The Unfortunates | COMPLETED

Bonus Chapter #3

"I can't do all of the work," Avery snaps, snatching the boiling pot off the stove and switching it off.

"Hallie, honey, hands away from the hot stuff," Avery strains to sound sweet, giving her daughter a small smile.

"Sorry, mommy," Hallie mumbles, the tiny child wandering back over to the kitchen table.

"I'm not asking you to do all of the work," Roman retorts, manoeuvring around their child to get over to Avery.

"I came home from a weekend-long Council meeting to the house looking like a junkyard. Which had been set on fire," she reminds him, her eyes flashing irritably as she mixes her homemade vegetable sauce.

"What did you expect to come home to? We have a three-year-old," he reminds her, equally annoyed and snappy.

Hallie watches the two of them with wide eyes, swinging her legs from the high stool she managed to clamber onto.

"I am three months pregnant, working two full-time jobs, and raising our daughter basically by myself. I cannot do this," Avery snarls, slamming the pot down onto the countertop.

Sauce splatters onto the window and the counter, but she doesn't care.

Her face is turning redder and redder as she tries to catch her breath.

Roman is pale, his jaw dropping slightly.

"I didn't have time to clean," he finally responds, and she wheels around, staring at him with wide eyes.

She releases a sarcastic laugh, shaking her head.

"You mean you didn't even have time to call the maid. Who watched Hallie, Roman?" She growls, and Roman baulks.

"Tobias did," he snaps after a minute, and Avery's eyes widen even more.

"Tobias Nakamura? You left an eleven-year-old in charge of our daughter?" She exclaims in horror, and Roman looks everywhere but at his infuriated mate.

"He was just in the kitchen of the packhouse, they were perfectly safe," he tries to defend himself, and Avery closes her eyes.

"Roman, I'm going to go for a walk. By myself. I don't want you to follow me. I don't want you to call me. When I come back, I would appreciate it if Hallie was asleep because I have to clean the kitchen," she manages to get out without crying.

Before Roman can respond, she grabs her coat and her phone before heading out.

As soon as she's outside in the cold air, she feels like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders, sniffing as she tries to stop the tears in her eyes from rolling down her cheeks.

The freezing air wakes her up a little bit, and she rubs her eyes as she hurries down the driveway, rubbing her eyes as she walks along the path.

She's relieved she has her snowboots on - she didn't have time to take them off between the time she got home and the time she left the house, and now it seems like it could be a good thing because it looks like it's going to become a blizzard soon.

She closes her eyes for a second before she exits the gates, and she exhales heavily, deciding on her route.

Will we go to York's?, Sonya suggests tiredly, and Avery nods her head to herself, turning left as she walks out of the gate.

She rests a hand on her bump as she hurries along the pathway, looking over her shoulder.

She feels uncomfortable being outside this late at night.

Since she had Hallie, she hasn't liked being outside when it's dark, but she didn't want to stay in her own house at that time.

She didn't want to fight with Roman, and she would have started an argument bigger than that squabble if she had stayed.