Breakaways

by Lily Harlem

Evan smiled. “Thanks.”

  “What kind of place is it for children?” Olivia asked, then glanced at Riley.

  He was fiddling with his phone.

  “It’s not as remote as some stations,” Evan said. “It’s only about forty-five minutes to the nearest town, bit of a dodgy road when it rains, but that’s not very often.”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  “We could make it home,” Evan said. “Away from prying eyes, questions, you know what I mean?”

  “Yes. I do.” She ran her hand over her lower abdomen. “That’s what we need right now.”

  He nodded then rubbed his forehead.

  She hated seeing him like this. Her usually carefree, smiling husband, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Shall we go for a walk? Me and you, Evan. On the beach?”

  “Yeah, I’d like that.” Evan turned to Raul. “I’m really sorry, mate. I know this has come at a shitty time.”

  Raul pressed his palm to his chest. “Do not apologize for your father’s death, Evan. It is tragic no matter what your relationship with him was—anyone’s death is.” He paused. “And you can add me in, for work on your sheep station. I love my home, and I love my restaurant, but I love Olivia, you guys…” He nodded at Olivia’s stomach. “…and, you know, more. So I will be with you, all the way. Do not doubt that.”

  “Thank you.” Evan blew out a breath, as though knowing the crew were sticking together, and with him, had eased his torment.

  “I’ll start making arrangements,” Harry said. “I hate to bring the subject up, buddy, but you will fly, right? We can’t sail to Oz in a week.”

  “I don’t want to fly, least of all because of him. But yeah, I will.”

  “And you have those pills now, to knock you out.” Mason pointed to the box of tablets on the table.

  “Yeah, I’ll take one.” Evan paused. “Thanks, Harry, you know, for being able to sort this. I don’t know how I’d have got there otherwise. My bank balance is hardly overflowing.”

  “Don’t mention it. It’s only money.”

  “Only money is important when you have very little.” Evan wound his fingers with Olivia’s. “Come on, babe. I need to get outside, breathe some sea air.”

  “Yes, me, too.”

  “Just let me…” He nodded at the bathroom.

  “Of course.”

  A few minutes later, they headed down the stairs and out into the heat. Evan had brushed his hair and teeth and slipped on some deck shoes, but he hadn’t bothered to add a t-shirt to his jeans.

  Olivia gripped him tight. If she’d found out her father had died, she’d be a wreck, a heap on the floor, sobbing. She couldn’t imagine a world without him in it.

  But, Evan, he was stone-faced about it. The sheep station seemed to be the only thing on his mind. Not the loss of a parent.

  “You’ll like it,” he said as they crossed the road to the beach. “It’s not completely barren, there’s greenery and trees around, and stunning views. You can see for miles from every window of the house. And it has this lovely big decking area out the back of the kitchen, in need of a bit of a scrub no doubt, but great for barbies.”

  “I’m already looking forward to seeing it.”

  They stepped onto the sand. It was compact and easy to walk on.

  “Let’s go this way.” Evan pointed north then rested his arm over her shoulder in his usual, casual manner.

  They fell into step together, the rumbling roll of the furling waves a soothing background noise.

  “Your mother is going to live with her sister, you said.”

  “Yes, Perth is several hours’ drive away. She’s close to her sister, they just didn’t see each other much because my dad liked her at home, in the kitchen. That’s a woman’s place, apparently. I should think my mum and her sister had this planned for years. She’ll have a much better life now he’s gone.”

  “Was he really so bad?” Olivia was finding it hard to imagine anyone related to Evan could be so horrible.

  “Why do you think I was always on walkabout?” he said. “Sleeping under the stars was better than sleeping under his roof.”

  “Why? What did he do?”

  “He drank—a lot. He gambled any money the station made so there was never much food on the table. I fed myself, from the land most of the time.” He paused.

  “Go on.”

  “Plus he was free and easy with his fists. Not with my mother, but…”

  “But what?”

  “With me.” Evan shrugged.

  “He hit you?” Olivia was shocked just having to ask the question.

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s terrible. How old were you?”

  “I can’t remember when it started, but I recall a teacher asking me why I had a black eye. I was definitely no older than ten, probably about eight and half.”

  Olivia could feel anger beginning to boil inside her veins. How dare this man hit a child!

  “Instinctively I knew to say nothing,” Evan went on. “Telling the teacher it was him laying into me because I hadn’t cleaned the horse tack properly would have only earned me another beating.”

  “Evan, that’s terrible.” Her temper was rising, burning heat spreading over her shoulders and scalp that had nothing to do with the sun.

  “Well yeah, it is. But I should have told her, the teacher. Perhaps they’d have locked him up or maybe even put me into care. But I was just a kid, I couldn’t see more than going home that evening.”

  “And it continued?”

  “Yeah, but he got clever, only hit me where the bruises wouldn’t show.”

  “I’m so sorry you went through this.” She slipped her arm around his waist and squeezed closer to him.

  He shrugged. “It happened, it’s history, and now he’s dead and buried.” He kicked a small pebble, and it hopped along the sand in front of them. “And the station will be a better place without him. Perhaps even a happy place.”

  “Of course it will be happy, if we’re all there together.” She stopped.

  He turned to her.

  She cupped his cheeks and looked up at his handsome face. He was squinting a little in the morning sunshine. His blue eyes sparkled, and small lines stretched from the corners. “I know the baby is a shock, for all of us, Evan. Not something we’d planned. But we will be okay.”

  “I know we will. And I promise to be a good father, not like him. He taught me everything not to be.”

  “Oh, Evan.” She pressed her lips to his. “I know you’ll be an amazing father. I mean think about it, you’ve already provided a home for us.”

