“Stop shouting at me”.
“Stop fucking shouting at you? You went off whoring around with another fucking man!”
“Only because you weren't there!”
He slammed his fists on the table.
“And I'm not motherfucking proud of that, but that's no excuse to be a fucking slut!”
“Don't call me that! If you weren't fucking gambling all our money away and instead being the fucking husband and father you're supposed to be, maybe I wouldn't have been so lonely!”
In his rage, Edward flipped the entire table over, shocking both Christine and Martha. Christine gasped, never having seen this nasty violent side to the man she married.
“Are you still fucking seeing him?”
Christine in her shock couldn't form even basic words, so he repeated the question louder and stormed towards her, grabbing her aggressively by the chin.
“No!” She screamed back. “Stop it! You're hurting me!”
“I'm not hurting you even half as much as you hurt me you fucking liar!”
“Stop it!”
Having seen enough, Martha stood up, wedged her way between the two and shielded her daughter with her arms.
“You think this suddenly makes up for your pathetic weakness as a man all this time? Don't touch my daughter!” Martha snapped, a viciousness in her tone.
“Stay out of this, Martha!” Edward snapped, his face so close to hers that their noses could almost touch.
“Take a walk, Edward! Go and clear your head!”
“I'm going nowhere, your daughter and I need to settle this!”
“Take a walk, Edward! Don't make me say it again, otherwise I'm calling security!” She repeated slowly, calmly and lethally.
He was silenced, there was nothing further to be said. If anything could be said about his mother-in-law, it was that she was a woman of her word, assuming someone outside or next door hadn't already heard the commotion and done exactly what she was now threatening to do.
Flinging and smashing a few more objects he could get his hands on in his unyielding and explosive rage, he threw open the door and left, pushing past nosey people standing in the corridor.
As the door slid back shut, Christine burst into tears again. Matha turned to her and sighed.
“What a right mess you’ve gotten yourself into. Pull yourself together, woman. You look pitiful”. Martha left her there and returned with tissues.
“Dry your eyes”.
Christine took the tissues to blow her snotty nose and dry her eyes.
“And here I thought you had more balls than he did. You're just as pathetic and weak as him. Maybe it's that daughter of yours with the most balls in your family. I've just developed a soft spot for her I never knew I could have”.
“Not now, mum! I don't need your bullshit now!” Christine spat and stood up. She stormed into the bathroom and locked herself in there.
“Well that was eventful”, Martha said to herself and sighed.
CHAPTER 12 - LORI & RACHEL
12:32am - 2 Days until outbreak
. . .
. . .
It was all of thirty two minutes before Rachel returned to the cabin with a smile on her face. Lori lay on the bed reading a magazine when Rachel stepped in and immediately she was captivated by Rachel’s beaming grin.
“I assume things went well?” Lori asked.
“What makes you say that?” Rachel replied chirpily. Her upbeat tone only made Lori more curious. Abandoning the magazine, she sat up.
“What's going on?”
“Whatever do you mean?” Rachel replied, kissing her on the lips.
“That, and that creepy grin on your face”. Lori pulled back, raising her eyebrow suspiciously.
“Creepy? I'm just happy, that's all. Can't I be happy?”
“Sure you can… but happiness is the last thing I expected to see, having come from a meeting with your parents and grandmother”.
“It was refreshing, we got a lot out. Honesty really is the best remedy”.
“Right…”
“What do you say we go do something fun?”
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
“I don't know, anything”, Rachel insisted, grabbing and tugging at Lori’s hand.
“You're being really suss, but okay, let's go”.
“Sorry baby, I’m just in a good mood, that's all, nothing suspicious about it”.
“Is that so? Well how about we stay here instead and I'll make that good mood of yours even better”.
“Mmm, very tempting, just what exactly did you have in mind, Lori Hempstead?”
“Come here and you might just find out”, Lori replied, pulling her girlfriend onto the bed. Locked in wild kisses, Lori pinned Rachel down with her hands above her head and began kissing her neck.
In that cabin they remained for a good portion of the day, only emerging hours later to find somewhere to eat. It was at least 5:21 when they came back out like two bears stepping forth from hibernation into spring, both wearing silly onesies and giggling like children.
They spent an hour dilly dallying, before Rachel suggested wining and dining fine style, considering they hadn't done so since their first night on the ship. When Lori asked whether her parents would be there to make it awkward again, Rachel seemed pretty confident they wouldn't be, so they got dressed as fabulous as they could muster, went to dinner and she was right, they had the entire banquet table to themselves.
“Just the two of you today?” Lakshman, their waiter asked.
“Just the two of us”, Rachel replied gleefully.
“Certainly, ma’am”, he placed menus out before them and left them time to decide what they wanted.
“I still don't get it, what exactly happened?” Lori probed.
“Oh don't worry your pretty little head about it, all that matters is that we found a conclusion”.
“In half an hour?”
“What are you having?”
Lori sighed and conceded to simply pick her meal and not bother to probe any further. Whatever would be would be.
As they waited for Lakshman to return, they spotted captain Photis
