#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 touched right now, not by one

Amelia jumps 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!!” he

in the

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

at her with a betrayed look

didn’t –“ Amelia

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

tremble, hardly able to figure out

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

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

cozied up on 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, with his children,

play with her, to comfort her, how was she going to be with her

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

needs a

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, removing one large ice cube

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

one small bandaged hand popping up

heads out the

the cool air and the whiskey do their work on

the more I realize that this is

ever out of bed. It had seemed like their lives were so

was precisely the world she wanted: beautiful, chic, sophisticated. And life with

suddenly finds himself thinking. A great mom, but also clever, willful, graceful, with

to let his thoughts go any further.

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