Before It Ends • Hessa • Emery Scott

𝕥᭙ꪮ

The tension builds with every second of silence, and she goes so painfully slow to sit back down at the table. They all keep their heads down to their plates, and Hardin keeps shifting his gaze to me. He knows what's about to happen, and I do too. I'm going to mention last night and she's going to blow up on me, just like every night this week. I want to know where she goes, and the fact that she feels like she has to defend herself to me is very hurtful. I want to be there for her, not to judge her. I mean, my mother was the worst judgmental mother ever, and I try my hardest to not be like her but this has gone way to far.

"Emery." I begin, placing my fork down on the table. She looks up at me, dark circles under her eyes. "Where did you go last night?" I try my best to keep my tone calm, but it comes off harsher than I meant it to be.

She rolls her eyes, slamming her fork down on her plate and leaning back in her seat. "It's none of your business where I went."

I hesitate to say my words, trying my hardest to keep my voice low. "Yes, it is. I am your mother."

Emery scoffs as if I'm speaking bullshit. "Emery," Hardin warns but I silence him with my hand. I hate how he tries to defend me all the time.

"It is so easy, Emery. Just answer my question."

"Or what?" She snaps, "are you going to take away my phone again?"

I stumble with my words in my mind, trying to decide the punishment. She can't talk to me this way, and I've had it with her behavior. I feel my anger grow, and stand up from my seat. "Or I'll take your books." I snap back, pointing my finger at her. She loves her books just like her father and I. Her face falters for a slight second and that slight second was enough for Hardin's hand to be on my shoulder.

"Tessa..." he is now warning me to stand down. That's all he does. All he does is referee and give me the bullshit to deal with.

"No, Hardin! This has happened enough!" I shout at him. So much for not raising my voice to him around the kids. Auden has now made his way to the living room, leaving the three of us alone.

"What?" Emery sneers, "I have no control over my fucking life. God forbid I keep one small thing from you!"

I turn back towards Emery and before I can reply Hardin is meeting our volume. "No one is taking your books Emery, and no one is getting into a fight right now." He settles, grabbing my arm and pulling me away from the table. "Go upstairs and get dressed I have a job for you to do."

"What?" Emery questions, and I match her inquiring expression.

"That's right, I have a job for you to do. You aren't going to just walk away from this. We have a rule, and you didn't follow it. Get your ass upstairs and put your clothes on." His tone is harsh, but straight to the point. Emery doesn't argue and huffs as she makes her way to the stairs. "And as for you, you cannot keep doing this. Yelling doesn't work and you know damn well it doesn't." He says, nudging my shoulder softly.

"Well you just yelled at her and she listened."

"That's because I didn't threaten to punish her, and wait for her to get mad. I just punished her." His voice is quieter now, letting me know he doesn't want the children hearing our discussion.

"What did you plan on making her do?" I ask, gathering the dishes and turning the water on to wash them.

"I don't know," he walk behind me and presses himself closer to me, trapping me between himself and the counter. "Maybe shred some of my typewriting mistakes. I've made a lot of them. It'll take her all day."

I smile at the mention of his typewriter. I had gotten him a typewriter for Christmas two years ago, and he has used it for his writing ever since. It was supposed to be an old fashioned trophy type of thing, but he swore he was going to use it. No matter how frustrating it was to rip off every piece of paper and start over the same paragraph after one mistake, he still kept up that promise. At least, I believe he did.

I only hum, and he continues, "I could make her rip them with her own hands instead of using my shredder machine." He chuckles, "but that might be a bit too harsh, hmm?" He reaches down and kisses my neck, rubbing my shoulders softly.

I feel my insides warm up, and the spark of electricity run through my body. I giggle softly at the fact he's doing this in an open room, where the kids could come trampling inside any moment. He must really sense my stress. He knows exactly how to defuse it.

"That'll work." I mumble. I'm not even paying any attention to my words anymore. His hand moves to my stomach, pressing me closer to him, his lips now at the curve of my neck to my shoulder, and I let out a soft sigh.

"Mom, can I do my presentation now?" Auden asks from the entrance, and I jump. Hardin's hands settle up on my shoulders as I look over.

"In a minute, Audie. Go set it up for us in your room." Hardin says, and I know he's attempting to get him upstairs so we can be alone, but I quickly dismiss him, shaking my head.

"No, I can listen right now. I'll help you set it up." I smile as I ruffle Auden's hair. I hear Hardin groan softly, before following me and Auden upstairs.

Hardin leaves my side and knocks on Emery's door, calling "you better hurry. These papers won't shred themselves and it'll take you all day."

I smile softly at his straight-forward behavior towards Emery. Maybe I need to be that way more. I have to be more of a leader than trying to be her friend. Maybe if she warms up to me then we can act more mother daughter like.

Auden and I set up the presentation, and I sit at the foot of his bed as he shyly makes his speech. I give him small pointers, and an encouraging smile. He does it one more time, and this time he is much more confident and I am proud of how hard he worked.

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𝙰𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛'𝚜 𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎

A good way to start a book is with a bunch of drama right? I hope you like chapter two! I'm actually posting this a little sooner than I planned.

Thank you for the votes on the last chapter, I can't wait for you to read what I've written. I've written thirteen chapters of this so far, and have most of the storyline written down inside of my mind!

Also, the picture at the top of the chapters won't have any correlation to the actual chapter. I will just be putting cute hessa pics.

Chapter Two: Sept. 14, 2020