Secrets And Sins Part 3: Happy ever after

Chapter 71

***I'm so sorry for the delay. Work has been a shit show and I've been too exhausted to write when I eventually get a moment of spare time. This chapter is a little longer to make up for the wait...***

~Halo~

Halo was reeling, trying to process Ava was telling them. They'd only lost track of her for an hour and this was what she had done.

"How could you side with them after everything they've done to us?" Mother Superior was on her feet, her palms pressed into the makeshift desk of her makeshift office. "They took our home, Ava!"

It was late in the evening now, but Halo wasn't so sure that was the reason Ava and Beatrice had only gathered Mother Superior and themself to hear this insane plan. No, they were certain Ava knew how hard this was going to be for the OCS to swallow and was therefore trying to convince the Matriarch before approaching the rest of her friends.

Halo's eyes slid from Mother Superior's irate expression down to the two women sitting in front of the desk. They noticed how quiet Beatrice was as she sat close beside Ava, their hands linked between them, and wondered at how the hell Ava had convinced her that this was a good idea.

"I'm not siding with them; I'm saving Bea and solving our problem." Ava's reassurance was unworried, she seemed to firmly believe it wouldn't be so bad.

Halo couldn't help thinking that she was wrong.

A soft knock at the door pulled Halo's attention away from the Bearer and they moved to open it, letting Ms. Fiona White into the office. In the lawyer's hands was a laptop, the contract had arrived.

"Thank you for attending to this matter so promptly Ms. White." Mother Superior said in lieu of a greeting.

The lawyer nodded in reply as she walked further into the room.

The silence was heavy as Fiona made herself comfortable in a chair at the end of Mother Superior's desk and opened the document, her eyes scanning the screen over the top of her thin-framed glasses. Ava's leg bouncing with nerves was the only movement in the entire room as a stillness descended over them.

The first sign something was wrong was when her mouth pulled into a grim line, but worse was when her eyes widened, lifting from the screen to stare at Ava incredulously.

"You..." she almost sounded breathless. "Why would you agree to this...?"

Ava shifted uncomfortably and somehow unconsciously closer to Beatrice. "What?"

Fiona glanced back down. "The Warrior Nun may be called away from prior commitments at any time..."

"I didn't agree to that." Ava's huff was dismissive, but her face turned less sure the longer she thought about it. "Well, I don't think I did."

"It says here that you verbally agreed."

"Wait... that's binding?" Ava bit her lip, redness spreading up her neck and into her cheeks. "Because if it is, we might be in trouble..."

"Ava..." Beatrice groaned.

"They were talking at me so much I may have kinda zoned out..."

It was such an Ava thing to say, it would've been laughable if not for the, as Ava would say, shit show, it had caused.

Everyone was staring at the Bearer with horrified expressions.

"Ava! Are you serious?!" Mother Superior looked like she wanted to throttle her, Halo couldn't really blame her.