Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Two: What We Do For Family

The Knights of the Last Order and
Chuckles stood completely terrified against Marion, who was looking
at them suspiciously.

Charlie looked at TJ, who was pale.
They had completely forgotten about Marion in this equation.

“What's going on out here?” Daniel
walked out as well. “You all look like ghosts. Don't worry, Marion
isn't going to kill you.”

THAT drew a gasp from the group. Daniel
groaned.

“Am I REALLY that scary?” Marion
asked.

“Yes.” Replied Sammy and TJ. Sunny
scowled at them.

“It's not you…it's just…there was
an incident at City Hall today.” Charlie swallowed back his fear.
“A Crusader broke into Judiths office and started firing. Belle
called and let me know.”

“Belle Masters?” Marion asked.
“She's doing all of Judy's work while she's in hospital, right?”

Charlie nodded.

Marion sucked in a deep breath. This
was NOT what she needed with her sister in hospital with a baby on
the way. Especially with the condition both Judith and the baby were
currently in. If Judith was stressed out or hurt in any way, the baby
would die, and that would destroy Judith. Marion couldn't let that
happen. No matter what the family rules decreed, Judith would ALWAYS
be Marions baby sister, and NO ONE messed with Marions baby sister.

“This is NOT what we need right now.
Not with Judy and the baby in danger as it is.” Daniel groaned.

“And the Crusaders have Daryl, who I
know still talks to Mum, who hears about everything that goes on
through City Hall from Dad.” Sunny said. “So it wouldn't surprise
me if the Crusaders quickly found out that Judith's in hospital.”

“You're Daryls sister aren't you?”
Marion asked. Sunny nodded. “He's always been a little prick hasn't
he?”

“Understatement of the year.” Sunny
muttered. Marion looked at the younger woman, with her dark hair and
the scar under her eye. Marion suddenly realised that it could very
well have been Daryl who gave Sunny that scar.

“What are we going to do?” Tammy
said in a small voice. Marion nearly jumped a foot in the air –
where did SHE come from?!

“I don't know what we can do, except
try to keep Judith as safe as we can.” Daniel said. “Which means
staying around the hospital as much as possible.”

“Well, we've been doing that anyway.”
TJ pointed out.

Marion meanwhile quickly composed
herself, Judith was counting on her.

“I'll handle it from here. Best you
stay away and don't get involved.” Marion stalked out of the
hospital building, determined to have a word with Demon Jones and
sort out this mess before her beloved little sister got hurt…or
worse. The doors slammed shut behind her, leaving the friends
stunned.

“You know, I completely forgot that
Judith and Marion are sisters.” Charlie piped up after a minute of
stunned silence.

“I totally did too.” Sammy added.

“I wasn't allowed to forget. Judith
talks about Marion a lot.” Daniel shrugged. “They might have had
their issues recently, but once upon a time they were really, really
close.”

“They're not any more?” TJ asked.

“Not really, more's the pity.”
Daniel sighed. “It was pretty awkward in there while Marion
visited. It's like they want to be best friends but because of the
Misneach rules there's always going to be a wall between them. Like
it or not, Marion is always going to be a Misneach and Judith is
always going to be a Jofrey, and the Jofreys are always going to
suffer because of the Misneaches.”

The group sat in silence for a while,
letting that sink in. Two sisters who couldn't be sisters because of
their family rules.

Charlie got up. “I need to go canvass
for more signatures. I still have forty I need to collect.”

The others looked up at him, blinking.

“You're going to canvass for
signatures NOW?” TJ asked.

“We just talked about staying around
the hospital to protect Judith didn't we?” Sammy added.

Charlie groaned at their complete lack
of understanding.

“Don't you get it? If there was no
Mobsters of Misneach, then Marion and Judy would still be best
friends. They'd be doing things like hosting baby showers and going
maternity bra shopping together – BUT THEY CAN'T.” Charlie
gritted his teeth. “If I got seperated from Lizzy and Izzy like
that…”

Gritting his teeth, he stomped out of
the room, not wanting to finish that sentence. Not wanting to even
think about what it would be like to go through what Mobster Marion
Misneach and Counsellor Judith Jofrey had to go through.

But he was going to do everything in
his power to make sure it never happened again.

—

“CHARITY!” Demon Jones yelled as he
walked into his manor. “For Glob's sake woman, get down here NOW!”

“Yes dear?” Charity Jones nee
Denison made her way down the stairs to the front hall.

“I need you to talk to that son of
yours. Someone tried to kill Judith Jofrey while she's on maternity
leave.” Demon glared at his wfie.

“I'll have you know 'that son of
hers' is right here.”

Demon looked up to the top of the
stairs. Sure enough, Daryl Jones was standing there, glaring at his
father.

“I've told you he's not to come into
this house!” Demon yelled at Charity, who flinched.

“My stuff is still here thank you,
I'm allowed to get it.” Daryl sulked.

“YOUR stuff? You mean the stuff I
paid for.” Demon shrugged off his jacket and handed it to Charity.

“Stuff you. I didn't ask to be
brought into this world, yet you dragged me here.” Daryl fought
back.

Charity sighed. The father and son had
once been so close. Where had it all gone wrong?

“I can fix that.” Demon glared at
his boy. “What do you know about what happened to Judiths office
today?”

“Why should I know anything?!”
Daryl snapped.

“Because it was a Crusader that tried
to kill her!” Demon yelled.

Charity slipped out of the hallway to
the heavily decorated lounge room. She went to one of the cupboards
and pulled out a small vial of white powder. She opened the vial and
shoved it up her nostril and breathed deeply. It was the only way she
could cope nowadays, with neither of her children being particularly
fond of her and her husband being stressed out all the time. What had
happened to their dream family? A strong, handsome son and a
beautiful, submissive daughter. They should have been a family that
was the envy of the Bridge Club, but now they were broken.

Suddenly there was a crash from the
hallway. Charity capped the vial and shoved it back into it's hiding
spot and bolted out to the hallway, where Demon and Daryl were at
each others throats, knocking over a table into one of the ornate
mirrors in the hall.

“STOP IT! THOSE MIRRORS ARE
EXPENSIVE!” She shrieked, watching her idyllic life continue to
fall around her ears..

Daryl shoved his father away. “I told
you I know nothing. It wouldn't surprise me if Crusaders started
acting on their own, but it's not my problem!”

He stormed out of the house, slamming
the door and making his mother shriek again.

Demon growled to himself, before
turning to Charity. “Oh shut up you.” He grumbled, before
storming off to his office.

Charity looked shocked. Then she began
to cry. Why had everything gone wrong?

In his office, her husband was thinking
the same thing. Only his answer was more disturbing – he blamed it
all on the birth of his daughter Sunny.

“To think we produced that unwanted
bastard.” He muttered to himself.