done!" Nixon hung up and completely ignored me as he stormed out of the living room. He walked straight out the front door and closed it harshly behind him.

"What on Earth was that?" Tessa asked concerned as she walked out of the kitchen.

I stood in the foyer completely stunned.

"Was that Nixon?" She asked me.

I nodded my head trying not to bring anything of what I heard into the conversation.

"I think that means we better head home then." She smiled in embarrassment.

My Mum walked out of the kitchen taking note of what she heard. "Well, thank you so much for welcoming us to the town." She said smiling.

"It's no trouble at all. Like we said, we were keen to know who bought this house." She laughed.

"Has it been up for sale for long?" My Mum asked.

"About a year." Tessa replied.

"It's a good job we got it then, eh Alison?"

I sprung to life as my thoughts were still focused on Nixon. "Oh, yes." I agreed not knowing about the current conversation.

Tessa smiled. "Come on you lot." She called in through to the kitchen.

Suddenly, Susan came running out holding something that looked very much like a mobile phone.

"Give it back!" Molly yelled as she chased after her.

"Susan!" Tessa said firmly.

Susan stopped in the centre of the foyer and dropped the mobile phone.

Molly came up behind her and picked it up. She huffed in annoyance and walked straight out the front door.

"I apologise" Tessa said picking Susan up from the floor and holding her on her hips.

"Don't worry." My Mum smiled, reassuring Tessa that things were fine.

"Thank you. Anyway, thanks for the tea." She turned to face the door and called the twin girls just before leaving the house.

As soon as they left a sudden thought approached me. "Weren't there six kids?" I asked my Mum.

"Yes." She said as she walked back into the kitchen.

"I only saw five leave." I said following her.

"The younger lad left earlier." She told me.

I jumped up onto the work top and sat happily swinging my legs like a little girl. "Oh right. Anyway, I took a look at the rooms and they all look the same. But I found which one I like." I told her.