Authors note: Hello everyone. I hope you have been enjoying this series of the Tables. Thank you once again to David and Kate for being my second set of eyes. Enjoy! ~ellie.
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Marcella stepped out of the movie theatre and sighed. She'd known they would be there, but she wasn't prepared for the glare they gave her at being alone. She hadn't lied exactly. She had told them that both she and Vivienne were fine. It wasn't her fault that they assumed they were fine together, was it?
"Where is she?" Gideon growled at her. It was obvious that he was barely keeping a rein on his temper.
"What time is it?" Marcella asked, standing straighter in the face of his anger. He stared at her as if not comprehending the question, and she shrugged and checked her watch.
"Marcella, where is Vivienne?" Noah asked more gently, moving a step closer. "We just need to know that she is okay."
"Then stop worrying. She is fine. Honestly. I wouldn't have let her go if she wasn't. She just needed some time and space to think about things," Marcella tried to explain.
"Let her go?" Noah asked as Gideon seemed, impossibly, to get more rigid with anger.
"She went home. Her flight should land in..." She checked her watch again, but she paused and looked up as Gideon gave a low painful-sounding groan and roughly ran his fingers through his hair.
"Fuck!" Gideon growled and turned and walked away.
"Come, we'll take you home," Noah said, obviously worried about his brother and wanting to follow him.
"Go and look after Gideon. I have a car nearby. I'll be home tonight if either of you want to talk about what really happened, rather than just believing what you've been told," Marcella said and went to move away.
"What we've been told?" Noah frowned. As far as he knew, Vivienne hadn't shown up at the clinic when she said she would and hadn't been answering her phone. Gideon had thought she had been in an accident until Marcella had finally answered her phone.
"You don't know what happened?" Marcella asked as she looked at him wide-eyed.
"Something happened to Vivienne?" Noah growled this time.
"Your mother happened. She ambushed Viv at the lunch that we had organised with Sera today. It wasn't pretty," Marcella said without giving details. "It was cruel of Gideon to ambush her that way. I doubt that she will want to talk to him today. She needs some time and space to recover. She hid it well, but she was pretty upset."
"Fuck!" Noah spat. "Go home. I will call you once I calm Gideon down before he makes the situation worse."
Marcella watched him turn and jog away from her. Even if he hadn't engineered the meeting, she couldn't work out why neither Tatianna nor Sera would have told Gideon about their lunch and twisted it to their own advantage. These people were strange, and she couldn't even begin to understand their relationships. he'd spent the last few hours thinking of her own plans and determined to make sure that she started them over the next few days. She couldn't stay here forever, especially now, and the more she found out about the Zenati family, the less sure she was about leaving Olivia here with them, despite Genesis's almost obsessive care of her.
"Gideon, slow down. There's something you don't know," Noah called after Gideon as he jogged to catch up to his brother. "Gideon, stop! You'll just make it worse!"
"Worse?" Gideon whirled around to face his brother. "She left! She's flying home! How can it get any worse?" he asked as if his brother was insane. "I need to go and get her."
"No, you need to go and find out why Mama ambushed her at lunch today and what she said to make her run away from you," Noah said in a low, calm voice, noting the surprised look on Gideon's face twist into pain, followed quickly by building fury. "We warned you. Just because she hadn't interfered in your life before didn't mean that she wouldn't now. Geez man, why wouldn't you listen to us?"
"Mama did this?" Gideon ground out between clenched teeth.
"Marcella said she ambushed Viv at lunch. I didn't stick around for details, but something tells me it didn't go well. Look, if you have ever trusted me, trust me now. Talk to Papa. Don't give Mama the satisfaction. Let her know that she didn't just chase Viv away, she chased you away in the process. Ranting and raving at her now will only drag you into her drama and the games she plays," Noah advised, doubting that Gideon would listen to him but trying anyway. He pulled his phone from his pocket and called their father as Marcella hurried passed them, staying out of Gideon's line of sight.
As she passed them, Marcella smiled at Noah and mimed driving to indicate she was heading home. She couldn't be rude to them while she was staying in their apartment and driving their car, both of which she would need if she wanted to start on her own plans over the next few days. It was a shame that she was no longer interested in the boyfriend deal she had made with Noah, not after meeting his mother, but she would find another way to keep her father off her back. Hopefully, she would be able to organise a time to make a video call to her mother from Olivia, when and if Olivia ever admitted she had a family back in Perth, which was doubtful at the moment.
The legal help that she needed she could get from any family law practice. She would just do it secretively, so she didn't offend Noah, who had offered to help her without hesitation or uncomfortable questions when she had asked. The more she thought about it, the more she realised that she was probably better off not confiding her plans to the Zenatis. They were way too unpredictable with how they reacted to things. While Noah seemed quite normal, the rest of his family were obviously nutcases, so she was sure that, even though he might appear slightly more well-adjusted than his brothers, he was just as crazy.
