by Angel Devlin
I’m sending a text as I walk back to mine asking Jenson if he’s making progress so I don’t realise there’s a man standing outside my house until I smack right into his chest. I let out a small scream but turning my head there’s no one around on the street.
“Hey, darlin’,” the man drawls. He’s not as tall as Jenson but he’s twice as wide with muscles on muscles. It was like colliding with cement.
“W- what do y- you want?” I manage to stutter out.
“I’m from Dellaby Enterprises. Just checking on our investment.” He looks me up and down and my heart thuds hard in my chest.
“The house goes up for sale tomorrow. You’ll have your money soon.”
“Good.” He leans in closer to me. “Because otherwise we’ll need to add to the invoice. I’d be happy to take payment in another way.” He strokes his hand up my face. I can’t move.
He laughs and begins to walk down the path.
“Be seeing you soon, darlin’.”
As the guy gets in his car and drives away, I realise that while I was distracted, a taxi must have pulled up further down the street, because outside his house is Jenson with a fast-asleep Amelia in his arms.
“Well, you didn’t waste much time.” His eyes narrow as he shoots his venom at me.
“No.” I realise what Jenson would have seen, the man with his hand down my cheek. “It’s not what you—”
“Yeah, that’s what my ex-wife said when I found her in the arms of our maître d'. Save it. I thought you were different.” He turns to go into his house.
“Jenson, let me explain. I need your help. That was—”
“I need to get my daughter to bed. If you need help give your new boyfriend a ring.” With that Jenson puts his key in the lock, opens the door and walks inside with Amelia. I watch a few minutes later as he goes back to the top of the path to collect their cases. He doesn’t even look at me and then he closes his door firmly behind him. If it wasn’t for Amelia, I guessed he’d have slammed it.
The reality of the last ten minutes hits me. The threats and then Jenson’s mistaken assumption that I’d been seeing someone else. Tremors hit my body and I struggle to get my shaking limbs back into my house. I check the door is locked three times and then make sure every window in the house is firmly closed. I barely sleep, thinking every noise is the guy coming back. By the time dawn breaks on Monday, I know that I can’t stay in this house on my own another night.
But where can I go?
17
Jenson
My body vibrates with anger as I carry my sleeping daughter into the house. At no point did I even consider Leah would do the dirty. I was so swept away by her beauty and dirty mouth and now I feel like a total fucking fool that I didn’t see it coming. I should have seen the signs. Just like I did with my ex.
Lowering Amelia to her bed, she immediately turns over and grabs onto her closest teddy.
I stand for a few minutes and allow my mind to run back over the last few days. That place really was what dreams are made of. It was everything. So much more than I expected it to be. I thought my heart was going to explode that first time we drove up towards the castle. Amelia’s nose was smashed against the glass window trying to take it all in.
I was on such a high all the way home, even the delay didn’t dampen my spirits. We’d had an incredible time, but now Amelia was exhausted and I was desperate to see Leah. I never could have expected to walk into what I just did. I’d even texted her to say we were in a taxi. What fucking game is she playing at?
My teeth grind and the need to break something gets too much. Dropping a kiss on Amelia’s cheek, I quickly leave her room and head out for our abandoned cases.
She’s still there, standing by her front door. I can feel her stare, but I refuse to look over. I will not allow her to see how much she’s just ripped me apart.
I knew falling for her so damn fast would only get me in trouble, but I never thought it would be like this.
Throwing our cases down in the hallway, I close the front door behind me. What I really want to do is slam it so I feel the reverberations of my anger through my feet but with Amelia sleeping soundly above my head I can hardly do that.
So I do the next best thing. I march into the kitchen and grab the expensive bottle of whiskey my dad bought me for Christmas a few years ago and twist the top.
The golden liquid sloshes in the glass as my hand shakes. The second I’ve got the bottle on the counter, I lift the tumbler to my lips and down the entire measure in one. It burns, a lot more than I ever remember it doing when I used to drink it regularly, but the second the warmth hits my stomach, I know it’s exactly what I need.
“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” Amelia squeals as the bed bounces. Rolling over, I groan, the pounding in my head increasing as I become more conscious. “Can we look at the photos now?”
“Uh…” I clear my throat when nothing but a hoarse groan comes out. “In a bit, yeah? Why don’t you go and put the TV on and I’ll be down soon?”
I feel her stare for a few seconds, but I refuse to open my eyes, already aware that it’s too bright for me to have thought about shutting the curtains when I eventually stumbled up here last night—or early this morning.
“Daddy, are you okay?”
“Yeah, baby. Just a bit tired from chasing you around.” Even the sound of my own voice makes my head hurt more. This is exactly why I don’t usually drink when in charge of a child.
“We can just have a quiet day then, Daddy. I’ll go and make us a den to hang out in.”
“Sounds good.”
It’s not until she’s safely downstairs that I attempt to pry my eyes open. I regret it the moment the sunlight hit my irises, but I know I can’t hide in here in the dark all day, even as much as I’d like to.
I manage a quick shower and to brush my teeth before stumbling my way down the stairs. Thank fuck I had the hindsight to book today off work, although I thought I’d be struggling from exhaustion not heartbreak.
