34. A mother's concern

Sitting back leisurely in the chair as he watched the two of them walk out the door of the conference room, a wide grin spread from ear to ear. During Paige's time at the office he had been able to see deeper into their marriage of so-called convenience, probably more than Roth would've liked him to. It had allowed him to see that this simply wasn't a marriage that had been forced upon him by his grandmother. At least not anymore.

At some point in their week-long marriage his feelings towards the woman had changed drastically, opening himself up to her as no one else had been able to receive. The fact alone that he had brought the woman to work with him, rather than returning her home, proved the truth of his growing feelings. Of course, Aaron wasn't stupid enough to be the one to inform him of this being the case, as he enjoyed breathing far too damned much. He'd just sit back and watch the show, having a feeling that it was going to be a doozy.

Amber was in the midst of opening up the shop for the day and setting everything out in its proper face to be found by potential customers, when the door jingled as it came open. Mrs. Maxwell pushed the stroller containing the twins in front of her, both of them babbling away as they played with their toys, with a purposeful stride to her step.

Amber smiled at the arrival of the older woman, who she had grown a deep affection for over the years, “Mrs. Maxwell, what a pleasant surprise.” Although this wasn't the first time she had frequented the shop, it had been some time since she'd paid Magicka a visit, as Mr. Maxwell wanted the twins home. Although everyone involved was aware of the real reason he demanded her to stay away, not wanting to give the woman any ideas of divorcing him.

Sierrah smiled affectionately at the younger woman who had been her daughter's best friend since they'd arrived in town a decade ago, offering her companionship Paige thrived off of. Even as hard as the girl tried to hide it or pretend otherwise to be the case, she was dependent on the people around her, desperate for companionship. After spending so much of her life alone and scared, with no one to lean on for support or to love her, she was willing to accept whatever love she could get. Even if that love came from a jackass for a step-father, who would rather criticize, torment and verbally abuse the girl, if only to have someone else love her.

Shaking herself out of those thoughts she pulled to a stop in front of the counter, having come there for a reason, “Good morning Amber. How are things going?”

She stopped wiping down the counter, “Oh pretty good actually. Just a mite bit busier than usual. Business seems to have really picked up.”

“That's good to hear.” Sierrah stopped to hand a bottle to Liam as he grew cranky, then she glanced around the store for her partner in crime, but continued to come up empty-handed. “When is Paige due to come in?” Putting aside the task that had been occupying her attention then, she shook her head, “Paige isn't coming into work today, she won't be back in until Monday.”

She frowned, confused, “She always works on Fridays.”

Amber bobbed her head, forced to agree with her on the matter. “Yeah she normally does, but yesterday Paige asked me to give her a few personal days, said she wasn't feeling too good. She never comes in on the weekends.”

Before she had the opportunity to feel relieved by this piece of knowledge, she froze as she saw Amber's worried expression. “Is something wrong, Amber?”

“No,” she instantly denied, paused, then took a deep breath, “Actually yeah, I mean maybe. I don't know. Yesterday some people had come by the shop asking around for her. After they had left I’d gone into the back to spy some bags in the hall I swear hadn't been there before. A little while later Paige had texted me, said that she wasn't feeling too good and needed a few days off.”

Sierrah had a sneaking suspicion of what had happened, this was not at all the daughter that she had raised up into the world the last twelve years. She watched the girl thoughtfully, desperate to find out if her suspicions were correct. “Who came by the shop looking for her?”

“I don't know,” Amber admitted after a long pause of silence, “I'd never seen them before. All of them were extremely well-dressed and distinguished men, but I got a very bad feeling about them.”

“Who?” she hissed.

Amber thought on the prior day’s events, to dredge up the information needed to answer the woman's questions to her. “The man that spoke said that that his name was Dane, said something about he was Paige's great uncle or something.”

So consumed by her own thoughts she failed to notice the ashen face of the woman.

She was a little put-off, “Paige had never mentioned other family before, always claimed that you and the boys were her only family, aside from the Maxwells of course.”

Practically collapsing into a nearby chair Sierrah struggled to maintain her composure in the face of what she'd been told. “Dane is my father's older brother, but I wouldn't dare associate that man as family. That family is stuck back in the old ways, none of them were pleased when all my father had were girls and they punished us for that.”

Amber stilled, “Girls? Do you mean you have a sister?”

“Yes,” she admitted quietly, the first time she had dared speak knowledge of the sister that had come into the world with, “Karizzma was five when our parents died in a cash and they shipped me away a few months later. I came back to town three years later when I came of age with the intention of collecting her, only to be informed she'd passed from a fever the year before.”

Amber's heart broke for all the older woman had endured in her life, knowing that it couldn't have been easy for her to suffer such a great loss, “Why are they suddenly coming to look for you now?”

“Money,” Sierrah spat out in disgust at the knowledge, outraged at the actions of these people, but no less than what she had been expecting from them. “It was their hope to use Paige to get me to give them the money for my grandmother's medical treatment. My grandfather wasn't too thrilled when I hung up on him.”

“Do you think that Paige showed up yesterday and saw them?”

Yes, it was most definitely safe to assume that the young woman had shown up unannounced and had seen them in the store while they were unaware. Although the girl didn't remember too much of those first years of her life, memories having been robbed by the illness, she still suffered horrible nightmares and was plagued by constant fear. The last time that Paige had just seen an old picture of them that had been hidden in her bedroom, the girl had completely freaked out about it.

Locking herself away inside of the house for several days on end, Paige had hidden under whatever piece of furniture she'd been able to find. Ultimately that incident had ended up with her snuggled up into the arms of her step-father, promising the girl was safe, back when he adored the child. He alone offered her the safety and protection that she needed, confident he would never allow anything bad to happen to her. Instead, Sierrah offered her a gentle smile, not wanting to give the girl any reason to be worried for her friend's sake, “No need to worry yourself, Amber. I'm sure that Paige is just feeling a little under the weather right now and will be back on Monday.”