Give her a heads up

With Sarah gone you could have just relaxed on your own for a little while but knowing Lucy was gonna walk right into your father as soon as she walked through the door, You decided to give her a warning.

You went back over to your window that overlooked the front yard, and opened it in order to try and catch her attention. You waited until she had finished locking up her car and was halfway across the yard before calling out to her.

“Psst! Sis!” you loudly whispered, waving your arms for her to see while trying to keep your voice down. It took a couple of attempts of swinging around your arms and looking like an idiot before she finally noticed and stopped in her tracks before she reached the door.

“...what are you doing?” she asked, looking at you with a confused stare.

“I wanted to catch you before you walked in. Mom and dad are still having a talk in the living room and I thought you would want a warning before you meet him as soon as you walked in” you replied, leaning on the window sill now that your arms were no longer flailing about.

“And you were fine with him and Mom alone together?”

“Well, not really but what else am I supposed to do. Just say ‘Hey, I know she's your wife and all but I don’t trust you to be in the same room with her’? It’s not like Mom will listen either. She’s just gonna sit there and agree with whatever he says” you responded, trying to not let yourself get too angry at the situation. If you had somehow made progress with the KDK then you could potentially get Mom to defer to you instead but that still felt like a long way off.

Lucy seemed to empathise with your frustration and didn’t question your response but she still looked annoyed that she was stuck outside.

“I can sneak down and let you in through the back if you want? To be honest I don’t think he even realised you weren't there when we came in earlier.” you offered.

“I don't know whether to be grateful or disappointed about that but sure, I’ll meet you round the back” she said, before walking towards the back of the house, being careful not to walk in front of the front bay windows.

With Lucy now warned, you closed your window and headed to the top of the stairs before slowly descending to avoid getting caught. After quite a string of bad luck, it would seem that you at least had some stored in reserve, as the couch visible from the door was empty and you could safely make it to the back door. You still had to actually get past the door itself without being spotted which still had you on edge but the thought of Lucy stuck outside, made you want to hurry over and help her.

You ignored the voices coming from the living room and crouched as low as you could to avoid being seen. The conversation didn't stop and nobody called your name so you safely assumed that you were in the all-clear. With that hurdle out of the way, you walked through the dining room and up to the back door and saw Lucy waiting there, nervously tapping her foot on the ground.

“What took you so long, it was getting cold out here” she whispered as you quietly pushed open the door.

“They still haven’t finished talking in there so I had to make sure they didn’t see me” you whispered back, letting her pass as she came in from the cold.

You could tell Lucy had more she wanted to say but she kept quiet as you closed the door behind her. She was about to walk further into the house before she looked down and decided to go barefoot to make less noise. You stood guard waiting for her to take off her shoes and socks while making sure you saw no movement from Mom or your father.

Lucy tapped you on the shoulder to let you know she was done and you both crept back towards the stairs. You stayed in front of her while she followed behind and were about to enter the home stretch as your feet made it to the base of the stairs, when you heard the voices in the living room escalate.

“No way! You can’t just spring this sort of thing on me as soon as you get back” Mom angrily shouted.

“It’s not a spur of the moment thing. I’ve been thinking about this for a while” your father said, in a calmer voice that only seemed to make Mom more upset.

“Well it's the first I’ve heard about it. I can’t deal with this right now. We can discuss this another time, my head isn’t all over the place and I really need to lie down” Mom replied, sounding exhausted after whatever they had discussed.

It sounded like the conversation was wrapping up and you definitely didn’t wanna get caught eavesdropping so you started to creep upstairs. Lucy didn’t need convincing as quickly followed behind you until you were out of sight.

“I wonder what that was about?” you said, hoping Lucy would have at least some idea.

“Your guess is as good as mine, at least Mom didn't agree with the bastard” she replied, an almost spiteful grin appearing on her face.

Her anger towards your father made it look like your earlier argument was just a drop in the ocean compared to how much she hated him. You and Sarah just felt nothing for him anymore as he was hardly around and the only reason he was getting on your nerves now, was because your KDK plans had been derailed for the time being. He must have done something horrible if it made Lucy feel this way but she nor Mom had ever mentioned it to you or Sarah as far as you were aware.

You were about to reply when you both heard the telltale sound of footsteps getting closer from the bottom of the stairs. Without waiting, you quietly rushed to your room in hopes of not getting spotted and once inside, you sat down in front of your PC in an attempt to look busy.

You put on your headphones and started shuffling through a few browser tabs when you heard a noise that caught your attention.