The thought of Leah with another man has pain shooting out from my chest. The faster she gets that house sold and gets the hell out of my life the better.
Kick-starting the coffee machine, I pour Amelia a milk and fix us both a bowl of cereal. The last thing I want to do right now is eat, but I can only hope it’ll soak up some of last night’s alcohol.
“Amelia, breakfast,” I call seconds before her footsteps run this way. I’ve no idea how she’s running around after the crazy few days we’ve had. She must be exhausted. Just as I think that, she comes haring around the corner dragging a blanket behind her that gets caught on the sideboard in the corner and I just about manage to catch her flying little body as she heads my way.
“Whoa, you need to slow down.” Her eyes are wide as she looks up at me in shock before she nods. “I think a quiet day is definitely in order. I might even allow you to put a princess film on.”
“Yesss, I know which one I want first.”
First?
Our plans for a quiet day last about two hours before Amelia insists that she wants to go out and play in the garden, seeing as the sun’s now broken through the clouds. I manage to put an end to her idea of going to knock for Leah to see if she wants to come over for another water fight.
I’m covering her arms with suntan lotion when banging comes from outside.
“What’s that, Daddy?”
Climbing to my feet, I find another man at Leah’s house, only this one is hammering a ‘For Sale’ sign into the front lawn. The sight is like a baseball bat to the chest and I stumble back from the window.
“What’s he doing?” Amelia asks innocently.
“He’s putting a ‘For Sale’ sign in front of Leah’s house.”
“Is she moving?”
“Yeah she is, baby.”
Amelia’s chin starts to wobble. “Can’t she move in here?”
Rubbing my hand over my face and up into my hair, I raise my eyes to the ceiling to pray for
the answer to hit me.
“She can’t, Amelia.”
“But why?” she whines.
My frustration grows and I snap. “She just can’t okay. Go and play outside.”
Tears fill her eyes before she turns and runs from the house. The sound of her cries fills the air, making me feel like the worst dad on the planet.
Rubbing at the pain in my chest that won’t abate, I watch through the open French doors as she runs right to the end of the garden and starts climbing up the ladder to her tree house.
Knowing that I need to allow us both a minute to breathe, I turn back to the coffee machine to get another mug when the worst sound in the world hits my ears. Amelia’s bloodcurdling scream. Dropping the mug in my hand, it falls and shatters on the tiled floor as I turn on my heels and run towards where she is.
I run barefoot, dressed in only a pair of shorts, to the end of the garden where I can see my baby’s lifeless body laid out on the wood chippings below her tree house.
“Amelia,” I cry, hoping it’ll be enough to bring her around, but when I get to her and fall down on my knees at her side, she’s still out cold.
The tears that she was crying because I snapped at her are still wet on her cheeks.
“No,” I cry. “Wake up. Wake up, please, baby.”
My eyes run over her small body looking for any injuries, but I see no blood.
I run my thumb over her cheek, drying her tears and praying to whoever the fuck will listen to me that she’ll open her eyes.
“It’s okay, Daddy’s here. Come on, just open your eyes. Show me you’re o- okay.” The last few words fall from my lips on a sob. I’m totally useless right now.
Then a warm hand lands on my shoulder. I didn’t even hear anyone approaching.
“Ambulance, please.” Just the sound of her calm, soothing voice settles something inside me. I don’t hear the rest of her conversation. I’m too lost in the relief that I’m not alone right now, and in the panic coursing around my body.
“The ambulance will be here any minute. Everything will be okay.”
I can’t drag my eyes away from my daughter to look at her. I’m not sure I really want to because amongst everything I’m still too angry and disappointed with her. But then her arm wraps around my shoulder and she joins me on the floor and my entire body sags in relief.
“Come on, we need to get her in the recovery position. Do you think she’s hurt herself aside from bumping her head?”
“No, I... I don’t think so. Fuck,” I bark, standing and shoving my hands into my hair and pulling as hard as I can. “This is all my fucking fault. What have I done to her?”
“This is not your fault, Jenson. Now get back down here and support her until the experts arrive.”
The wood chippings dig into my knees as I drop back down beside my daughter. Reaching out, I place my hand on her shoulder. I’m powerless but look up when Leah’s delicate warm palm covers mine.
My breath catches when I take in her face because although she may sound calm right now and like she knows what she’s doing, her eyes are wide in panic and she’s got tears streaming down her face.
“It’ll be okay,” she whispers as the sound of a siren fills the air around us before paramedics run down the garden.
18
Leah
I’d spent the morning sat nursing hot drinks and staring into space. I’d had hundreds of different ideas of how I could go and explain last night to Jenson. They mixed with doubts and thoughts that maybe I should just see this as a sign and move the fuck on. It’s a bittersweet moment when a small white van pulls up and a guy gets out and hammers a ‘For Sale’ sign into the front garden. It’s almost bang on the spot where Jenson found me with my injured knee.
I’m lost in my head once more when I hear a bloodcurdling scream from next door’s garden. I’m out of the back door like a greyhound out of the trap, Amelia my rabbit. I jump the small fence that separates our gardens and dash for the tree house where Amelia’s unconscious body lies in the wood chippings.
