#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.”

me,” she snaps, shaking her leg to dislodge the boy. She can’t take being touched right now, not by one

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

– Amelia shocked, Alvin sitting in the glass, crying,

you serious, Amelia?” He hisses, bringing

pushed me!” Alvin whimpers, staring up at her with a betrayed look on

–“

will not let you touch my sons, let you hurt them like this. Shoving a little boy who

tremble, hardly able to

careful

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

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

this is how she treats two little boys just trying to play with

at the tubs of ice cream waiting on

needs

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

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

respond, except for one small bandaged hand popping

Victor heads

letting the cool air and the whiskey do

the more I realize

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

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

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

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

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