From across the hallway

Part 11

Wade had been gone by the time Missy had woken the next morning.

She had appeared from the bedroom fully dressed, in a white blouse, pencil skirt and heels, hoping to see him still lying across her couch, all ruffled and handsome, with that same old cheeky grin he always seemed to carry.

But all that was left of the merc, was the bloodied cloth and bowl of water she had used to clean him up the previous night.

Missy gave a sigh, wandering into the kitchen, placing a pretty diamond stud into each ear as she did so.

Missy's work day was uneventful at best, but by the time 3.15 rolled around, Missy came to find that Emily had not had a good day at all.

As Missy came to collect her daughter from the brightly lit nursery three floors down, she was met with an older female staff member with a hard face and thin, pursed lips.

"She's been an absolute handful all day," said the woman shaking her head, without even as much as a hello. "She refused to join in with the other children, and just would NOT listen when I told her it was naptime..."

Missy lowered her chin, her eyes blackening.

"She's deaf... I made that very clear to your colleagues when she started here....you just have to take your time with her-" began Missy, but the woman cut across her sharply.

"She should be wearing a hearing-aid in that case," sneered the woman, looking at Missy disapprovingly.

Missy felt her cheeks burning.

"The hearing-aid makes her uncomfortable," Missy argued. "she doesn't like to wear it."

The woman tutted. "You're her Mother, you should be making her wear it," she snapped. "Children in my day did as they were told..."

"But this isn't your day!" shouted Missy loudly, causing a couple of the children that were playing nearby, to look up at her curiously.

The woman glared at Missy crossly, before folding her arms over her chest.

"We are just not equipped to deal with children like her at our day-care," said the woman, her voice patronising and sharp.

Missy was furious. Livid. And right at that moment, she wanted nothing more than to smack this woman right across her horrible face.

Angry tears threatened to spill over her eyes.

She turned away from the woman, quickly walking over to the corner of the room where Emily was sat quietly, alone and sad, with her coat already on. .

"Hey, baby," said Missy, her voice shaky, as she crouched down before her tiny daughter.

Emily looked up at her with big green eyes and Missy could see that she had been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy and her nose a little sniffly.

"Shall we go home?" asked Missy, titling her head and stroking back Emily's short brown hair.

The little girl nodded and gave an upset little sniff, getting to her feet and reaching her arms out for Missy.

Missy instantly lifted her daughter, carrying her toward the door on her high-heels, as Emily buried her face in Missy's coat.

"I highly suggest that if she wants to come back tomorrow that she should bring her hearing-aid, maybe then she will learn to behave," said the woman, as Missy approached her.

Missy could have burst into tears right at this second, and so ignored the woman, strutting straight past her. And through the glass doors.

It was no wonder that with staff like that, Emily disliked going to day-care. She knew it was likely that Emily had been shouted at as it definitely took a lot to make Emily cry.