The Bad Boy Next Door

Chapter 53 - No Mans Land

"And then they apologised to me," I played with Miles hair on the back of his head. For a guy, his hair is super soft. What shampoo does he use I wonder.

Miles tensed his jaw and frowned, "Next time they bother you, please just text me, ok?" He brought his hand up to my knee and gently stroked the material of my tracksuit bottoms with his thumb. His touch always soothes me, I always feel so much better when he's around. 

"Georgia," A quiet voice appeared from the doorway. Instantly, Miles moved his hand from my leg and stood up to face my Mother. I hadn't seen her since last night. Her face was pale, like a ghost. She was slightly hunched over, just as if she has no more energy left in her to keep herself up right. 

"Mum," I whispered, keeping the tone as low as possible in the room. 

She looked up to Miles who was stood awkwardly by the living room sofa. He looked at us both then slowly made his exit. 

My Mother smiled at him as he left and then moved her way across the room before taking a seat on the other side of the couch.

"How are you doing?" I asked, sitting down next door to her. Mirroring Miles actions from before, I placed my hand on her knee and tried to sooth her. I know it won't make her sadness go away, nor mine, but I would do anything just to let her know that I am here for her no matter what. 

"We left on such bad terms," She said, averting her eye contact from me and looking towards the pictures above the fire place. I could see her eyes scanning over them, looking at the happy family. 

"You and Dad?" I asked.

She shook her head and clenched her fists on her lap. Her knuckles drew white. If I didn't know the circumstances, I would have said she was an alcoholic, or maybe depressed. The pain in her body languages is evident and it is killing me having to watch this. 

"No, no, no, you and me," She scoffed, wiping her eyes on the back of her sleeve. 

I'm not sure of what to say? I wouldn't say we left on positive terms at all but I would have thought that the demise of my Father means that we can now over ride that and move on. We have to stick together as a team, that's all that matters. Especially in the time when we are all grieving. We can't have any of us falling back, which means that it's up to each other to keep our emotions in check. 

I sighed and moved my hand onto my lap. Straightening my back, I fell back onto the sofa, "Mum, I know. I just have no idea what to think or how to feel about anything right now." 

She looked over to me and scoffed once again. "Georgia." She simply said, with only one word the pain in her voice came off as sharp as it's been since we've been together in the past twenty four hours. 

"Mum," I brought my hand back over to her but this time, placed it over her cold delicate hand which rested on an embroidered antique cushion. No doubt Layton found that in some kind of auction in Monaco. "For now, we need to put any kind of feud or fight to one side and focus on what's really important right now which is that we are all togethe-" 

"All together?" She interrupted, almost spitting out each syllable. "You think we are all together now? Oh yes! One big happy fucking family. Just look at this fucking baby, in my God damn belly!" She hissed, now standing up. I sat back up and grabbed her hand to try and pull her down but she quickly pulled it out of my grip.

The baby.

I completely forgot.

"Three children! No partner! Next week the fucking headlines. How much more can someone take on?" She yelled, placing one hand on her hip. She winced a little as her temper grew. Obviously signs of her body not inviting the stress in. 

"Mum I-" 

"And now I have to explain myself. Just imagine what people are going to think. I will be known as the woman who killed her husband mentally!" Tears rose in my eyes. My chest tightened and a wave of fire rose up and through my body, making sure that it didn't miss an inch of me. The pain in my head was pounding like someone was ringing a bell inside of me. Seeing a family member like this is another form of hell. 

"The worst thing you could have done was leave Georgia," She closed the gap between us and pointed her weak finger in front of my eyes. "The moment when we needed you the most."

My temper shook the ground. The air was suddenly hot and I was struggling to pull a sentence together. "So, so now it's my fault?" My words were weak. Nearly as weak as the state of my Mother. 

"It's everyone's fucking fault!" She clenched her jaw and rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. 

I bit my lip to try and control my raging anger but it wouldn't do. I had no choice but to leave. Finding out my parents were having their own private affairs was one fraction of hell. Then, finding out that they had to fake their relationship to save their marriage was just another piece to add to the messed up puzzle. And I'm the one who isn't acting crazy.

"We were going to file for the divorce in a weeks time, if he only just waited a week." She quietened down a little but immediately regretted her words as she must have seen my current facial expression. 

"That is messed up Mum!" I yelled. How dare she! "Oh sorry he didn't hold back on his suicide just a little longer just so you could get your life in order and cut the ties!"

She shook her head dramatically and attempted to walk over to me. "That's not what I meant."

"Yea, well that's what you said." I hissed. The heat surging through my body was enough for me to take a deep breath to attempt to cool myself down. 

"You don't understand Georgia, you're too young." She stated.

"Too young? Too young to understand that all you want is the blame to be pushed away from you well maybe the blame should be on you. You're the one who was keeping him unhappy! I was everything to Dad just like he was everything to me and here you are, once again breaking our family apart!" I yelled taking a step back from her. 

"He was the one who started with the affairs."

"You let him go Mum, he got bored of you. You have this weird tendency to really piss people off." I took a step forward and abruptly placed a hand on my hip. "This is fucked up, everything is fucked up." 

"Oh just look at you passing the blame around, you're no daughter to me if you are going to treat me with this lack of respect." 

"The only person I want to have respect right now is my Father but instead you are not quite happy with how he planned his death, as long as the blame doesn't go on you that's all you care about. Right now we should be discussing funeral arrangements not fucking death arrangements." I seethed, clenching my teeth together as hard as I could just to get my anger out.

Just as Mum opened her mouth the door slowly came open and a loud piercing squeak of the hinges filled the room. Both Mum and I turned around to face whoever had entered.

"Charlie." Mum sighed. Staring down at her intertwined fingers in embarrassment as we are both well aware that the whole house could probably hear us arguing. 

After Charlie, Layton appeared behind him. She pushed her way into the room and walked towards my Mother and I. In her hand she was clutching a phone tightly. 

"Andrea, there's a man on the phone for you, something about autopsy." She sighed and handed my Mother's mobile phone over to her. Mum grabbed the phone from Layton's hand and walked out the room. 

I could hear muffled words coming from the corridor but it wasn't enough for me to know what she's saying. To be honest, I don't want to know what she's saying. Autopsy? That's not something I want or need to know about. 

"Darling." Layton squeezed my hand. "Come and have something to drink with me."