The Mute Mistress

The Mute Mistress: Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Mary waved her hands before Belle, who insisted Mary take the spare vehicle in the garage, but Mary reassured her it made more sense to take a rideshare back home.

"Then let me pay," Belle insisted.

Mary held up her hands. Belle was sweet, but she was hard-headed when determined.

"Fine, fine. But please take this." Belle pulled a small envelope from her cardigan.

Mary eyed it before lifting the fold and pulling out the slip of paper. She took a double-take and rounded her mouth at the check. Belle raised her hand, "It's an advance paycheck."

"Six thousand?" Mary read.

"Nathan and I agreed to add a compensational apology from your first night," Belle whispered.

She was thankful and held her emotions together. Her eyes roamed beyond Belle. For once, she wanted to see Nathan and smile. Freya's daughters arranged her bed and eased her onto the padded mattress. Nellie put her hands on her hips and looked down at their dreary mother.

Mary stopped arranging the prescriptions and saw her sister.

"I hate seeing her like this."

Mary reassured, "I know. But she'll get better."

"Yeah. The doctor said it might take her a little longer to get back on her feet because of her age, but she did well during the examinations."

She put her hand on her sister's shoulder. "How are you doing?"

Nellie folded her brows but smiled. "Honestly, it's really weird not having you around."

"I miss you every day too."

"In that beautiful house?"

"Yes!" Mary nodded exaggeratedly.

They left the room but cracked the door. "You said things are better, right? He's not–"

"He still drinks," Mary admitted.

Nellie shook her head, and a low growl rumbled in her throat. She fixed her sister's hair behind her ear. "You shouldn't stay there."

"I'll be okay. He's not as bad as I thought." Mary looked around, remembering popcorn and dinner from the night before. "Only when he's upset."

"That's not familiar?"

She pressed her lips together. Nellie was right. It was too familiar. Nellie gave her a long and tight hug. "I'm serious, be careful around that wealthy asshole."

There wasn't much Mary could do to defend his character, but she pulled out the small envelope from her purse and hand it to her sister.

Nellie covered her mouth for a moment. Her voice shook, "This isn't real."

Mary held her face and smiled.

"I thought three thousand a week was crazy, but what is this? It's only been a few days."

"It's another apology."

Nellie kicked her head back and said, "Well, I'm glad they're sorry. This isn't to keep you quiet about discrimination or anything like that, you think?"

She bit her inner cheek and looked away in thought. "No. I don't think so."

"Good," Nellie sighed before reexamining at the check.

Nellie stretched to return the paper, but received rejection.

"Take it. We can cover the bills and relieve some of the credit card debt."