Chapter 73

Sitting around the dinner table everyone tucked into their meal, placing different portions of different servings onto their plates before passing them along to the person next to them. Everyone was chatting happily and laughing as crackers were pulled and paper hats put on. Everyone except for me. "Hey," Charles said quietly, leaning into my ear slightly to be heard over everyone else "You okay?" Putting on a fake smile I turned to him, ignoring the pain in my abdomen "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" "Well you haven't touched your food... nor spoken a word since dinner started. Listen if bringing Ava here was a bad idea I'm sorry--" "No, no it's not that," I reassured, dropping my fake smile for a small real one "Don't worry about it." "Evelyn come on; just tell me what's wrong." He replied, sounding rather demanding even in the quite tone. "It's nothing, drop it." I said, growing frustrated. There wa