Saving Ant and Sarha

This Can't Be Happening

"Love, what's wrong?" asked a worried Alph.

"I had a meeting with Ms. Chesterfield and Christine today." she said eerily calm.

"What happened?"

"She was here, drunk just last night, couldn't even stay balanced on her own two feet, and now all of a sudden today she arrives at the meeting all put together! She totally fooled her. Ms. Chesterfield was like putty in her hands."

"Honey, what are you talking about?"

"She won." she whispered.

"What do you mean she won?"

"I mean she won custody. She gets to take Ant and Sarha. The same kids she abandoned and put in an orphanage, she gets custody of them and gets to take them far away from here so she can do god knows what."

"You can't be serious."

"Oh I am." she chuckles humorlessly. "She said she was in a bad place at the time, swore up and down that it was a mistake. Everything. Leaving Ant alone with that monster. That's the whole reason why she left. Couldn't take it with him. She couldn't take and support both kids, she had to take one and leave one. She figured it would be easier to leave Ant because she didn't want to risk take him out of school. As for her giving Sarha up she claimed she was not right in the head. She had some time to think and after realizing what she did she said she went to her brother for help. Chesterfield believed all of it but me, I believed none of it and I told her that so Ms. Chesterfield reviewed her file. Asked her if she'd had any incidents lately and when she said no she asked her if she's been to anger management classes or AA meetings. She said her brother's been urging her to go so she did. Ms. Chesterfield said she'll double check with the judge but for now she has custody of them." she was full on crying now. Alph reached out for her.

"Come here." she walked up to him and he immediately pulled her in a tight embrace.

"And now," she carried on. "I have to tell Ant and Sarha that I let them down. You and I have been promising them that nothing or anyone could take them away and that's exactly what's happening. How am I supposed to tell them that by Sunday afternoon they have to have everything packed and be ready to leave with one of the two people that hurt them badly?"

"Now first of all, you didn't do anything. You didn't know that Christine was going to play Ms. Chesterfield and tell her lies so it's not your fault that she won. And second of all, we're in this together. Everything we do is together, meaning you don't have to tell them by yourself. I'll be right here with you." he gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. She wiped her eyes and her cheek.

"I love you, you know that?"

"I had a feeling." he chuckled. "Before we call them down you should know they have company, well just Ant. Him and Dec made a new friend today."

"Well I'd hate to do it, but we should send him home. I doubt they would want to play after we tell them."

"You're right." he walked to the staircase and went upstairs, first stopping at Ant and Dec's room. He opened the door to see all three boys sitting on the bed, although Dec and Stephen were playing Sega while Ant just watched. He cleared his throat, catching the attention of all of them.

"Hey boys, enjoying yourselves?" they all nodded. "Sorry to ruin your fun but Stephen it's getting late, did you call your mom to come and pick you up?"

"No it's okay, I can walk."

"Are you sure? Me or Mrs. Donnelly would be happy to give you a ride."

"I'm sure, I can walk." he handed the controller to Ant and got off the bed. "Thanks for having me over. I really had fun."

"No problem. You're welcome here anytime." Alph smiled at the young boy. Stephen walked out of the room and disappeared down the stairs. Alph turned back to Ant and Dec. "Now boys your mom and I would like to talk to all of you. It's very important. Why don't you two wait downstairs while I go get Sarha?"

The boys shared a confused look but nonetheless followed his instructions and walked downstairs into the living room. They saw their mom sitting on the sofa. Her hands were folded over her knee which was nervously bouncing up and down. She was looking down at her hands but when she sensed them standing in the room she looked up, giving them a small smile. They sat down on the opposite side of her. A minute later Alph and Sarha were walking down the stairs. Sarha took a seat next to them while Anne got up and stood next to Alph. She took a deep breath.

"Ant, Sarha, me and your father have something to tell you. Dec this affects you too."

"What is it?" asked Sarha.

"Yeah, you're scaring us." Ant said. Anne took another deep breath.

"Today I had a meeting with Ms. Chesterfield and your mother over who you would be staying with. Long story short, your mother won." she whispered the last part.

"What?!" all three of them yelled. Under different circumstances Anne would have laughed.

"What does that mean?" Sarha asked in a shaky whisper. Of course she would be the one most affected by this. Between her and Ant, she was the one who had more history with Christine.

"It means that by Sunday you and Ant have to be packed and ready to leave with your mom to Stratford." Sarha burst out crying and both Ant and Dec pulled her into a hug. Anne moved to sit with them and just held them. It was silent for a few moments before Ant spoke.

"You promised no one would take us." he whispered, looking down at his lap.

"I know we did." Alph replied.

"And now we have to go back with  our mom. You lied to us." he said starting to cry.

"No we didn't. We didn't know that she would win. We did everything we could to make sure that this wouldn't happen." Alph replied.

"I don't want to go." Ant whimpered.

"I know you don't. We don't want you to go either." he pulled Ant into a hug and sat down with the others. Anne and Alph just sat there, holding three crying children.