#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.”

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

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

shocked, Alvin sitting in the glass, crying, staring at

serious, Amelia?”

whimpers, staring up at her with a betrayed look on his

didn’t –“

from her. “I will not let you touch my sons, let you hurt them like this. Shoving a little boy

to tremble, hardly able to figure out what just

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

up off of Victor’s shoulder and looks directly

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

just trying to play with her, to

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

He needs

a big serving in his favorite cut-glass tumbler. Then he moves to the freezer, removing one large ice cube that he pops

back door. “I’ll be back inside in

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

heads out

the cool air and the whiskey do their work on

thinks, the more I realize that this is just… not her world. He shakes

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

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

finds himself thinking. A great

to let his thoughts go any further. Damnit. Victor clenches his teeth

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