#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.”

she snaps, shaking her leg to dislodge the boy. She can’t take being

at the sound. Though she barely moved her leg, Alvin falls 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!!”

the scene – Amelia shocked, Alvin sitting in the glass, crying, staring at

stalks over to them. “Are you serious, Amelia?” He hisses,

at her with a betrayed look

–“

touch my sons, let you hurt them

hardly able to figure

son, who wraps his arms around Victor’s neck, careful to keep his hands free. “Come on, buddy,” Victor says gently to Alvin. “Let’s go get you and your brother cleaned

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

the couch, wrapped in their favorite blankets. The mood is 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,

just trying to play with her, to comfort

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

He needs

heads for the bar in the corner and grabs the decanter of whiskey, pouring himself a big serving in his favorite cut-glass tumbler. Then he moves to the freezer,

to the back door. “I’ll be back inside in a minute, boys,” he calls.

except for one small bandaged hand popping up over

Victor heads out

down to the pool, letting the cool air and the whiskey do their

time I spend with Amelia and the boys, Victor thinks, the more I realize that this is just… not her

hardly ever out of bed. It had seemed like their lives were so aligned. She was everything he ever imagined the perfect Luna would be

world she wanted: beautiful, chic, sophisticated. And life with kids…it wasn’t

suddenly finds himself thinking. A great mom, but also clever, willful, graceful, with her lightening smile and that

stops himself there, willing himself not to let his thoughts go any further. Damnit. Victor clenches

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