A surprisingly normal day

The car ride over towards the leisure park was rather subdued and you were happy to sit in the middle seat in the back while Emma and Grace sat up front. It seemed you were all left in your own thoughts now that you had left the hotel and you knew that this weekend holiday was drawing to a close.

You had your own thoughts to deal with so you didn’t feel the need to break the silence. It wasn’t that long of a time to organise your thoughts but you did feel better once you arrived and it seemed to be the same for the mother daughter pair as well.

The mood turned lighter as you basically spent the afternoon just forgetting about everything else while you were here. You spent time getting some breakfast while figuring out what you wanted to go do first, choosing a couple of games at the bowling alley first before then going to a movie if you had the time.

It went back to feeling like a regular holiday that you had all been on before as you tried your hardest to actually beat them and enjoy yourself. You did get some time alone with Grace and Emma individually as the other got up to take their turn but with the atmosphere at the time, you did little more than just wrap your arm around them and enjoy both the conversation and the company.

It felt the same even when you went to go see the movie. The last time you had gone to see a movie the previous weekend, you had tried multiple KDK effect to get Mom to do something given that you were in a darkened room but again, after the whirlwind that was Saturday and the fun you had had this morning, you were content to just relax and treat the afternoon like a lazy Sunday.

It all seemed to finally catch up with you when you had all sat down for lunch at one of the many fast food places they had here, You and Emma sitting at one side of the table while Grace sat opposite. You looked at your phone for what felt like the first time since you had left the hotel, seeing the time was slightly past 1pm and you knew you would be heading over to visit Izzy once you had all eaten.

You felt surprisingly good about it though. It felt like this was the first time you had been able to take a break without having to worry about everything going on in your life. It felt weird when you considered some of your problems, given that they were plans to slowly acquire a harem of women, but not having to think about any of that, even if for just a few hours, felt like a weight coming off of your shoulders.

Even after you came back to your senses, that same weight didn’t seem to be there and you promised yourself that you’d try and either put aside some time to not think about anything sexual and KDK related or just take some time for yourself, even if it meant not making any progress with your subjects when you knew you could.

Your thoughts wrapped up just when everyone seemed to finish eating and with a clear head, you felt like you could take on whatever happened once you got to Izzy’s home.

“I didn’t want to talk about it and ruin the afternoon we’ve had so far but with it getting closer to two o'clock, do either of you have anything you wanna discuss before we meet up with Izzy? Just anything that you might want to bring up and the others can help you.” you asked, hoping to get any potential issues or questions out of the way before you got put on the spot later on.

Emma didn’t seem to have anything bothering her like you had expected but Grace seemed hesitant to answer at first before noticing you were waiting for an answer.

“It’s not that I dislike Izzy, far from it. It's just that if she decides she’s not going to help us I think we should still tell Mary everything even if it goes against Izzy’s wishes” Grace replied, making sure you knew where her priorities lay.

You didn’t blame her for thinking like that as you could see where she was coming from. The only difference from your outlook was that you were aiming for the best case scenario whereas Grace was considering the worst.

“I get what you mean but I hope it won’t come to that. We can always ask Izzy if she decides not to help, what she would be willing to do instead. I wouldn’t blame her for not helping either. She does have Jack to look after and I…” you listed off, stopping yourself when you realised the look Grace was giving you meant she had most likely already considered all this.

“We can figure out what to do if she refuses afterwards” you finally conceded, admitting the opposite of what you had said at the start of this conversation.

“I do think she’s gonna help by the way. It’s just that I’d rather be the bad guy in this situation if it doesn’t go to plan instead of you” Grace admitted, wanting to play a role you didn’t want to consider.

“Do we go in with the recorders again?” Emma quietly asked, expecting she would likely get a different answer from each person.

“...I don’t think it’s necessary and if we get caught the risk is too high of her never trusting us again. We also have the audio from yesterday that we haven’t checked. That should be enough.” you admitted, having already got some evidence even if you didn’t like it.

The audio was most likely enough for Lucy or Sarah but you suspected Mom would need more than that to be fully convinced. Photos of John and Izzy together was what you were mostly expecting would help persuade her but anything other than that would be completely up to Izzy to reveal.

“I agree with Max. The audio stuff was mainly a way for me to help you if you got in trouble and now that we know Izzy, I don’t think it’s necessary” Grace said, reassuring you that it wouldn’t be needed.

“Have you got anything to say?” Grace asked, repeating your question back to you.

“...I’ll say that even if she doesn’t help, I’m dead set on still helping her. I mean Jack is still my half-brother and I don’t feel comfortable never seeing him again” you answered, reassuring yourself in the process.

“You really do need to start acting more selfish. Come on” Grace replied with a smile, not giving you a chance to argue with her as she got up from the table and headed out to go to the car.

Author’s note: Slightly different start to a chapter as I usually avoid skipping large chunks of the day but it felt like Max needed a break(both mentally and physically) and describing a normal afternoon out where I detailed the in’s and out’s of who scored what for bowling didn’t seem narratively interesting given the already slow pace of this story. Hope that helps to explain the weird start :)