Rivals In Love

Chapter Twelve.

Ariella.

I dismissed the alarm on my phone and unlocked it. There it was, that precious good morning text.

'Good morning Angel.'

The grin reached my eyes as I yawned out loud. I leaned back into my soft mattress and sighed. I eventually got up after a few minutes of just lying there staring at the ceiling. My sense of smell came to life as I smelt pancakes! I find some pajama bottoms and put them on. I go downstairs to see Ava and mum in the kitchen. Mum was rather cheery this morning as she stirred the sweet batter in the red bowl.

"Hey baby, you feeling a little better." I ask and kiss her cheek. I sit down and let her place herself on my lap. She nods and carries on eating her pancakes. I place my palm on her forehead, the fever had calmed down and her body wasn't as warm as last night.

"What happened last night?" Mum asks looking at me worriedly. "You and dad went Athens right. Is there any good places I should see." I say trying to change the subject.

"Ariella." She says warningly. I look down and say "It's not a big deal." She sighs and pushes a plate of fluffy choclate pancakes with vanilla cream on the side along with fresh ripe strawberries. My stomach growled from hunger and my mouth watered at the smell wafting up into my nose. I poured the cold water into the glass and chugged it my throat instantly becoming moist. "If its not a big deal then why won't you tell me." She says, I look at her and feel the guilt takeover. She was worried, I mean I was never scared of my dad. Never.

"Okay." I paused, took a deep breath and began to tell her. "I thought by inviting Mr. Amoretti it would be good and when dad found out he was here, he was so angry. Mum I've never seen him so angry in my life, there was his look in his eyes, I can't even try to describe it. Why was he so angry?" I say and sigh relieved, I didn't even know I felt like that. But it was true I was honestly so confused as to why dad was so angry.

"That Amoretti must've annoyed your dad badly. Business is important to your father and that guy probably got in the way."She says and refills my cup. I nod and continue eating. "You know what I'm craving?- brownies mmm triple chocolate brownies." she says and unlocks her phone. I hear her calling someone, probably to tell them to get brownies.

"Aurora, be a darling and go to the local bakery. I want an extra large batch of triple choc brownies." I hear a faint "Okay mum." from the other side and giggle at my mums weird brownie cravings. "Why is she out so early?" I ask and pick up a strawberry entering it in my mouth and savouring the sweet taste. "She had to pick up some notes from college." mum answers and shrugs, putting the batter in the pan whilst I finish my last strawberry and drink the remains of my water. I looked at my mum, something was different she was glowing-wait does that mean... oh god.

"Mum can I ask you something, dont get mad." I say because of she was what I thought she was her mood swings would kick in. "Sure honey, what is it?" She says and I try to find the perfect subtle way to ask her. "When was your last you know..." I say dragging my sentence. "What?" She says. "You know..." I say and could start to see her getting annoyed. "Ari what are you saying?" She says irritated. "Oh for goodness sake mum are you pregnant?" I spit out and watch her freeze. Subtle ariella so subtle.

"Oh god, I haven't had my period in a month!" She says and rushes upstairs. Oh wow baby number seven, if they carry on like this were gonna have a football team. Now that I think about it dad always wanted like six or seven kids. I looked at Ava watching her cartoons with no worry in the world. Mum comes back ten minutes later with a pregnancy test. "Okay one more minute." She says and looks at the test like a hawk watching it's prey. I glance I my phone as it pings, Dominic had texted. I quickly turned the phone over while she didnt notice.