Chapter Twenty-Four: And The Snakes Start To Sing
2 MONTHS LATER
KARA
"Hi love, is it okay if your father and I come over along with Mr and Mrs Sykes?"
I stare down at my phone in disbelief, my mum sounded a little too happy. To say I was confused would be an understatement; because she hadn't really spoken to me since I told her the good news that Oli and I were engaged.
"Err Oli's at the shop, why do you four need to come over?"
"It's probably better if Oli's not there dear, you'll be a lot easier to convince without that boy getting inside your head. We'll be over in ten."
Before I could protest she hung up the phone on me, what did she mean by convincing me? My first instinct was to lock the front door so they couldn't walk in, and my second instinct was to ring Oli to see if he knew why his parents wanted to come over.
I sit on the sofa and rub my bulging belly and dial Oli's number if my parents were up to something I wanted him here. Mum said Oli gets inside my head and makes me do things I don't want to do when in reality that's all she's ever done to me over the years.
"Kara, are you okay?"
Oli's voice was enough to calm my nerves. In the background, I could hear him typing, so he was probably in his office and had me on the loudspeaker.
"Oli can you come back to the house, please? It's nothing to do with the baby or at least I think it isn't. My mum just rang and invited herself, my father and your parents around in like ten minutes."
The typing stops "She hasn't tried to speak to you since we told her we were engaged. Did she say why my parents were coming over?"
I shake my head knowing he can't see me "I told her that you were out, but then my mum said something about it being easier to convince me to do something without you here to get inside my head."
"What is she up to? And how did she manage to drag my parents into her plan? They are supportive of us."
Oli sounded just as confused as me. I didn't know what my mum was capable of when she put her mind to something. I glance at the clock anxiously.
"Do I let them in when they arrive? I'm kind of scared to Oli."
"I'm coming back now. I'll park at the end of the street and come in through the back door."
I sigh in relief knowing I won't have to face the parents alone. I hang up on Oli and try to calm myself down because stress could be bad for the baby. On the coffee table, my phone goes off again and I roll my eyes thinking it's Oli, only to pick it up to read Dr Iero's name on the caller ID. Why was he ringing me? Our last session was last week.
"Hi Frank, err this call is a surprise."
On the other end, the doctor chuckles "Yes it is, sorry to ring you but I had the strangest phone call earlier off your mother."
I quirk an eyebrow, why would mum be ringing my doctor? Now I was interested, did this have something to do with the visit?
"What did she tell you?"
"Remember we swapped our last meeting to Monday because I couldn't do Thursday? Well, she rang up in hysterics saying you'd relapsed last Monday and must have kept it from me in our Thursday meeting because you didn't want to be locked up in the crazy house."
If my jaw could hit the floor it would have. Why would my mum tell my doctor that I'd relapsed when I had done no such thing? The only people who knew the appointment had changed was Oli, his band, and Emma so my mum still assumed my last meeting was on a Thursday.
"Hello Kara, are you still there? I think she might be up to something, she said she'd read up some information about if you'd relapsed and lied to me that when the baby was born it would be taken from you while you were sectioned in rehab."
I was surprised I hadn't dropped the phone as tears pricked my eyes. Was my mother really that heartless that she'd try to get my baby taken off me and get me put in rehab?
"What did you tell her Frank? I haven't relapsed, I had my meeting with you and then hospital scans the rest of the day."
"I didn't tell her that your meeting was in fact at the exact time she said you'd relapsed via cutting yourself on your thighs and taking one too many sleeping pills. If she tries anything suspicious I'm on your side, she can't do anything since I have evidence of your meeting and you'll be on hospital CCTV."
I was happy Frank was such a good doctor and great human being. He didn't have to ring me up to warn me, but he had which was probably against hospital rules or something. Now I knew why my parents were coming over.
"Thank you, Frank, for my mum's actually invited herself around with Oli's parents right now. Can I keep you updated on the situation? Thank you for telling me, I can't believe my own mum would sell me out."
"The pleasures all mine Kara; you're going to be a great mother no matter how much your mum seems to despise you and Oli. Please do keep me updated, I have a patient now so goodbye."
