#Chapter 63 – Everything According to Plan

“I didn’t mean it,” Amelia gasps, looking down at Ian and tugging his arm to pull him to his feet.

“Owwww!” Ian shouts, howling even louder.

“Just leave him!” Victor says, shooting her a dirty look and crouching down beside his boy. “Are you okay, Ian?”

“My shoulder,” Ian sniffs, “it really hurts.”

“Can you sit up?” Victor gently helps him into a sitting position and then gently probes his right shoulder with his fingers. “Yeah, it’s dislocated, buddy. I’m going to pop it back in, but it’s going to hurt a little. Can you be brave?”

Ian sniffs but nods his head. Victor takes a moment positioning the arm and then gives it a sharp yank. Ian howls louder for a moment and then tests his arm, smiling. “Okay,” he says. “That feels better.”

“You have to go gentle with it,” Victor says, turning his attention to the cut on Ian’s arm. “It’s going to be sore for a couple of days. Come on, let’s go get a Band-Aid on this cut.”

As Victor stands up, he gives Amelia a dirty look.

“It was an accident,” she insists, stomping her foot, her face pale and grave. “He jumped at me – he was flying through the air! Stalking me, like I was his prey!”

“He was just playing around,” Victor says, his voice cold. “You have to communicate to him that he’s going too far, not just knock him around.”

“I didn’t have a chance –“ she insists.

“You dislocated his shoulder, Amelia,” Victor says, raising his voice and ending the debate. “I think there’s room to say that there was another solution to the problem.” With that, he turns, pointing Ian towards the bathroom.

Amelia watches them go, frustration and anger boiling over in her, tears filling up her eyes.

“It’s okay, Amelia,” Alvin says, wrapping his arms around her leg and smiling up at her. “You didn’t mean it.”

her leg to dislodge the boy. She can’t take being touched

– directly into the sharp debris left by the broken glass. Alvin falls hard on his rump, his hands going directly into the

Alvin sitting in the glass, crying, staring at his hands which prick red with the

“Are you serious, Amelia?” He

Alvin whimpers, staring up at her with

didn’t –“ Amelia

you touch my sons, let you hurt them like this. Shoving a little boy who was just trying to comfort you – he’s

–“ Amelia begins to tremble, hardly able to

backs off, still glaring at her, and stoops down to pick up his son, who wraps his arms around Victor’s neck, careful to keep his hands free. “Come

As they go, Alvin picks his teary face up off of Victor’s shoulder and looks directly back at Amelia, giving her a wicked

subdued than it was earlier, but Victor doesn’t mind. He’s exhausted now – exhausted with frustration, and anger,

boys just trying to play with her, to comfort her, how was she going to

staring down at the tubs of ice cream waiting on the counter. He’s promised the boys a

needs a drink

grabs the decanter of whiskey, pouring himself a big serving in his favorite cut-glass tumbler. Then he moves to the freezer, removing one large ice cube that

the back door. “I’ll be back inside in a minute,

except for one small bandaged hand popping up over the couch,

Victor heads

to the pool, letting the cool air and the whiskey

more time I spend with Amelia and the boys, Victor thinks, the more I

from that moment, they were inseparable. Hardly ever apart, hardly ever out of bed. It had seemed like

wanted: beautiful, chic, sophisticated. And life with

be more like Evelyn, Victor suddenly finds himself thinking. A great mom, but also clever, willful, graceful, with her lightening smile

himself not to let his thoughts go any further. Damnit. Victor clenches

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