#Chapter 68 – Grandpapa

“Daddy!” They yell, wrapping their arms in hugs around his legs. Victor laughs, greeting them, feeling his stress almost melt away.

“Hey boys, good day at school?” he asks.

“Yes, it was awesome,” Ian says, grinning up at him. The door creaks again and Victor looks up to give Evelyn a smile as well.

“We got in trouble, though,” Alvin says, clearly more worried about it than his twin. “The teacher found our insect collection…”

Victor looks at Evelyn for clarity. She rolls her eyes and puts her bag up on the table. “They’ve been studying bugs in class and your sons decided that the best way to do this was to collect all the bugs they could find in some of the teacher’s desk drawers.”

“Oh,” Victor says, raising his eyebrows and looking down at them. “I imagine she didn’t like that.”

“I don’t see why it was such a big problem,” Ian says, rolling his eyes dismissively. “They were organized by genus and species.”

While Victor laughs at his boys he feels something cool in his hand and looks down to see Amelia pressing a glass of whiskey into his palm. He sighs, nodding his thanks to her to be polite, but he has no intention of drinking it. He really does need a clear head.

“What’s up?” Evelyn says, frowning both at the drink and Victor’s mussed hair. “You’re not yourself.”

“Just…a bunch of stressful conversations today, with Willard and Annabeth Prath.”

“Oh,” Evelyn says, raising her eyebrows. “That sounds…intense.” Victor nods, chuckling a little at the understatement and sliding his glass of whiskey onto the counter.

“Well, I could use a perk,” Evelyn says, smiling at him. “Do you want a cup of coffee? We could talk it through.”

“Actually,” Victor says, intrigued by the idea, “coffee sounds like precisely what I need.”

squeezes past Amelia, who does not move to make room

backpacks to show him glass jars filled with the insects that they were asked to remove from the classroom. As Victor talks to them, he passively notices Amelia staring at him for a few minutes. Then,

the sink as well, where it shatters. Everyone in the kitchen goes silent, turning to stare at her as she walks slowly from

somehow, can’t find the will

Kindergarten teacher a smile. “Did everyone have

of half smile. “Um, yeah everything went fine…” she says, helping a little girl on with her backpack and pushing her towards her own mother at

for Alvin and Ian. I hope they’re ready to go – we have a lot of errands to run after school and I have a client

continues to give me a sort of blank stare and a

realizing, suddenly, that

forward to place a hand on my arm. “The boys were

you talking about,” I say, ripping my arm from her touch and spinning to look around the classroom. Is this some

were picked up half an hour early. I got word of it this morning from

Victor? But

my eyes back to Mrs. Kay’s face, feeling my

I said, they were picked up,” her face starts to contort with worry. “By their grandfather. A very nice man – tall, white

her by the shirt. She gasps, “Evelyn –

his name,” I growl,

He introduced himself as

the room. That woman had better be happy to see me go, because if

rush through the hallways of the school, dodging children. When I reach the parking lot I break into a run, heading for my car. My phone is already in my hands,

to hear from me, but

say, my voice shaking with fear, panic, adrenaline, everything.

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