In the morning, Jack was preparing breakfast. He was still thinking about what the Fae told him last night in the mirror and about Meryda in Crosslot, who was now a Monster Tamer and a very powerful one.
His Meryda arrived, still rubbing her eyes, with Mia Mills right behind her and a big smile on her face.
Jack thought she looked strangely happy, despite being in simple clothes like a green blouse, trousers, the tennis shoes he bought for her, and her hair tied in a ponytail.
When she sat down, he noticed she had light makeup, barely noticeable, instead of the heavy, glowing makeup she had when he first saw her.
She noticed his stare and asked while placing her dark sunglasses and a baseball cap over the table, "What? Do I look weird? I thought I had to look simple and plain so that no one recognised me."
"That's not it. It's just… You seem strangely happy, that's all."
Trying to disguise her nervousness about being found out, she answered, "I guess I am happy because I am going out. I thought I had to remain in this tiny apartment until my father solved all this mess and told me it was safe for me to return home. But if I can go out now and then, things will be more bearable."
"We should remain inside until he told us it was finished, that is true, but today we can't. It would be better if you remained in this tiny apartment, as you called it, until you returned home, but I understand that will be difficult for you to endure. I also don't like to be inside a house for so long. I suppose we can go for a walk every day, even if only to the grocery store. If I think it will be safe, we can even go for a longer walk. We will see what happens in the following days. Now it is better if we eat because we need to catch a subway to go to Meryda's school. You are also going with us to get your colleagues' notes?"
With a shrug, Meryda answered, "I can, but it will probably be better if I go in the afternoon. Emma is going to come here because she said her parents were going to the school, and she didn't want to stay alone at home. She will go back home when they return, so I guess she won't see our guest here. As long as you two don't come home right after. You can go for a walk somewhere if you want, but don't forget to be careful."
"You don't need to tell me that. I know very well I need to be careful!" Mia answered, while biting her toast.
"You also need to learn how to speak without sounding so arrogant, you know? My father is doing you a huge favour by letting you stay with us. The least you could do is to be grateful for his kindness."
With a slight frown, Mia Mills said, "Kindness? He is getting paid extremely well to keep me hidden! He haggled a lot with my father! He is even going to get a raise!"
"That doesn't force him to treat you like he has been doing, you know? He could very well make you sleep on the couch and only give you fast food. Instead, you slept in his comfy bed, he made food for you, and he was very careful with what he made so that you don't go hungry because you don't like his cooking. You are way too rude for my taste, lady."
"What the… shut up, little girl! Don't annoy me so early in the morning! I was never-"
Before she could continue, she was staring at Sophia's butter knife, dangerously close to her right eye, and heard the little angry girl say in a harsh voice, "My father has a lot of patience, but I don't. This will be my first and last warning! Mind your tone when you speak with me or my father, or you will need some heavy treatments to fix that ugly face of yours. Did I make myself clear, lady?"
Mia remained silent, staring at the tip of the butter knife so close to her eye, and Jack said while slowly moving Sophia's hand away, "Don't do that. There is no need to threaten her. She has no idea how to treat other people because she has been spoiled since she was born. She is probably used to saying and speaking to people whatever comes to her mind without caring about what people might think of her or how she could hurt other people's feelings. Besides, she won't be staying here for long, but if she annoys you this much, maybe it will be better if I take her to her father and I try to find another job."
Sophia squeezed her knife and answered while staring at the scared young woman, "I thought we could get along, but the way she speaks annoys the heck out of me. Sometimes she looks or speaks to me and you as if we were mere bugs. Other times, she is easy to talk to. I will make an effort not to slit her throat while she sleeps, but you will quit that job and find a new one when her father pays you for this annoyance."
"I can do that if it will make you calm down and don't kill her. I might take a while to find a new job, but with the huge amount of money I will get from her father, I can look for another job without worrying about money. But in return, you will not make another mess in your school. Deal?"
"I guess I can do that. But if Eliza and her group come after me again, I will teach them another lesson."
"No, you won't do any of that. You should have taken care of them outside school with no witnesses. You made a huge mistake, and now I am the one who has to fix your mess."
While slowly nodding her head and looking down, Sophia answered, "I understand… Sorry, father, I made a mistake with them. But I didn't make a mistake with this rude lady here, so don't tell me to treat her better because she has no problem treating us like trash. She keeps saying that we live in a tiny apartment, that it smells weird, or that the bathroom is ugly.
Mia Mills waited for Jack Cross to defend her, but she felt her heartbreak when he talked about her, and his silence now was even worse. But what was weirder was that little kid threatening her and her father talking about his daughter killing someone as if it were nothing!
