beautiful thieves | ✓

five

Somehow, my parents never found out about my kidnapping as I was able to find my way home and sneak into the house undetected. My mother did notice my bleeding lip, however, and I thought I'd never hear the end of it. If only a chewed lip was my only issue.

A few days have passed by since then. The twins have decided to drive to the new house and stay for the weekend while they don't have classes, Connie won another beauty pageant, Dad's been going to and from work as usual, Mum's gotten over my baby theory, and I've been avoiding Maeve and Colby at school like the plague. They give me secretive looks every now and then, an undecipherable emotion in their eyes which disappears as soon as they see me notice. Ignoring them has been challenging.

It's Saturday. My parents are in the kitchen doing their own thing while the twins play some game on the PlayStation. Connie and I are sat on opposite ends of the other sofa as she scrolls through her Instagram feed. My eyes are on the game that the twins are playing but I'm not watching it, exactly, my mind too preoccupied to acknowledge the people being shot in-game.

Everything is quiet and I find the memories of Monday night slipping away. I barely remember the names of the members of...whatever they called themselves, and I feel like maybe I can get back on track and start a new life in this new town.

That is, until Mum gets the phone call.

She talks for a while and Connie's head perks up in curiosity as she catches the words 'beauty pageant' and 'Connie' being said over the phone. The twins pause their game as Mum's voice starts to rise and soon, she's using expletives that she usually wouldn't dare say in front of us.

She ends the phone call with a final, rather aggressive name-calling, before storming into the room.

"Aurora, what the fuck have you done?"

The room is deafeningly silent as my heart stutters in my chest. Connie's face pales at Mum's language and even the twins are stunned into silence.

Dad enters the room, giving me an apologetic look but not saying a word. He knows that anything he says is a lost cause when Mum is pissed. And she is pissed.

"Actually, you know what? You know exactly what you've done! You've gone and ruined everything, just like you always do!" Tears are streaming down her face at this point and I worry she might blow a blood vessel.

"Delilah," Dad says cautiously. "We don't know for sure it was her."

"Of course it was her!" Mum screams. "It couldn't have been anyone else!"

I stand to my feet, my siblings doing the same in preparation for whatever's about to go down. They've seen straight-up screaming matches between Mum and I, but I don't think any of us have ever seen her like this.

"Whatever you think I did or didn't do, I'm sure you've misunderstood," I say, staying as calm as possible as my hands tremble at my sides.

Mum scoffs. "Oh, I've misunderstood, have I? I've misunderstood the fact that you've taken the time to call the judging board of the under-eighteen's Miss Universe beauty pageant and told them that I've been rigging the results?"

What?!

Connie suddenly bursts into tears at my side, and I know that serious damage-control is needed. Sean is quick to comfort her, wrapping an arm across her shoulders and letting her cry into his shirt.

"I promise I didn't do that!" I defend.

"You know how important this was to us! This isn't just some beauty pageant we do every now and then, this is Miss Universe. If she even came in the top ten, which she would, she would automatically be chosen to become a model. This was going to change her whole life and benefit all of us! You've ruined her life and any hopes she has of having a successful career."