He hangs up and I'm left in a silent room with only my dark thoughts to keep me company. How could the women who birthed and raised me all these years turn around and stab me in the back, a two-faced woman who lied to my face and plotted behind my back to take away my child? She said I was sick but what did that make her? I wasn't the one wrong in the head. Oli once asked me what my favourite lyric was and I told him that because of my past it was 'true friends stab you in the front'. Now that lyric seemed more relevant than ever with my own mum.
I was snapped out of my head by the sound of the back door opening and closing signalling Oli was home. Unless my parents climbed over the back gate and decided to sneak in and take me by surprise, I wouldn't put it past them anymore.
"Kara?"
"In the living room Oli, I need to tell you something you won't believe."
Oli walks into the living room slightly out of breath, then I realised he must have run from his office and sped home before parking at the end of the street and ran all the way here. He sits down next to me and opens his arms which I happily crawl into, I felt safe in his arms.
"What do you think is going on?" he speaks with worry lacing his words as he kisses the top of my head.
I recount to him my phone call with Dr Iero and by the end, his worry has gone, replaced with rage towards my mum. I then explain my theory about how she roped my dad and his parents into the plan. If the baby was taken from us my mum and dad could raise her and his mum and dad would either be the aunt and uncle or godparents.
"She can't do that." He hisses and clenches his fist.
"We have more than enough evidence that it's all made up Oli. If anything we should maybe record the conversation so that we can use it against them." I grab his clenched fist and force it open before lacing my fingers through his "This is just another test, no one's taking our baby from us even if that means icing the parents out."
Oli simply nods in silent agreement just as the bell on the front door goes off. I tense in my seat and Oli strokes my back to calm me down. The small gesture does the trick and I take deep breaths, how hard could it be to face my parents and pretend to not know about their betrayal?
"I'll be in the kitchen with my phone recording if you need me Kara the code phrase is and the snakes start to sing."
I roll my eyes at the irony of his code phrase. Oli chuckles and kisses my hand before walking into the kitchen, leaving the door slightly parted so he could record clearly. The doorbell rings again and I put on a brave face.
Opening the front door I'm met by my parents and Oli's. I smile and motion for them to come inside.
"Can I get you anything to drink? Sorry, I'm a little unprepared for your visit. Please sit down."
"Thank you, dear, but I think the four of us want to get this over and done with quickly." Mum squeezes my arm as she walks past me towards the living room.
I take the armchair while the four parents spread themselves on the two sofas. Feeling their eyes on me makes this feel more like an interrogation than a friendly get to together. If Oli wasn't here I'd be freaking out right about now.
"So what is it that you want to say, mum?"
"Do you know the gender of the baby yet?"
That was the last question I expected out of her lips. Oli and I knew we were having a little girl and had planned on keeping it secret from our friends and family until the birth, but I guess I had to play along to get the truth out of my mum.
"We're having a little girl, but it's a secret. We didn't want our friends and family knowing until the birth." I rub my belly and smile in my mum's direction hoping to see her smile falter, but it doesn't.
Carol turns to Ian and whispers not that quietly "I've always wanted a little girl."
I smirk and tap my fingers on the armrest "You're not having a little girl Carol, I am."
Carol stares at me wide-eyed hoping she wasn't caught. Mum turns to Carol and glares at her before recomposing herself and focuses her attention on me. I watch with cautious eyes as she pulls out some forms from her bag.
"Actually, you're not going to have a little girl Kara. You'll give birth to her but won't be her mother, your father and I will be raising her as our daughter."
There it was the smoking gun, my mum had never been one for subtle. I gasp and pretend to be shocked "What do you mean mum?"
I pull the pieces of paper towards me and notice two forms. One was giving up the right to my daughter and naming my mum and dad as her guardians as if I never existed. And the second was a form for me to check myself into rehab, and by doing that I would forfeit the rights to raise my daughter. The first form also read that because of Oli's busy band life he wasn't a suitable father. Mum had gone above and beyond with this master plan, but I had an ace up my sleeve.
