The knight nursery

The fire, the end of an era for Siobhan and my marriage!

A/n sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter out I haven't been in a great mental place and took a break from writing now I'm starting to feel a little more like myself I should get things back on track

Tw dv spousal rpe

As time went on Gareth became more violent, but he was careful on where to hit so the bruising could be hidden, the rape side became more frequent too it started happening a few times a week now.  He was trying to assert his dominance over me while we were in the house, every time this happened, I would message marjorie with an excuse as to why I would either be late to work or not coming into work, and every time marjorie fell for my excuses.

To the outside world and my friends at work we were the happy couple, to the girls we were also a happy family for most part, but I know Layla was starting to notice more as much as I tried to protect the girls, I knew it was only a matter of time before Layla put everything together, she was always the one to come and comfort me after Gareth had attacked me.

I went to work daily feeling worn down and on edge, but I always managed to paint a smile on my face and act normally around them. One particular day I arrived at work with a message to go to Marjorie's office Carly had the same message too 'morning my loves" Carly and I responded in unison 'morning marjorie" "right ladies plan for today, char you're going to have to cover in the kitchen cause chefs called in sick I'm afraid" "yeah that's fine no problem" I was so thankful to not be in the rooms today that meant I didn't have to put on a front for the parents and the children "great and Carly you are gonna have to be in the baby room today just to cover for charlotte while she's out" Carly was happy to cover "yeah sure I've been in there all week it's no problem" trying to be as normal as I could "oo you will have to wait till we're on lunch together so you can tell me all about your first date last night"  marjorie became intrigued "oooo" Carly didn't look impressed "yeah I wouldn't get too excited about that" and with that marjorie dismissed us both "ok great let's get to it" with that I headed to the kitchen to begin meal prep for lunchtime I was glad to be able to hide in the kitchen away from everyone I didn't have to hide the pain I was in and didn't have to pretend to be ok unless of course someone came in, I checked the emails on my phone and noticed one from marjorie regarding a pair of straighteners going missing from a child's bag I couldn't help but think to myself that was dumb of a parent to put anything like that in their child's bag.

The lunch rush came and went I got my lunch break and decided to sit with Carly in the staff room and have our catch up, Carly explain how the date was a disaster, but I could still feel she hiding something, but I didn't want to push her. As I got up to leave, I felt a little off in myself but had to carry on as if nothing had happened. I made my way back down to the kitchen to prepare for tea after all of the meals had been done for the day I headed home.  I had been home a few hours I had the strangest feeling I had left one of the rings alight as much as it was going to cause issues at home I had to head back and check I could see the nursery alight as I approached I could see marjorie in the car park "hi marjorie I came as soon as I heard" "apparently the fire is contained to one room someone called it in pretty fast so it didn't spread further" as marjorie finished speaking we heard a familiar voice "your welcome for that by the way" both myself and marjorie looked around at the familiar voice it was summer "how did you get here so fast?" marjorie asked "I was the one who called it in" summer responded "what were you doing here summer?" I asked calmly stroking her hair "I was just out for a walk, and I happened to see the flames" me and marjorie looked at each other confused but both thinking the same thing marjorie spoke "well I'm sure once it's all taken care off, we'll find out how this fire started" summer responded "I guess we will" we all stood while the fire service put out the fire.  It took a few weeks for the fire investigation but myself and Carly though we were to blame and each of us confessed to Marjorie.  Marjorie reassured us that it wasn't us and even joked about it being winter the response we all heard from Autumn shocked us even more "it's not Winter" "how do you know?" Marjorie asked her she had to be quick thinking for her next response "I've been around plenty of fire-starters in my time and winter is certainly not one of them" Autumn carried on with her work as Marjorie was confused and shocked "remind me I need to dig out your cv something I need to check" Autumn let out a small snigger "oh Marjorie do you really think I told the truth on my cv" Marjorie looked at Carly in complete shock.  A few days later it was the party for the reopening of the baby room the owner Rodger was there and had brought Siobhan we all thought that was strange. I had settled the children on a blanket while Marjorie Rodger and the others talked this was the point that Autumn found out about her father and Siobhan's relationship, the next thing I knew one of the children had spilled a drink on the blanket, I headed over to the group of adults and interrupted them "sorry one of the children have spilled their drink on the blanket and it's soaked do any of you happen to have a spare?" I asked, as all of the adults looked at me Marjorie and winter were the only ones to respond, "no sorry my love" winter was thinking "oh yeah I do actually there's a spare one in my boot just let me go and grab it" and winter headed out as Marjorie was shouting over at Rodger about the punch being non-alcoholic. After a few moments winter came back into the church hall Marjorie's face dropped in shock "it was you!" Winter looked back at her confused "what was me?" Marjorie took a breath "it was you who started the fire, these blankets come in pairs and it's partner was burned up in the fire it was you!" Marjorie exclaimed "it wasn't me; this blanket isn't even mine" winter responded "care to explain" winter said while looking at autumn. Autumn took the blanket from winters hands "so it was you who started the fire when you said it wasn't winter was that because it was actually you?" Autumn kissed her teeth at Marjorie and the next response shocked myself and Marjorie "it wasn't autumn either she was with me, we are together" Marjorie looked between winter and autumn completely gobsmacked "so if it wasn't either of you how do you happen to have this blanket when it's partner burned in the fire?" Marjorie asked "father" autumn said as she was handing the blanket over to him "oh my blanket I haven't seen that since the night" Rodger stopped mid sentence "the night of the fire?" Marjorie asked, "um Siobhan would you like to explain?" Rodger asked her Siobhan approached smirking "well Rodger and I were here engaging in some extra curricular activities shall we say, we were in the baby room, I already knew you was in the preschool room" she said pointing between autumn and winter "we threw some blankets down lit a few candles, well one thing led to another and one of the candles got knocked over, once we saw the fire was taking hold we headed outside and Rodger called the fire brigade and we left just as Marjorie and Charlotte arrived" Marjorie looked as confused as ever "so hang on a minute were you all bumping uglies in the building at the same time?" Autumn gagged winter "urgh" and shivered Rodger "uh mutton chops" and Siobhan pulled a disgusted face.  It took them all a few minutes to process "so how did you come into possession of that blanket? Please don't tell me that's the one you use?" Marjorie asked looking at winter, winter looked back at Marjorie disgusted "no do you actually think I'd do that ewww, autumn grabbed this the night of the fire and it's been on the back seat of my car ever since" autumn began to speak "I saw the fire and spotted the blanket knowing it was my fathers I grabbed it and got out of here with winter before you and the fire service arrived" Marjorie was beginning to understand but still couldn't get her head around one thing "but if you knew it was your dad all along why didn't you say anything?" Autumn stood for a few minutes before answering "well it wouldn't do my inheritance much good if my father were to go to prison for fraud for burning his own business down" Rodger was proud "that's my girl now where's that punch" "its non-alcoholic" marjorie shouted after him.

