When She's Not Here. (Sequel to 'Him, Me and Them.)

Chapter 17

<<-- Clares POV -->>

  || 5 Weeks from Chapter 16 ||

Mam has been acting really weird lately. Like more than usual. More, sort of, cautious. Well, for the past 3 weeks anyway.
 
Sometimes, mam and dad and Ella would be talking while I'm upstairs and when I come down, they just stop talking. I wish they would just tell me what's wrong. It all started 3 weeks ago and mam has been so worried and jumpy.
 
A man came to the door the other day. Mam and dad didn't seem to like him. They told him to leave and not in a polite way. When he looked at me, he smiled. His smile was so amazing. There's some people, when they smile, it's only their lips. He had amazing lips by the way. But when he smiled at me, you could tell he meant it. He smiled with his eyes.
 
He was old, but he was so amazing. His eyes... There was something in his eyes that made me shiver, with fear maybe but it really turned me on. He seems so scary it's kind of hot. Okay really hot.
 
Okay I know I've only seen this man once and he's like 50 years older than me but I need to see him again. Like, when I seen him, my heart started racing and I got butterflies and when he smiled I felt like the luckiest girl in the world to even be on the receiving end of a smile like that. I just wonder why mam and dad hate him so much.
 
M.... Mark? Marcus maybe? Could that have been his name? I'm so curious to why mam was so angry and upset and to  why the man was here and more importantly. Who the hell is this man and why the hell is he so drop-dead gorgeous. Okay I need help. He's so old but I feel like, like I love him...
 
I need to talk to him. I wonder...
 
I jump up from my bed and tip-toe into mams room. I creep over to her drawers. If she knows this man, surely she should have some way of communicating with him.
 
I search through files and bills and school reports and folders and find nothing. I'm on my 3rd drawer of 4 and I'm just about to give up when I see a scrapbook thing. On the front, in fancy blue-lettering, it says;

               "James! <3 xx"
 
James? I've never heard that name before? I take the book and creep back into my room. I sit on my bed and flip open the first page.
 
It is a picture of a man and a baby. I vaguely recognise the man but it's the baby I'm concerned about. As I flick through the pages, I see the baby with my granny and grandad and my mam and dad.
 
I flick over to the last 2 pages of the book. All throughout the book, there has been pictures of a child, obviously James, growing up. On the last 2 pages, are 2 of the most heartbreaking pictures I have ever seen. The first is of the same boy who is strapped up to a load of machines in a hospital bed. His face is covered In burns and cuts and so is his bare chest. Burn scars run across his arms and you can tell he's obviously out of it.
 
And the final picture in the scrapbook is of a small white coffin with a flower wreath beside it that says "James" and a single white rose on the top of the coffin. There are men carrying the coffin and I see mam and dad behind it and further back in the crowd, there are 2 men in handcuffs, being held by the police. I flick back a few pages and they are the same men as before.
 
I look back again and the horrible last 2 pictures. Who is this child and what the hell happened to him?
 
I close the book and leave it back in its place in Mam's room. I go back to my room and lie in bed and try and figure out who this poor child could be.