#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 right

away from her – directly into the sharp debris left by the broken glass. Alvin falls hard on his rump, his hands going directly into the shards as he works to balance himself. “OWWW!!” he screams even

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

Amelia?” He hisses,

me!” Alvin whimpers, staring up at

didn’t –“

Amelia,” Victor growls, his snarling teeth inches from her. “I will not let you touch my sons, let you hurt them like

begins to tremble, hardly able to

her, and stoops down to pick up his son, who wraps his arms around Victor’s neck, careful to keep

teary face up off of Victor’s shoulder and looks directly back at

noticeably more subdued than it was earlier, but Victor doesn’t mind. He’s exhausted now – exhausted with frustration, and anger, and disappointment in Amelia. How could she behave like this,

play with her, to comfort her, how was

of ice cream waiting on the counter. He’s promised the boys a big

He needs a

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

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

don’t respond, except for one small bandaged hand popping

heads out

letting the cool air

and the boys, Victor thinks, the more I realize that this is just… not

into place almost instantly and, from that moment, they were inseparable. Hardly ever apart, hardly ever out of bed. It had seemed like their lives were so aligned. She was everything he ever imagined the

precisely the world she wanted: beautiful, chic, sophisticated. And life with kids…it wasn’t always that. It was frequently the

finds himself thinking. A great mom, but also

thoughts go any further. Damnit.

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Comments ()

0/255