Sarah snuggled closer to Ambrose as he came to her favorite part – the Great Unmasking of the Phantom.
Christine was clearly hoping for the Phantom to be a good looking guy or, at the very least, an ordinary looking guy. She sure wasn’t hoping for a horror show. No normal girl would hope for that.
But a horror show is exactly what she got. Poor girl. Poor unsuspecting girl.
Sarah was never really sure who to feel bad for. Christine shouldn’t have removed his mask without his permission, but he didn’t really give her any reasons to not remove it. If he had told her right off the bat that he was uglier than the ugliest person she knew, she probably would have accepted that and left the mask alone. But didn’t she have the right to know who she was dealing with?
“Christine took a deep breath and reached forward. But no. That was too direct. He’d catch onto her intentions far too quickly. She needed to catch him off guard. She moved closer to him. There wasn’t one spot of his face that wasn’t covered by the mask, which interfered with her plan. She exhaled and curled her hand into a loose fist. She rubbed it against the side of his neck. He lowered his quill and relaxed into her touch. “Christine.” he said softly in his beautiful, magical voice.”
The bedroom door opened and Barbara entered with a small entourage.
Ambrose closed the book. “Barbara.”
Sarah scowled and furiously reclaimed the book. Judging by how Ambrose was moongazing at Barbara, he was not going to continue reading anytime soon.
And just when it was getting to the best part.
“Ambrose.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “Okay! Since we have everyone here, let’s get this started.”
“Please don’t tell me that this is an intervention.” Ambrose said. “Because I know I haven’t done anything intervention-worthy.”
She giggled. “Not at all. Ambrose, you and I are getting married tonight. I’m all for it. I’m excited for it. But we all need to discuss what we’re going to do about Sarah.”
Sarah turned pale. She knew that she turned pale. She could feel the color leach away from her face.
“I’ve given this so much thought and I still don’t know what to do. I want her to stay with Ambrose and myself, but I don’t know if we can legally keep her. She isn’t ours and I honestly don’t know if we can adopt her.”
“What are you thinking?” Ambrose asked. “We can’t just let her go back to the streets. I can’t do that to her. I—”
“I’m not saying that. I would never do that to her.”
Ambrose physically calmed down. “So?”
Barbara turned to the other members of her party. “Sarah is special. She can’t just be adopted by anyone. They wouldn’t understand her. They would be afraid of her abilities and maybe even of her silence. People can be pretty strange. I want her to be with someone I trust. Someone that both Ambrose and I trust.”
Ambrose abandoned the bed. Sarah followed him and reclung to his arm.
“I want her to be with someone that she trusts as well.” Barbara said.
Jeff shrugged. “I don’t know if she can trust either of us as much as she trusts Ambrose. Not that I want to speak for her.” He smiled. “But I’m not blind.”
“I know. The thing is, after Ambrose and I get married, we’re going to want some all by ourselves time.” She sighed. “I know it sounds horribly selfish.”
“Not at all.” Clarice said. “Every newly married couple needs their honeymoon period to discover each other’s deeper wants and needs. I would love to say more than that, but there is a minor present.”
“So, basically.” Barbara sighed. “We need to figure this out now.”
ambroseandelsie 