After a few days everything settled down at the knight nursery we started letting the babies back into the room, I was sent to the sister nursery to cover a few times over the coming weeks on my first visit I had a run in with Siobhan over her trying to charge a parent late fees when his ex wife had just passed away and he needed to be at the hospital to complete the formalities on another occasion she had moved a child's inhaler while looking through the cupboards myself and the agency staff spent ages looking for it and called Siobhan on multiple occasions she didn't call back till after the nursery had closed and we had to call the child parents to bring in a spare, the next incident was when a child had gone missing his aunt worked at the nursery and had told me that she was taking him home and she had already let Siobhan know this happened the day after I caught her stealing bottles formula and nappies when the parent arrived to collect her child is when we became aware that it was a kidnapping. Siobhan informed me a few days later that the child had been found safe and well but her response next shocked me "yes he's safe and well but thing of all the paper work I now have and I also have to find another staff member" I had a few more run ins with Siobhan over accident reports and other run ins with parents. It wasn't long before Siobhan handed in her resignation because she was being made partner in the nurseries because of her relationship with roger. It was like Christmas had come early when we all found out she would be leaving the nursery she had informed Marjorie that her replacement had already been found and had the nickname of the piranha this made all of the staff wonder what type of person would be replacing her.

My problems at home only got worse Gareth had become more aggressive both physically and mentally the incidents of the beatings happened increasingly more but he began to hit where the bruises would not be seen, and the spousal rape happened every night I couldn't fight him off and to protect myself I would lay and let it happen I felt so weak and defenseless but I knew it was for the best so he wouldn't beat me any more.  As more time went on things only got worse until one day he knocked me unconscious, and I ended up in the hospital there was a lovely nurse there called Vivian "Charlotte my love what happened" she asked as she was examining me. I wanted to curl up into the tiniest space and disappear how could I let this happen? What was I going to do Vivian was patient with me and didn't push for answers. As time went on I could see how much I would be able to trust Vivian and I began to open up and told her about the domestic violence and the spousal rape she listened to every word I said and didn't push for any information just allowing me in my own time to get it all out when I had finished opening up is when Vivian finally spoke "Charlotte my love thank you for being open with me but you do understand that I do have a duty of care to report this to the police?" I nodded and burst into tears I knew about safeguarding and knew now it was the time that I had to put my daughters and myself first. Vivian stayed with me while the police came and took my statement and evidence from my body, she held my hand through it all and wiped my tears all I could hear was her words "you're doing so well honey" I dissociated from everything else and just kept focus on Vivian and her voice. I wasn't allowed to be discharged from hospital due to the concussion I had I asked the police officers "what about my daughters they are at home with him they are alone with him right now" the thought of him being alone with him at this moment in time made me panic more the female officer replied "we will go and pick them up and take them to your parents as we will be going to arrest your spouse at the same time" this gave me some comfort "Vivian please could you call my parents and tell them what has happened and tell them the girls will be coming to them tonight and I will come and get them when I've been discharged" Vivian agreed but wouldn't leave my side till the officers had left. As the officers were leaving with the bags of evidence Vivian turned to me "Charlotte honey it's late and you need to rest I will go and call your parents now, here is the buzzer if you need anything press it and I will come I'll only be at the nurses station I won't be far away" I drifted off into an uneasy sleep I woke a few times from nightmares and true to her word Vivian came to my aid and talked me back down till I was comfortable to sleep again.

Gareth was arrested and an injunction was issued he wasn't allowed near me his contact with the girls still went ahead as he never actually harmed them, I fought for supervised visits, but the courts wouldn't allow so every weekend the girls went and stayed with their father he collected them from school on a Friday kept them till dropping them at school on Monday morning.  I was so thankful that nobody at work had found out what had happened, and I could use work as a distraction and keep myself focused.