#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.”

boy. She can’t take being

from her – directly into the sharp debris left by the broken glass. Alvin falls hard on his

scene – Amelia shocked, Alvin sitting in the glass, crying, staring at his hands which prick red

them. “Are you serious, Amelia?” He hisses, bringing his face very close

pushed me!” Alvin whimpers, staring up at her

–“ Amelia

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

begins to tremble, hardly able to figure

arms around Victor’s neck, careful to keep his hands free. “Come on, buddy,” Victor

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

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,

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

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

He needs

the bar in the corner and grabs the decanter of whiskey, pouring himself a big serving in his favorite cut-glass tumbler.

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

boys don’t respond, except for one small bandaged hand popping up over the couch, giving him

heads out

air and the whiskey

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

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 perfect Luna would be – beautiful, chic, sophisticated, smart,

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

only she could be more like Evelyn, Victor suddenly finds himself thinking. A great mom, but also clever, willful,

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

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