We turned back towards the house and waited. The 5 minutes we had given him up, August’s father appeared at the door, breathless, with a bag. His butler was next to him with one of his own. Both of them looked at August with anger, but she didn’t budge. They moved past us and disappeared in the falling night. August started to sob.

That’s when a small, white figure appeared at the end of the hallway. I thought it was a ghost, until I saw they had a knife. It gleamed in the low light coming from the windows of the hall.

“Mom?” Asked August. “Mom is that you?”

The knife dropped to the floor as the figure started walking faster. Little by little I could distinguish their features. It was a woman in her late 30s, dressed in a white nightgown. She was very pale, hence my mistaking her for a ghost. I thought she probably hadn’t seen the light of day in months, if not years. She was crying.

The woman reached us and threw her arms around August. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so very sorry for all he did to you. I tried to stop him but-”

“I know mom, I know.” August soothed her mother and Jo and I took a few steps away to allow them some privacy while maintaining protection. “See,” I turned to Jo. “Everything went fine!” She laughed. “It was a close one, Tina. But I’ll give you that, it was impressive. I hadn’t done that kind of thing in a very long time.”

An hour later the guards were back to their posts, their guns back to real guns, and we had their assurance they would protect August’s mother against everything and everyone. Except us, of course.

We were sitting in the living room, sharing some tea and the details of what had happened with August’s mother.

“And that’s why we decided to come tonight and put an end to all this. We’re only trying to protect your daughter” Josephine was saying. I sipped my tea and nodded. “We have a little something for you, too.” I said.

I took out my wand and twisted it, muttering under my breath. A beautiful golden ladybug appeared in my hand. “This has a webcam and a microphone in it. It also serves as a watch. You can use it as a necklace, and we can keep an eye on you in case your husband returns. I hope your soon to be ex husband.”

She giggled at that. “Thank you, both of you, for all you’ve done for us. I’ll try to find a lawyer, but since I’ve been stuck inside this house for 15 years I’m afraid I don’t have much to pay either you or them.”

“You’ve already paid us, remember?” Josephine nudged me with her elbow. Apparently that wasn’t a good thing to say.

“What Tina means is, you’ve already made a deposit when you hired us so you don’t need to worry about us until our contract is fulfilled.” I didn’t know that. Jo continued “as for a lawyer, I’m sure you can work something out. Maybe a percentage of what you will gain with the divorce?”

The mother nodded slowly. “It can work. I’ll have to think on it. I have more than August to worry about, now.”

That’s when we all looked at her, really looked at her. Her hair was shining, her face as well. And there was a tiny little bump showing underneath her nightgown…

“Mom? Are you pregnant again?”

She giggled. Yes, she was. And without her husband to mistreat her she might keep the child this time. She looked happy and relieved. So did August. They hugged and for a second Jo and I stopped existing.