Her Last Plea✨

Chapter 16

"We need to talk about school, Mira," Mike spoke softly.

Father and daughter were sitting side by side on the couch in the living room, watching television when Mike brought up the topic of school.

Nodding, Mira leaned her head on her father's shoulder and shut the telly off. "I know....."

"You go back in a couple of days," Mike continued, kissing her head. "That is......if you want to go back."

Shrugging, Mira closed her eyes, a single tear trickling down her pale cheek. Just then, Delphina entered the room with Marvin, who was showing his mother another of his toy cars. Ara rushed in after her mother with a book in her hand, stopping slightly to catch her breath.

"Sleeping Beauty, Mommy!" She exclaimed. "It's the bestest story in the world! Can we please read this one tonight?"

Delphina nodded at her over-excited daughter and looked over at her eldest, who was trying her best to hide her tears at the sight of her younger siblings. "Mira, darling, are you alright?"

Ara whipped around and looked at her older sister with concern, her long blonde curls bouncing as they were tied back with a large purple bow. Marvin, on the other hand, toddled over to Mira and asked, "Mira kay? Kay Mira?"

Mira quickly sat up and pulled her brother up onto her lap as he leaned his head against his sister lovingly. "Mira's okay, munchkin," she whispered, her voice cracking slightly.

Delphina walked over and sat down next to her older daughter, giving her husband a questioning glance.

"We were talking about school," Mike answered his wife's unasked question.

"Oh," Delphina replied as Ara crawled up into her lap. "And?"

"We didn't exactly get far."

Mira looked over at her mother and brushed a few strands of hair away from her face. "I want to go back, but......I also don't want to go back," she confessed quietly.

Delphina nodded and said, "It's your decision."

"The only decision I want is the one I can't have," Mira snapped suddenly, scaring Marvin. "All of this is complete rubbish and I don't want to decide anything!"

"Don't yell at Mommy!" Ara abruptly shouted at her sister.

"You stay out of this Arabelle!"

Marvin quickly climbed out of  Mira's lap and onto his father's, watching his sisters intently.

"You don't tell me what to do. You're not my boss," Ara shot back.

"Well, I'm going to have to be cause Mom's dying, Ara!"

"Mirabelle Rosalyn!" Mike boomed, his voice startling Marvin, as the young boy began to cry. Ara, also, was in full blown tears as Delphina hugged her younger daughter close to her chest. "Mira, there was no need for you to so rudely point out the obvious. Stop this behavior, now," Mike continued slowly but authoratively.

Bolting from the couch, Mira ran up the stairs and went straight to her room, slamming the door behind her.

Back downstairs, Ara cried out, "Mommy, I don't want you to die. Please Mommy, stay here with me for forever. Why do you have to die?"

"Ara," Mike whispered as Delphina began to get emotional in front of the children for the first time.

Ara suddenly jumped out of her mother's lap and grabbed Sleeping Beauty from the floor, thrusting it at her father. "When Princess Aurora got sick, Prince Phillip kissed her and she got better. You're Mommy's prince, aren't you Daddy? Please kiss her and make her better!"

Swallowing his own tears, Mike managed to keep his voice steady as he replied, "Honey, believe me, if a kiss could save your mother, I would have kissed her a thousand times. Trust me!"

"A thousand times," Delphina repeated, wiping away her own tears. "That's a lot of kisses, don't you think?"

"I don't know!" Ara wailed. "We've only counted upto seventy-three at school!"

Delphina and Mike locked eyes with each other, before both of them burst out into a moment of uncontrollable laughter. Marvin, always the one to follow the crowd, started to laugh as well while his sister looked at both of her parents like they had officially lost their minds.

Mike stood up with Marvin still in his arms, wiping away the tears that had formed due his daughter's grief. "I'm gonna go check on Mira. Delphi, could you take Ara to bed?"

"Leave her be for a bit. She'll be easier to talk to once she has calmed down a little," Delphina replied picking up Ara's book from the couch.

"Are you sure?" Mike asked hesitantly.

"Yes Mike, leave her be for a while," Delphina repeated. "We still need to discuss school........among other things."

"Fine," Mike sighed. He knew  other things meant Miller and for a second he wished that Miller would suddenly turn up here as she was the only one who could handle Mira whenever the teenager would get into one of these moods. "I'll give Marvin a bath and put him to sleep. We can deal with your daughter later."

"My daughter?" Delphina asked with a raised eyebrow.

"She certainly doesn't get this attitude from me."

Delphina scoffed and said, "We'll have to agree to disagree on that one, my dear husband."

"Right - because in this house I'm the one who freaks out at family discussions," Mike replied teasingly. "Huh, wife?"

"Go, bathe your son Michael,"Delphina said with a roll of her dark brown eyes. "I have a fairy-tale to read."