TW: description of domestic violence. please do not read this chapter if this is something you may find upsetting/triggering.
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"𝙄 𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙐𝙂𝙃𝙏 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙒𝙀𝙍𝙀 𝙈𝙔
𝙁𝙍𝙄𝙀𝙉𝘿𝙎."
╚═══════════════════╝.
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐇-𝐎𝐔𝐓-𝐎𝐅-𝐓𝐇𝐄-𝐅𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐒𝐇 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄 as Kevin Wilson had just got back from the local chippy. He called up the stairs to alert his children, and within seconds the three of them were bounding down the staircase in pure excitement. They bundled into the kitchen to grab a plateful of food, with Jordan looking intently at his phone while Mollie and Cory became instantly occupied with squabbling over who got the biggest piece of fish while.
Clearing his throat, Kevin drew all of their attention. "Look, I know things have been a bit rough for us lately. But I've got a trial at a new warehouse outside town. Proper sick pay, proper holidays, none of this zero hours crap anymore."
"Dad, that's brilliant." Cory smiled encouragingly.
"I'm so proud of ya." Mollie added, sending her dad a soft smile.
"I know we've all had to make some sacrifices lately, but this could be good for us." Kevin nodded. "Really good."
"Does that mean you can lend us a twenty, then?" Jordan asked, looking up from his phone with a hopeful expression.
"At least let me get the job first, mate." Kevin chuckled. "This better not be for that girlfriend of yours. She's already rich, don't need my boy spending any money on her."
"Chloe?" Jordan raised his eyebrows. "No, it's not for her. It's just, um, school stuff."
"Right." Kevin said, his mouth forming a tight line with slight disbelief. "Look, if the trial goes well tomorrow then I'll think about it, alright? But for now, I'm gonna go watch some telly. I'm missing Corrie."
As the dark haired man left the kitchen, not a word was spoken by any of his children until they were sure he was out of sight.
"God, you are an idiot, Jordan." Cory scoffed finally. "First, you get banged up over Christmas. Now you're in debt to some scummy dealer and you're trying to drag dad into it."
"It weren't my fault." Jordan protested. "I was robbed-"
"Yeah, by some random schoolgirls in burqas. And if that weren't embarrasing enough, you failed to run after them not once, but twice." The older Wilson rolled his eyes. "You never learn, do you?"
"That's enough, Cory." Mollie said, shooting her twin a warning look. Turning back to Jordan, she sighed. "Look, Jord, I know you're in a really dangerous position, but there's gotta be something you can do other than borrow money off of dad."
Cory scoffed once more and let out a dry laugh. "There is no way this idiot is gonna sort this out all by himself."
"No, I'm not." Jordan said assertively, causing both of his siblings to look at him with confusion. "'Cause you're both gonna help me."
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"𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐋, 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐀𝐒. They're bloody massive." Mollie said with an unimpressed tone as she stared ahead at the muddy, wet field. If there was one way in which she envisioned spending her moring, it would never be this. Never in a million years, in fact. "I can't believe you're making me do this."
"You mean us. You're not the only one he's roped into this, remember?" Cory gave her a pointed look.
"Yeah, but you're not the one with freshly done acrylic nails, are you?" Mollie fired back, holding up her pale blue nails. "These cost me an arm and a leg at the salon in town, and now they're gonna be bloody ruined."
"Stop whining and get to work. These things are worth at least a thousand." Jordan said, nodding his head towards the large animals in the field. "I reckon we only need to catch a couple."
"Oh, because it's that easy, is it?" Mollie asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes at Jordan's completely serious tone.
"It would be if you'd both shut up and help me out." Jordan said with a slight tone of frustration. With a quilt tucked under his arm, Jordan began striding confidently in the direction of the group of alpacas. "Come on."
"You and your crap ideas." Cory muttered flippantly.
But despite their annoyance, the twins followed behind their younger brother swiftly. Maybe it was the craziest idea in the world, but if the Wilson children set their minds to something, they sure as hell were not going to back down. Even if it meant continually slipping on their arses and nearly freezing to death in the biting January snow.
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𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐋𝐘 as she watched her dad pace up and down the hallway on his phone. As it happened, it turned out that stealing alpacas wasn't actually the best idea and had resulted in the butcher ringing up Mr Bell and landing Jordan in massive trouble.
But it wasn't just Mr Bell who was angry. Due to being called out of the trial shift for his new job to talk to the school about Jordan, Kevin Wilson was absolutely furious.
"We had, uh, a family emergency." He said unconvincingly into the phone, shooting a look at Jordan. "I can come in now. Or tomorrow?"
Mollie exchanged a worried look with Cory as they both heard the panic in his voice. Neither could imagine quite how angry their dad would be if he lost his job before he ever really got it, but they definitely didn't want to find out.
"Well you said, you said the job was in the bag." Clearly getting a negative response from the other end of the call, Kevin Wilson began to raise his voice ever so slightly. But realising it was futile, he sighed. "Okay, fine. Bye."
No words were spoken as Kevin slumped down at the bottom of the stairs with a sigh. Mollie bit her lip, looking up through the railings to meet Jordan's eyes. On his face was an expression she was unfamiliar with when it came to her younger brother. He looked genuinely terrified, and it broke her heart.
"Sorry." Jordan said plainly after a moment's silence.
"What for?" Kevin retorted, turning to Jordan with an angry expression. "Screwing up your exams? Having another jumped-up berk in a suit tell me where I'm going wrong? We can't pay our water bill and you're running around town risking prison again."
