By the moon, I swear

FAMILY

When he awoke he was famished. Amber was by his side asleep. His lips curled into a smile. To see her back in his bed in her own volition brought him joy. There was still hope and his heart skipped a beat at that. Easing himself from her clutches slowly, he got up from the bed with the intent of easing his bladder first before he put food in his stomach. Deciding to find his way in the dark, he slammed into a wall. For a moment he felt confused. He knew his room as the back of his head and the restroom was always on the left side. There should be a door at the exact spot where he was and not a wall. Switching the lights while praying for Linda not to wake, he saw that he was in her room. His room was the only one that was built different among all the rooms in the house which explained the confusion. He quickly went to ease himself all the while trying to contain the bundle of joy that suffocated his heart. Amber had let him sleep in her room.

He made his way downstairs to get some food. He was not sure how he fell asleep but he felt really refreshed having slept. He had Amber to thank for that. On his way to the kitchen, he passed via the children’s room and saw them soundly asleep and that alone brought him joy. In the kitchen he found some already cooked food in the fridge which he warmed in the microwave and sat on the kitchen table feasting. It’s funny he remembered eating just a few hours earlier so his hunger was unexplained. Either case he dug in. his mind could never think straight in an empty stomach. And now that he had enough rest, it was time for him to get back to work.

After his was done with his meal, Tristan checked the wall clock to check what the time was. His eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. His feet rooted to the ground. ‘This is not possible.’ He whispered underneath his breath. Not wanting to believe it he rushed into his study and checked the clock there and to his dismay the time was the same. So was the date. He had slept all the way through two days and a night.

Slumping on the floor, he caught his head between his hands. He now only had four days to make things right. Four days to come up with an impeachable plan that would solve all their problems. A plan which he had failed to come up with for a long long time. How was he going to make it in such a short period of time? He took in a breath but it didn’t calm down the hammering in his chest. Once again he was going to fail her. He could feel it. And the worst of all was that this time he had no excuse. He raised his hands in defeat before tears clouded his eyes. He was a disgrace to all men. He couldn’t even protect what was most precious to him. William was right. He was sick. Sick from incompetence.

Wiping his tears way, he thought back to all the recent events since the girls came in. When they left that disgusting woman’s place, William agreed to take up the case. He was ready to take the woman to court and make sure the rest of her miserable life rot in jail. In all his years of practicing law, he had never failed not even once and he was confident that he was going to win that one with a landslide from the jury. He had taken some photos of the filthy woman and the disorganized house. He even made sure to capture the drugs lying around. He was too close to the case though and his Tristan was involved with Amber making it personal. So William suggested they come with cops the next day, at least then there will be more people to testify. To their dismay when they arrived the next day, they found the house impeccably clean and the woman in a good condition. Their plan back fired on them. They ended up looking like fools. That was when they sorted to come up with a strategy to win the case legally. Their fight against the woman was going to be a tough one considering she also had a tough lawyer by her side.

To worsen the matter, during their chat Linda slipped and mentioned that the neighborhood has had more thefts than one could count. With that Tristan was even more restless. Deep down he know that she wouldn’t let them go alone. He might threaten her with a losing her job but she willingly will so that she can go live with her family. He just couldn’t lose her again. Especially not to a terrible life and on the other hand she couldn’t lose her siblings not that he expected her to. Her heart is what made him fall in love with her even more. Gabriel and his brother worked from the police station while William and he worked from home. Although the four of them tried to come up with a plan, most of them were banking on Tristan. He was the one that was usually good in masterminding a plan. And he had nothing.