𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 • 𝘣𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴 [✔]

chapter one hundred.

October

Claudia kept trying to take a picture of Ben, who sat across form her at a coffee shop. It was early in the morning and Ben wanted to take her to Hyde Park, but their first stop was coffee and pastries.

"I look bad in that one." He rubbed his tired eyes with his hand.

"Lies, you never look bad," Claudia showed him the picture she had taken. "See? Handsome, beautiful, pretty, gorgeous, you don't have a bad photo."

"Except baby pictures."

"Last time I checked, your baby pictures were adorable." Claudia kissed his cheek to make him feel better.

"How come Janis never showed me yours?" Ben asked. "Not that I want to see you as a baby, but you did see mine. You know what? I'm going to shut up now." He took a bite from a chocolate muffin.

"She has them hidden from everyone in her closet. That or she actually lost them. We don't really care about baby pictures because it was tough when back then for her."

"Oh, sorry for asking. I feel like an idiot."

"No, it's fine. We joke about it. Like for my family history project in first grade, I took a picture of Janis and me and I said tha we were the only two people in my family and she had the audacity to fail me." Claudia said.

"I can already imagine how Janis reacted. Let me guess, almost fighting the teacher and something got thrown."

"Something like that. She actually gave the teacher the silent treatment for a whole year then somehow got a group of PTA moms on her side. It was the talk of the town."

"Literally everything about Janis doesn't surprise me."

Claudia made a mental note to show Ben all the photos she had of Janis and her on their adventures. They had a whole list of places they planned to visit, some where crossed off, but most of them remained untouched as Claudia grew up.

"I can't believe this is our last day here. I don't want to leave yet." Claudia looked around the coffee shop. She had gotten used to the London atmosphere.

"Well, I've got to take you back home some day. Everyone probably thinks I kidnapped you." Ben raised his coffee cup and drank from it.

"Or eloped. Mom and Edward probably think that's what we did. I really hope everything is fine back home." Claudia gave a half smile.

Back home, it was chaos.

Janis had to hold herself back from Anne Stratford, who was currently in her front porch looking fancy as ever with her red stained lip, white pearls on her neck and expensive jewelry adorned on her fingers.

"You're not welcomed here." Janis tried closing the door on the woman, but Anne stopped her, placing a hand on Janis'.

"I'm not here for you. I'm here because of my granddaughter, Claudia, I heard about her job. I'm here to help." Anne cleared her throat.

"She's not your granddaughter and don't pretend like you give a shit about her. You said it yourself years ago, having her was a mistake. But my daughter is far from it. So take whatever it is you're trying to do and shove it." Janis, once again, tried to close the door, but this time Anne's words stopped her.

"I can get Claudia her job back."

Janis thought she heard wrong. A simple misunderstanding, but Anne kept repeating her words.

"Claudia can go back to teaching, isn't that what she loves?" Janis stepped outside, closing the door behind her.

"What are you doing?"

"Just a grandmother trying to make sure her family is happy," Anne smiled. "I just have a deal for you. Just the one. Pretty simple actually."

Janis scoffed. "What is it? Stay away from your idiot son? Done."

"Oh no, not that. I get Claudia her job back and you give me back this house since the money my idiot son used to help you buy it was mine. See? Everyone's happy." Anne chuckled.

Janis' heart dropped. Her house for Claudia's job. The house she had made so many memories with her daughter and friends. The house she planned on living until she died and then giving it to Claudia. Sure, it had bad memories like finding her parents passed out in the kitchen floor or finding drugs in the bathroom sink, but she blocked them all out and made new ones like Claudia having her first birthday party to watching horror movies on Halloween night.

One thing Janis Donovan cared more about, apart from her family, was her home. Her whole life was the shitty two story house that she made a home. (Her words to be exact.)

"This is a one time offer. I'm sure you're aware of my contacts and how things get done quick because of the family name, so getting Claudia back in school should be no problem if you give up this dump." Anne looked around the house with a disgusted look on her face.

"You can't take my home." Janis said in a whisper like voice.

"Then I'm assuming you don't care about your daughter's happiness which is teaching. I thought mothers were supposed to do anything for their children, I'd assume you would considering you had a poor excuse of one. How's mom and dad by the way?"

An: yeah <3

Anyways . . . CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED WHAT

DW MORE CLAUDIA AND BEN CONTENT COMING ASAP

also irrelevant to the story but i watched halloween kills and omg michael 😩☝🏼😤💯🥵😈😍❗his head tilts hejdgejd