Take A Chance

Chapter 22

*Ember's Pov*

As I was rushing the girls into the carriage Helen said " Can you show me some trapeze?" with a cute, innocent smile on her face.

"I won't teach you anything,but you can watch..." I said,feeling a little bit guilty. "Okay!" she said with a toothy grin.

I smile at her and sit beside Phillip. We are about half way to the circus when the driver shouts from outside  "Aren't you two a bit young to have kids and be married?" he said,I'm assuming cheekily.

Phillip shouts back at him to shut up and that we aren't together. Out of the corner of my eye I can see the two girls giggling behind their hands.

Finally we come to a stop beside the circus. "Thank you,sir." I say with my head down looking at the ground.

"No problem." he said with a smile and a nod. I looked up from my state of shame only to see that he was gone.

'Where did he go!?' I asked myself quietly. Still a small bit confused I walked back into the circus.

When I walked in I saw that Phillip was already in there telling everybody what to do and where to go.

I looked around to see Lettie talking to someone with long blonde hair. I am curious to see who it is so I walked over.

"Ember,you must meet Ms.Darling! She is here for trapeze!" Lettie said with a smile. "She's here for trapeze..... " I say my mouth open in shock.

Now Anne and I won't be the only trapeze act. Now there is the new girl,Ms.Darling.

"Oh no! Not for actual trapeze! She is a photographer who wants to capture a picture of you in the air for the newspaper!" Lettie said laughing at my sigh of relief.

Ms.Darling gave me a glare before she ran over to talk to Phillip. She ran over and pulled him into a hug. Then he kissed her on the cheek.

"What?!! " I say out loud. I storm up to Phillip fury in my soul. "You could have told me you were in a relationship!" I shout tears filling my eyes.

" You didn't tell her?" Ms.Darling asks Phillip politely. "No because I didn't think it would happen!" Phillip said surprised.

I walk up to Phillip and I push him back on to the ground. "How could you do this to me?!" I asked,tears dripping from eyes and anger radiating off of me.

"Hey hold on! There is nothing going on between us!" Phillip said raising his hands up like I am the police.

"Oh ya sure..." I said sarcastically. Then Ms.Darling comes up to me and pushes me back on Phillip,leaving me in a straddling position on top of him.

"Hey!!" I shout at her. Phillip grabs my arm which forces me to look back at him. He stares deep into my eyes for a few minutes.

"Hey I know you are scared. I am too. But we will get through this together." He said with a small smile.

"Promise?" I ask him almost not sure. "Promise!" he says. I get up off him and I help him get up. "So back to the way we were?" I ask slowly. He grabs my hand.

"Yep."

We walk off to the office to get the girls who were brought up to the office because of all the drama.

He sat me down on the stairs and looked at me. "So I am assuming you still want to know how I knew Abbie?"

"Who's Abbie?" I ask confused. Phillip rolls his eyes at me. "The woman who wanted to picture you." he said with a bit of a chuckle.

"Oh,her." I say with sarcasm. "Yeah,of course I want to know!"

"Okay so she was my childhood best friend and fiance at one point. My parents wanted me to marry just when I was fifteen. Her parents agreed."

"So eventually we ended up being engaged to each other. It was an arranged wedding. So I told her that I was running away. She was fine with it."

"I ended up living in sheds for a year until I started to write plays at 17. The day I ran away I was turning 16. The company seemed to like my plays so soon enough I was as rich as my father."

"So my father took me back. I lived there until earlier when I met P.T because Caroline was in the play as a ballet dancer."

" Soon enough I was living at P.T's place and I had met you. Then when you moved in I was happier than anything."

" So that is pretty much my back story. Coming to think of it I don't know much about your back story.....So spill." he said with a smile.

"I don't know if I can top it..." I started but he cut me off," Just talk." he said with a smirk. "Okay........." I trail off.

"When I was a child my Father wanted me to be the same skin tone as him so he used to punch me and sometimes he would put paint on me."

" My mother tried to help me but she knew deep in her heart she was ashamed of me too. It was a very putting-down family to live with."

"Day after day they would send me out of the house or send me up to my room. But W.D and Anne's father joined my father in racism."

"Anne's mother was the only one who loved us. So I moved in with them. I shared a room with Anne. We moved to New York to get away from our fathers and my mother."

"We lived a happy life with food on the table everyday. Finally W.D was allowed to work. He trained in medical works but they wouldn't accept him because of his skin"

"So we had to sadly leave it all up to my 'new mother'. She loved us like no one ever had so we felt safe. Until the day she got a job."

"She worked for a market seller who was very rude to mother. She told us never to go down to the market when she was working."

"But knowing me,being the rebellious child I was, had to go down while she was working."

"If somebody ever came to the stall and didn't buy anything the owner would pour food and drinks on her. He would hit her as well."

"I saw this and instantly went to defend her but something stopped me. It could have been the big bump on her stomach."

"I ran over to her and kicked the man,linked my arm with her and walked away with her proudly."

"When we got back W.D aided her while I sang her a song. It was called 'From Now On'. That was our favourite song to sing to each other."

"One day she went into labor and was rushed to the hospital. She died while giving birth. The baby made it out alive but we don't know where she is"

"Someone from the hospital is said to have adopted her. We will never know. At least mother wasn't alive to see the day that her only baby boy died by a brutal murderer."

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I wiped a few tears from my eyes.
Phillip put his arm around me and wiped a tear from the side of my face.

I carried on going.

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"Soon enough I had moved in with the Barnum's and you and now I am here"

I looked up at him and smiled. "Well we both have interesting backgrounds then I guess.." Phillip said laughing a little bit.

"You sure do!" I hear Caroline's voice from behind me. I whipped around and saw the girls standing there. "You heard everything...?!" I asked a bit shocked. "Let them be." Phillip said smiling.

How I love the way his eyes shine when he smiles.

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