One String Attached

86.

"How about we let Autumn sleep for now and worry about all of that later?" I speak up to stop them both from bickering.
They both nod and Aaliyah presses a tender kiss on Autumn's head before crawling back to her original position while Asher remained tucked up under my arm, Autumn cradled on my lap.

Ri leaves the bedroom and carries the cot over towards us before setting it out in front of the sofa where she would be sitting down.
I pass Autumn to her and she gently cradles her back to sleep when she stirs a little as she's placed inside the cot.

"So what movie are we watching?" she asks, looking towards Aaliyah seeing as it was her turn to pick a movie.

Our daughter crawls over to rest by her mother, moving her head to lay above her lap and then I stretch my arm out over our children's heads for my hand to reach Riley's shoulder.
She looks at me and smiles, resting her head sideways.

. . .

The following day in court, we were met with the chance to watch Aaliyah's video back but I don't think Riley could have been more nervous than she was now.

She and I both knew Aaliyah would never say anything massively worrying about us but with the way things have gone down these past two years, no one can truly be sure of what she had to say.

Emily would have warned us if she had said something troubling but she hadn't, so I'm assuming we were safe and had things in the bag.

The video gets played off the projector and we were all seated while we watched it roll.

Aaliyah was stood there, her cheeks turned a slight pink.
Emily wasn't in the foreground but you could see her near the background while the one of the members of the jury asked her questions from behind the camera.

You could see how vividly scared Liyah was.
She was normally confident and far from shy when a camera was placed in front of her but this time it was different. Fear was floating inside of her.

I just hope that didn't effect what she had to say.

"Could you describe your mother for me, Aaliyah? What's she like at home? How do you feel when you're around her?"

She bites her lip and for that one moment I could see the clear resemblance between her and Ri, making me soften.

I steal a glance towards Whitney and Bryson but when I do, I couldn't have regretted it more. Whitney smirks at me and sits up straight so her top is pulled down a little lower, revealing an ounce of cleavage to me.
I ignore her and face the projector again.

"Mummy's nice. She's sweet and always tucks me up in bed. She makes dinner most nights too but Daddy always says his cooking is better than hers, which I agree with."
Nathan chuckles a little at the sound of that while Riley playfully rolls her eyes.

"How is she with your brother and sister? Does she ever get angry?"
Aaliyah looks behind her at that point to take a look at Emily who slowly nods her head, reassuring her to say it.

She faces the judge again and moves her lips around a little, trying to put the right words together.
Riley looks down, probably scared for what was about to be said too.

"Mummy loves Asher and Autumn but sometimes I think she loves Asher a little too much, a lot more than she loves me. I think I'm Daddy's favourite and Asher is Mummy's favourite."

"What makes you say that, Aaliyah?"

"Well... Mummy always tells me off whenever I do something wrong but when Asher does something wrong, she kisses him and cuddles him. There was one time when she told me off and I heard her say that I was 'definitely my father's daughter' but I didn't know what she meant."

I look at Riley again and I could see that this was killing her. This entire process was killing her. The sooner it was over with, the better.

"Sometimes Mummy stresses herself out too. When that happens, she gets angry. She starts shouting and sometimes it's scary. Daddy usually has to calm her down and after that she's back to normal. It hasn't been like that for a while though. I think Mummy's getting better because Grandma told us she wasn't very well before."

Bianca...
She had fed the kids information they didn't need to know about just like she always does whenever she's around.

"Do you like living with Mummy and Daddy? Do you feel safe at home with them?"

"Yes. But when I don't, I go to my room to calm myself down. It's my stress station."

"And who decided to call it a Stress Station?"

"Mummy did," she says, causing Riley to close her eyes and heave out a long sigh. "Because she said she can't deal with me when I'm being difficult."

The camera cuts off as Aaliyah's voice fades out and we all turn to face the Judge but as my hand was connected with Riley's, I felt the water of a single tear fall and drop onto my hand.
She was crying. And this time around, there really was no way I could help her.