"So tell me, Carol and Ian, what do you get out of this little plot? Last time I checked you were behind Oli and me." I silence Ian with my hand and continue speaking as I have the upper ground "what poison did my mum feed you about me? Is it that I relapsed and am unfit to be a mother?"
Mum gasps loudly "What are you accusing me of Kara? I want what's best for my daughter and you'll probably end up taking your life once she's born anyway. Plus Oli's in a band which will have the court on our side."
"Shut the fuck up mum and drop the act, I know everything."
Mum goes to snatch the forms from my hand but I rip them up in front of her.
"I rang your doctor and told him you'd cut yourself and taken some pills last Monday morning, and then lied to him during your final session last Thursday. By telling lies you'd be sent to rehab."
I stand up and point my finger in my mum's direction "Tell me what you get out of this?"
She stands up matching my height in her heels "I get a second chance at raising a daughter who's correct in the head. Carol and Ian get to be an aunt and uncle along with being the girl's godparents, as they never had a daughter."
I can't help but smile which makes mum take a step back from me as she reads my face "What makes you think Dr Iero will believe any of your lies?"
"You have two failed suicide attempts on your record, along with a past of severe cutting and turning to alcohol to numb the pain. Trust me he was convinced on the phone, all I had to do was pretend to cry and play the concerned mother."
I clap my hands together and motions towards the kitchen "and the snakes start to sing."
The kitchen door opens and out walks a smug looking Oli holding his phone proudly in front of him. Mum looks between the two of us before back down at dad and then over at Ian and Carol.
"Did you ring your son and tell him to come back home?"
Carol shakes her head "We ignored his phone call as you told us to."
"I rang my fiancé after you called mum, which was your first mistake. You haven't bothered with us since we announced our engagement so when you ring up acting happy of course I was going to ring Oli."
Oli laces his free hand with mine and slips his phone back into his pocket "and now we have it on tape that you set up your daughter to take her child."
Mum shakes her head and sits back down. Then Ian stands up and clears his throat looking apologetic. If he thought him and Carol could play the innocent card he was mistaken, and the look on Oli's face read the same as mine.
"I'm going to stop you, dad, you and mum chose to be part of his evil plan to rip a mother and father from their daughter. Which is why all four of you will not be present at the birth, and will not be part of her life."
His dad sits down in shock next to his mum who looks ready to cry, no way were Oli and I giving into crocodile tears. This was our life our parents had tried to mess up. Parents are supposed to love and support their children, not destroy them for their own gain.
Mum throws her head back and laughs "Dr Iero sounded quite convinced of your relapse on the phone and will support our case, Kara."
I shake my head "That's where you're wrong mother, you never could read people. Before you arrived I had a phone call off Dr Iero explaining a strange call he had off my hysterical mum and how I couldn't have relapsed at all on Monday and then lied to his face in my Thursday session."
Mum chews her lip "What do you mean?"
I roll my eyes and Oli squeezes my hand in support "Last Thursday he had appointments all day so had to move my final session to Monday morning, at the same time I was supposedly cutting myself and swallowing pills. It's on hospital CCTV that I had scans and checkups until late afternoon so I couldn't have possibly self-harmed in my house."
All four parents sit in silence as they stare at Oli and me. It looked like their clever plan was ruined because of hospital scheduling. Oli clears his throat and the five of us look up at him.
"I'd very much like it if the four of you left me, my fiancé and our baby in peace. And I mean it when I say you'll have no involvement in our daughter's life. Now get the hell out of our house."
The parents get up and shuffle past us looking a lot less happy and smug than when they first arrived. Oli and I stay where we are until we hear the front door close. I lean against Oli and he wraps his arm around my waist.
"That has to be the last test right? I don't think we can top our families trying to break up our family."
I laugh and playfully shove Oli "Hopefully, this whole thing plays out like it should be a Hollywood movie or something."
After the 'encounter' Oli tells me to relax on the sofa while he makes us something to eat. I update Frank and he tells me not to worry, everything has a way of working out in the end. It was odd knowing that our parents wouldn't be a part of our daughter's life, but they should have thought about the consequences of their actions before they plotted against us. The only family our daughter needed was me, Oli, the band, Emma and Max from work.