What goes on behind the words (is there pity for the plain girl)

Yes-no

TW: Mentions of child abuse. 

"Ok, first things first, we'll start with a couple of yes-no questions, ok?" Marjorie asked, despite her tone making it clear she wasn't really asking. Both siblings refused to respond but she continued regardless. "Did your dad verbally abuse you?" After a pregnant pause, Marjorie was about to give up and change tactics until Reece delivered a sharp nod. He was at a point where, whilst he absolutely didn't want to share any of their traumatic past, his relationship with Marjorie started to mean so much more to him, so he threw her a bone. Returning Autumn's glare with an (almost) equally deathly one of his own, he spoke up.

"I think everything he ever said to us could be counted as verbal abuse." Autumn sighed, rolling her eyes, before nodding. Maybe some of the smaller things they could share.

"What sort of things would he say?" Winter asked. Once again, Reece responded.

"Just the typical 'you're failures', 'you're disappointments', 'I wish you'd never been born', 'my life would be better off without you', you get the picture." Marjorie covered her mouth with her hands as she tried to reel in her shock. This was so much worse than she had ever been expecting, however, by the openness that she had received, she doubted this even scratched the surface.

"Autumn, anything to add?" a silent glare was her response. Ok, openness from one of them was still something. "Next question then. Did you have restrictions on going out, having fun, meeting up with friends, etc?" Both the siblings nodded, one more reluctantly than the other, but it was Reece who spoke up again,

"Unless it was to do with school, we weren't allowed out of the house until we were 15, nor could we bring friends in. The only exception to this was Mia but this was only for me. I could leave the house if it was to just be with her sometimes and she was allowed in our house. We used to sneak out all the time when dad was on his business trips or asleep though ."

"Only for you? Does that mean Autumn wasn't even allowed to go out with Mia then?" Autumn nodded stiffly. Being confined to her house all day every day is what triggered her claustrophobia, not that she'd ever tell anyone that Marjorie's open-door policy helped her more than anyone could have guessed. Reece knew that she hated small and confined spaces, but she doubted even he knew the full extent. Marjorie, meanwhile fought the urge to cry at the treatment that the two closest people to her suffered. Swallowing, she continued her questions. "Did you have restrictions on fun and activities, even within your house?"

"We were allowed 1 hour of TV a month if we were lucky, and that was usually us being allowed to watch with dad when he watched his programmes. And we had a no phone upstairs policy, but we used to sneak them up anyway sometimes." Reece replied, trying to act nonchalant and hoping they would brush over the horror of his words. They didn't and Charlotte joined Marjorie in looking shocked and upset. 

"Right, umm, next question, then. What was your dad's attitude to school work and grades?" Marjorie abandoned the whole yes-no question idea with Reece's increasing willingness to share, although she wasn't sure how much longer it would last.

Naturally, Reece was the one who replied. Autumn stopped bothering to kick him when she realised he wasn't going to remain silent. She was still going strong with her silence though. "Oh, that's an easy one. If we weren't getting 100% in everything or we weren't top of the class, it wasn't good enough."

"That's - that's why you both have such high attention to detail, isn't it? Why your reports and paperwork is so detailed and precise?" Marjorie realised. Reece nodded and Autumn raised an eyebrow in assent, at least, Marjorie guessed, in assent. "Ok, next question then. Did your dad ever..." she trailed off, inwardly trying to prepare herself for this answer. ".. hit you?" Autumn and Reece visibly recoiled. That told Marjorie all she needed to know. "I-" she stopped, suddenly having no words. "How often?" she eventually dared to ask.

*** And the questioning starts! My heart breaks for Aut and Reece but things will get worse before they get better. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter though!