Jenson is unsurprisingly hysterical.
We get Amelia in the recovery position while we wait. Her breathing seems okay, thank God. I ask her to ‘open her eyes’ but there’s no response.
I keep checking her breaths until the ambulance arrives and then Jenson and Amelia are gone. I stay behind to lock the house up, and clear pieces of broken mug and spilled coffee I find on the floor. Then I decide that whether I’m welcome at the hospital or not, I’m going. I return home, phone a cab, gather my things and then I’m on my way.
I’m directed to Jenson sitting at the side of an awake Amelia in bed.
“Oh, thank God.” I cry.
“They’re going to do a scan to make sure everything’s okay, but it seems to be just a concussion. She has to rest and they’re keeping her in overnight.”
“My head hurts, Leah. I fell.” Amelia says groggily.
“They’ve given her some painkillers.” Jenson explains.
“Am I okay to be here?” I ask him.
“Don’t leave me, Leah. You can talk princesses.” Amelia’s small voice tears my heart wide open. I walk towards the spare seat at the side of Jenson.
I can see Jenson is trying hard to fight back tears and I know what he’s thinking because I thought it too. That for one brief moment in time, the thought hit that Amelia was lying there dead. I touch his arm. “It’s going to be okay.” I take the seat next to him.
Amelia falls back to sleep and Jenson turns to me.
“I’m sorry about last night,” he says. “We’ve not spoken about, well, not defined what we are, and I have no right to tell you how to spend your time.”
“Jenson, you complete idiot. That man was from the company who my parents owe the money to. He was threatening me.”
Jenson’s eyes widen. “But I saw…”
“His hand running down my cheek. Yes, he was saying I might find another way to make a payment.”
“What the…?” Jenson punches the bottom of the bed. Luckily it doesn’t wake Amelia.
“Jenson!” I admonish.
“I’ll kill him. Where do I find him?”
“You don’t. You stay at your daughter’s side where you belong. The house is up for sale now. Once they’ve been paid that’s it. Done. Over.”
“How do you know that though? I hear about these companies and how they add interest all the time so you owe them forever.”
I shrug my shoulders. “They can’t take what I don’t have and the debt is from my parents who are dead, so good luck with them getting any more money from anyone. And I’ll probably be gone, won’t I? Moved on. So hopefully this will be the end of it. Time to draw a line.”
“Are you talking about the house now or us?”
“Is there an us? I don’t know what you want, Jenson. It’s not even a month since we met. And you have your daughter to consider.”
“She adores you.”
“Yeah, but how does her dad feel about me?”
Reaching for me, his fingers cup my chin gently and turn my face to his. “I think I’m falling in love with you, okay? The days in Disneyland were incredible, seeing Amelia’s face, but the nights were never ending. All the time we were there Amelia kept saying what you would think as she met each princess. You’ve stolen pieces of both of our hearts. I do not want you to leave. I want you to stay, with us.”
Holy fucking hell.
“But we barely know each other.”
“I know enough. I’ve felt more for you in weeks than I felt for Amelia’s mother all the time I knew her. Yes, we could wait, but why bother? Why not just say ‘to hell with it’ and take a chance? Look at today. In the blink of an eye I could have lost my daughter. I’m not living my life with any more regrets. Come live with us, Leah.”
“Oh… okay.”
“You will?”
I nod. “I thought I was being crazy, feeling all these huge feelings for you and Amelia; wanting to belong with
you both. With what happened with my parents I also don’t want to waste a moment of life. It’s too short.”
Jenson reaches over to me, pulling his chair towards mine and his lips meet my own.
“That’s just a taster of what I’m going to do to you later.” He picks up his phone. “Now, just excuse me a minute.”
I listen as he calls the estate agency and puts in an offer on my home for the asking price.
“What are you doing?” I mouth, but he just waves me away.
I laugh as my own phone rings and I ask them to hold.
“Jenson, what are you doing? I can’t ask you to do this.”
“It’s not for you. It’s for us. I’m going to make the houses one large detached. I don’t want neighbours and given the restaurant is booked for two years ahead now thanks to the piece in The Sunday Times, I can well afford it.”
Smiling, I return to my phone. “I’ll accept the offer.”
Once I’ve said goodbye to the estate agent, Jenson grabs my hand. “I shall make sure that loan company is well out of your hair too.” I see a tic in his cheek and a flash of fire in his eyes. “I didn’t get to be where I am in business without having a couple of people in my pocket who can deal with arseholes.”
We sit by Amelia’s bedside, chatting and holding hands, taking turns to fetch coffees and sandwiches etc until the hospital decide Amelia is okay to be taken home after all, with 24-hour observation. We take it in turns to sit by her bedside all night.
We spend a quiet day together. Amelia is recovering well in that way kids do and greets the news I’m moving in with screams and whoops of delight. I fix her pancakes for tea because that’s what she wants and I don’t give a shit. She just had an injury, she can have them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner right now, and once she’s bathed and in bed, I tell Jenson to take a seat at the dinner table while I warm up the chilli sauce I made a couple of days ago.
