Previously on Animal Kingdom:

• CC told Serena he didn’t think he can handle finding out his siblings were almost murdered well. In fact, he didn’t think he could handle it at all.
  
• Stronger thanks to Vanessa’s spell, David finally smelled the strawberry scented confession Jess left behind for Serena. It reminded him of a mysterious box of invoices he discovered at work that smelled just like it.
• Hoping to make peace with Ava, Leo called one of her friends, Peter. That friend also happened to be his sister’s ex that Leo put into a coma three years earlier.
• Hannah Douglass, Ava’s friend who recently escaped from rehab, called Leo back instead of Peter and offered to help him.

The sun’s up. Leo’s gone. Time to get back to work.

With more coffee than was probably safe to ingest in one day in her system, Serena trudged up the stairs to her mother’s bedroom. It was just after seven o’clock in the morning, around the time Olivia usually got up anyway. That morning she was going to get a little help waking up from her daughter. The more she thought about it, the more Serena was sure her mother could be that person Leo was talking about. That person to help her get through to CC.

Whenever she was in over her head, she could always turn to her mother. Even when she thought her mother couldn’t handle it, she’d proven time and time again that she could. Olivia wasn’t the first person Serena thought of when it came to CC problems, that sadly was David, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Serena knocked on her mother’s bedroom door and called out, “Mom, you up?” When she got no answer, she pushed open the door and walked in. Her mother was fast asleep, buried underneath the covers. This was a woman who mostly slept through an assassin breaking into the house, so Serena skipped all pleasantries and just shook her until she woke up. Continue reading →