"You might be able to walk away, but I can't." Jordan said with a firm shake of his head as he started to get up and head up the stairs. But as the ground beneath him suddenly disappeared, he was pulled roughly down the stairs by his father who held him firmly by the collar.
"Walk away? 'Cause that's what I do, is it?" Kevin Wilson roared, pushing Jordan out of his grip and towards the wall. "That job was our last chance and you have ruined it."
Mollie felt her heart stop. She'd never seen her dad this angry and judging by the terrified look on Cory's face, neither had he.
"You can't get a job, 'cause you're a loser." Jordan fought back, his voice cracking with emotion.
"Jordan-" Cory spoke up, but the younger Wilson simply shook his head.
"No. Do you know how much I can't stand this place? The carpet that always smells, the crap food, seeing your miserable face every day complaining about how crap your life is, blaming everyone else. No wonder mum couldn't wait to leave us." Jordan spat.
Kevin, full of rage, reached out to grab the boy by his collar again and yanked him violently through the hallway. Jordan struggled as he tried to fight back, but he was ultimately overpowered by the man's stronger frame and thrown towards the ground.
Mollie was paralysed in fear for a moment as she heard the grunts of pain from her brother. Never did she think her dad would be capable of something like this, but now she could clearly see that he was. And it terrified her.
Looking to Cory, he too was frozen as he looked on helplessly. The colour had completely drained from his face and he was consumed by fear, almost a ghost of his usual self.
After a single second that seemed to last forever, Mollie snapped out of her thoughts. As helpless as she felt, she knew that was wrong. Jordan was her brother, and she couldn't just stand by and watch him get hurt. Even if that meant getting hurt herself.
"Dad!" She cried, lunging forward to try and grab his shoulder. "Stop it!"
"Mol, don't." Jordan didn't want her to get hurt and tried to stop her, but his voice was somewhat muffled as he fought back against his dad
Ignoring his warning, Mollie clamped both hands on one of her dad's arms and tried to pull it away. Consumed with rage, Kevin took his arm out of her grasp and pushed her away with some force. Mollie stumbled backwards, hitting her back against the solid door frame and wincing at the pain.
A loud thud could be heard and a sharp gasp of pain as Mr Wilson gave Jordan one last kick before turning on his heel and walking out of the room. No words were exchanged, and Mollie couldn't even bring herself to look at him.
He was their father, and yet he'd never felt any more like a stranger.
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𝐒𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄, 𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄 𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑. After what had happened last night, she was too consumed in her own thoughts to eat, sleep, or even really focus on anything. She was angry, upset, hurt and terrified, and yet she felt completely empty at the same time.
Completely oblivious to the endless thoughts swirling through Mollie's head, Nas chuckled from across the table. "I can't believe you missed school yesterday because you guys tried to steal alpacas. I mean, what the hell were you thinking?"
Mollie shrugged halfheartedly, her eyes still focused on the plate on the table. "I dunno. Guess we were trying to help Jordan out."
"As if the butcher were gonna give 2 grand to a few random schoolkids for some alpacas." Nas laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of it, but it was clear by Mollie's emotionless face that she didn't quite see the funny side of it.
"Yeah well it didn't bloody work anyway, did it?" Mollie snapped, causing the Paracha girl to stop laughing instantly. "Dad were absolutely fuming, more angry than I've ever seen him. And Jordan is in even more debt to that scabby dealer than he was before. God, if I could only get my hands on them girls that robbed him. It were them that caused all this."
Nas bit her lip, sensing Mollie's tone of anger and steely expression. She had no idea quite how serious the whole situation was until now, but her heart began to race as she felt the guilt consume her.
Before she could stop herself, she inhaled a sharp breath. "It were us. Me and Missy stole Jordan's money."
"What?" Mollie asked in disbelief, finally looking up at Nas. Her voice was quiet, but not in a soft or gentle way. It was a scary kind of quiet.
"I'm sorry, it was that night we were drinking and I don't know what came over us. We had no idea it would get this fair, we thought it were just a bit of fun and-"
"Let me get this straight. You thought stealing from my brother were 'just a bit of fun'?" Mollie questioned, her tone dry. "You thought almost getting my brother killed were 'just a bit of fun'?"
"I swear, we didn't think any of this would happen." Nas' voice was desperate as she confessed.
"I thought you were my friends. I thought you cared about me...about my family." Mollie said, her voice now filled with hurt and beginning to crack.
"We do, Mollie. I'm so, so sorry. I swear-"
Nas was cut off by the sharp sting of a slap across her face. In any other situation, she would have fought back but she simply closed her eyes and took the hit. She'd hurt not only her best friend, but her entire family too, and she couldn't blame Mollie for reacting like this.
The commotion caused almost everyone in the canteen to turn and look at the two girls, with many of the teachers running over too.
"Mollie Wilson, get to isolation right now." Mr Quereshi's loud voice called out sternly as he glared at the brunette.
"Gladly." Mollie muttered, rising up out of her seat. Turning back to Nas with a venemous look, she shook her head at the girl that she once considered her best friend. "I don't think I could stand to see your face for another second. Or, even better, ever again."
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i just wanted to use this lil a/n to say that if you have ever been affected by domestic violence or know someone that has, there is always someone to talk to.
if you're in the uk, there is a helpline you can call on 08082000247, and if not, there will be services specific to your area.
i know this is a bit of a sad way to end the chapter, but it's a really serious issue and i just wanted to use this as a space to draw attention to that.
hope you are all safe and well. love <3