She thought she had to say something, so she tried to explain. "You… can't talk about killing other people so lightly. Killing people is a very serious thing. You are still a minor, so the police won't lock you up like they do to grownups, but you would probably be sent to a junior facility for a few months or even years. But… with what happened in your school, if you can find witnesses of what those girls did to you, you can say that when they suddenly grabbed you and took you to the back of the gym, you acted in self-defence because you felt yourself in danger."
Sophia stared at the nervous young woman and spoke, "I see… Things are different around here. Did you hear her, father? Self-defence. That was what I did. There are a lot of students in my school who also suffered at Eliza's hands, and I am sure Emma Pearson can help me talk to them and gather a few witnesses. I got the impression a lot of kids in my school hate Eliza and her gang, but they fear being bullied. If they find out I kicked Eliza's butt, they will for sure see me as some kind of saviour."
"That is actually a good idea. I guess self-defence should work. One is entitled to defend himself against harm, even if, by doing so, he kills or hurts his attacker. I will go with that, just in case your Principal takes a nasty approach."
Mia Mills looked at father and daughter, wondering why their grinning looked so weird and suspicious. It was as if they had thought of something terrifying.
When they all finished eating, Mia Mills followed Jack, and they left the apartment, leaving Sophia to take care of cleaning everything.
While they were both walking to the subway, with Mia Mills using her dark sunglasses to hide her features and a ponytail going out from the back of the baseball cap she was wearing, she asked in a low voice, "Were you serious when you said you warned Sophia to take care of her bullies outside school and without any witnesses around? Because… that is very strange advice for a grownup to give to a kid."
"Probably it was, but it doesn't make it wrong advice. If she took care of her attackers outside school and with no one around to see what happened, we wouldn't be going to the school for this meeting, would we?"
"You might be right… It's just… Well, I am kind of ashamed to admit it, but I did a lot of bullying in my junior years at school. I… never realised how hard it was for the ones who suffered at my hands. But seeing Sophia with her eyes all wet and about to cry when she talked about what happened to her… it made me think…"
Without even looking at her, Jack Cross answered, "You are still a bully, even at your age. I remember very well everything you said to me over the past few weeks and how you acted with me and every employee at your father's company. You are a truly despicable brat, and I seriously doubt you will change your ways that easily, even if you are now thinking about what you did in school. I remember perfectly the way you insulted the cleaning lady last week when you entered your father's company and she was cleaning the floor. You kept complaining the wet floor would make you slip, and she had to kneel on the floor and dry the floor with a cloth to be safe for you to walk along the lobby."
"That was… It was dangerous! Someone besides me could slip on that wet floor and have a very serious accident!"
"That is no excuse. That cleaning lady had a sign on the floor, right in front of the window door, to warn people not to use that entrance and to use the other door because the floor was wet. I saw you looking at the sign, and you then began to say you would go through any door you liked because you were basically the owner. So don't insult me by pretending to be a very caring person, because you were never one. Maybe it was your father who spoiled you, or maybe you were just born rotten. That was why I thought about leaving you behind yesterday, even with your father offering me so much money. That is also why I am going to quit my job as soon as all this is finished, and I get paid. I don't want to deal with you any more than I have to, and if I keep working for your father, sooner or later we will meet again, and I don't need that kind of stress in my life."
Mia Mills gulped, and while looking down, she said, "You… don't have to quit your job because of me… If you really want it, I could… I mean, I can avoid going to my father's company when you are guarding the front door, or I can go and remain silent, and I won't say a thing to anyone in front of you…"
"Or you could try to be a better person and start treating other people like human beings, but I suppose that is too much to ask from you. You really think everyone else is beneath you, don't you? I have no idea why you think you are so special. You are probably more beautiful than most women around, but you are just one among many. Your family might have more money than most people, but you breathe, you get hurt, and you die like everyone else. In the end, you will be just another rotten corpse that no one will remember in a few years or centuries. Considering how you treat people who interact with you, I am sure a lot of them would be relieved if you had died yesterday morning."
The young woman stayed in silence, but she then remembered that he had just said she was more beautiful than most women, but his next words pierced her very soul, and even that compliment was not enough to raise her mood. She walked in silence to the subway station and remained in silence until they arrived at Sophia's school.
Mia looked up at the sign over the front gate and mumbled, "A public school… right, he is just a widowed security guy and lives in that tiny apartment. I suppose he doesn't have money to put his daughter in a private school like my father did."