Jane limped to the kitchen, a sound between a groan and a painful grunt falling from her lips with each step she took.
Her hair was a mess and her eyes was even a bigger mess. They looked swollen, as if she had cried the whole night and the dampness of her pyjamas shirt attested to the fact that she infact cried till morning.
The smell of coffee wafted into the morning crisp air and mixed with it is the pungent smell of poop.
Jane came around the corner and found the two culprits, one of them the coffee maker and the other one being Jessica's youngest child that crawled around the kitchen, unsupervised and with his loaded diapers barely hanging from his hips.
"What are you doing here bud? Where's your mummy?", Jane picked him up and held him away from herself.
She scrunched up her nose and looked around, tilting and catching her balance as she put pressure on the wounded calf.
Just then, Jessica walked into the kitchen, her face looking no better than her sister's own.
"Run him under the tap or something", Jessica shooed Jane away, not paying any mind to her soiled child.
Jane was just about to do it obediently, just like she had always done when she paused. She dropped the child on the floor to resume his exploring and she faced Jessica.
"You know you have some nerves", Jane started calmly.
"Jane I don't have it in me to handle your tantrums this morning", Jessica waved her away and poured herself a coffee.
Jane scoffed and looked around, as if she expected another person to be there.
"I have a question though", she limped closer to Jessica, making the other woman cast her a disgusted glance.
"What did I do to deserve this? If Douglas cheated on me with someone else, if our mother and Mike treated me the way they did, I wouldn't mind it as much as I mind your betrayal. I would expect this from anyone but not you Jessica. What did I do to you, to deserve such wickedness?", Jane asked her.
Her voice was already breaking and tears were already gathering at her eyes.
This was her weak point.
She wore her heart on her sleeves around people that wouldn't mind stomping on the said heart.
Jessica knew this.
"You have it going for you. A great job in the big city that pays you handsomely, you are book smart and all and you're good for making money. Jane you seriously don't think you should have everything do you? Besides I still got the bad end of the stick", Jessica dumped her coffee mug that still contained coffee in the sink and the force behind her action sent some splashes flying at Jane who jumped away.
Mike walked into the kitchen at that moment and his eyes trailed from one sister to the other.
"What's going on?", he asked, side eyeing them as he went to the fridge.
"Jane didn't cook?", he asked as he observed the empty stove.
"I have been missing for a week. A whole week since dad's funeral and nobody made a report... I come home to a happy family last night and I am expected to make breakfast today? Who are you guys?", Jane snapped.
"Janey is making a huge fuss is what", Jessica answered Mike's previous question sarcastically.
"What is wrong with you? You are safe aren't you? If anything you should be blamed here. You've been okay for the past one week and didn't call, how were we supposed to know where you were?", Mike scoffed and grabbed a milk from the fridge he opened earlier.
If Jane tried to stop the tears, she would fail.
They came down her face in big drops and stained her already soaked pyjamas.
Just then she was starting to see the extent of how badly they treated her.
"I want all of you out of my house, this very minute", she demanded tearfully.
Jessica scoffed.
"You can't be serious", Mike snapped, advancing on her.
"Leave her alone. It's not like she can get it. The house is in Douglas's name", Jessica scoffed and crossed her hands across her chest with a dirty smirk on her face.
A smirk that was wiped off when her son sent a jar crashing down from shaking a table too much.
The commotion that was created by Mike and Jessica fussing over the child had nothing on the one that was going on within Jane.
She knew that Jessica made a valid point. She had stupidly bought the house in Douglas's name alone. Not as a couple, just Douglas.
No matter what she does, she will never be able to get the house to herself, worst case scenario, the house will be sold and the proceeds shared between them but even that has very slim chances of happening.
With that, Jane crawled back into her room and cried some more. She cried for the days she was was used, for the times she loved carelessly, for the times she was a fool, for her father that was dead and for everything she had lost because of her naivety and she made herself a promise.
'I will carve a throne for myself and I will pass judgement on them'
By the time morning came, the basement was cleared out and Jane was far gone from Abbey hills.