  “It’s a bit…how should I describe it? Mmm, old-fashioned. Stuck in the seventies. Don’t think it will be trendy like Raul’s pad, or luxury like Harry’s swanky places, because it’s not. It’s functional, that’s about it. Oh, and likely very dusty, too.”

  “Hey, we’ve lived in a tent for the last goodness knows how long, survived on islands, and slept by lakes. I think we can handle a seventies throwback house.” She smiled. “We’re made of tough stuff, all of us. That’s why we were chosen for The Challenge, remember.”

  “I remember.” He kissed her gently, then pulled her into a hug, slotting her head beneath his chin.

  She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of his sun-warm skin on her cheek and beneath her palms. He was hurting inside more than he was letting on, she knew he was. But he wasn’t ready to show any of that. Already he’d opened up to her more than he ever had about his family. It was just a shame it had taken a death for him to do so.

  “I’ve never told anyone else,” he said, stroking her hair. “What I just told you about him hitting me.”

  “You haven’t?”

  “No. I was too embarrassed. That’s stupid, isn’t it?”

  “Evan you were a child. What happened wasn’t your fault.”

  He huffed. “Not when I was eighteen, nineteen, and he was still doing it. I wasn’t a child then.”

&nb
sp; “Why did you let him?”

  “I was scared of him, I reckon, but more than that I was scared if he stopped beating me, he’d turn his fists on my mother. It was his way of coping with the shitty life he’d given himself. Hitting someone was his release.”

  She sensed there was more. “And then what?”

  He glanced away.

  “Evan?”

  “Then one day I put a knife to his throat.” He hesitated. “He was asleep, in front of the TV. I was aching from a few swift kicks in the ribs the day before and I guess I’d reached breaking point. So I slid the knife, the business side, around his neck just enough to draw a trickle of blood. He looked so fucking shocked when he opened his eyes and saw me and felt the wetness sliding over his skin. I’ll never forget his expression. Terror, surprise, fury.”

  “What did he do?”

  “He couldn’t do anything. He was stuck there in the chair—if he’d moved I’d have slit his carotid artery, and he knew it.” He stroked over her collar.

  “Yes, he must have been terrified.” She recalled her brush with a knife in South Africa and shivered despite the morning heat.

  “I told him,” Evan went on, “that if he ever touched me again, or switched his attentions to my mother, I’d cut his throat in the night, while he was in his bed. He’d never sleep easy again.”

  Olivia swallowed. It was unimaginable for her to say anything like that to anyone, let alone her father. And Evan was such a gentle soul. To have been pushed to that point meant he’d been at the edge of what he could take. “And did it stop then?”

  “Yes. It did. In fact, he never really spoke to me again. It was as if he didn’t trust himself to be near me. I was too tempting to throw a few right hooks at.”

  “But you didn’t move out for a few more years. Why?”

  “I had to stay, to make sure he kept his word and didn’t start on my mother. I spent a lot of time with my mate I told you about, on walkabout, living outdoors, spending time with his family who welcomed me like another son, but I couldn’t completely move out. My father was a man who had a black heart and a hot temper, a very dangerous combination.”

  Olivia sighed. “I’m so sorry you’ve been through all of this.”

  “Me, too. But it’s made me more determined that my children will never experience fear in their home. They’ll only know love and stability, kindness and protection.”

  “Which is how it should be.”

  “Yeah, it is.” He glanced in the direction of Raul’s apartment. “I’m not ready to tell them all the details yet. For the guys to know I didn’t get on with my father is enough.”

  “You have nothing to be embarrassed about.”

  “I can’t help that emotion, or the shame of it, or the violent memories that come back to me when I think of him.”

  “Are you sure you’re going to be okay, at the homestead?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “You could sell it.”

  “No, it’s been in the family for several generations. I don’t want my father, the one bad apple in a crop of good guys, to be the one to break that lineage.”

  “And he won’t. If you want to carry it on, then you can. You’re strong, Evan, in here.” She touched his bare chest. “Strong and loving and a wonderful man who I love so much.”

  “And I love you…both of you.” He smiled and stroked her belly.

  Chapter Ten

  “Come on,” Olivia said to Evan. “We should get back. See if Riley managed to get an update on the children’s aunt.”

  “Yeah, it’s worrying they can’t find her.”

  “They probably have by now.”

  They turned and retraced their steps along the beach.

  A few more people were arriving now, families with bright beach towels and umbrellas. Picnic baskets no doubt full of tasty treats. Buckets and spades, and neon orange armbands.

  A jet ski started up in the distance, the low hum tapping over the water. Olivia caught a group of girls all looking Evan’s way, then turning to each other with a smile and a giggle. She didn’t blame them, he was a hunk, and shirtless, even more so.

  And he was hers.

  “Do you think Riley guessed about the baby?” Olivia asked as they crossed the road to Raul’s apartment.

  “No, he was busy on his phone, and we didn’t say anything outright.”

  “Will we tell him?”

  “Do you want to?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I want it to be our secret for now. I can still hardly believe it myself.” She paused. “Knowing there’s another human being growing inside me will take a while to get used to.”

  “Feels like a dream, huh?” He opened the door.

  “Yes. It really does.”

  They climbed the stairs, Riley’s voice getting louder as they went. It seemed he was on the phone and getting frustrated.

  “Wonder what’s going on?” Evan said, brushing a few grains of sand from his shoes when they hit the top of the staircase.

  “Perhaps he can’t organize the Lear for our trip to Perth. It is short notice.”

  “And it’s Dante’s plane, not Harry’s.”

  “Yes. Maybe he needs it to get to some multi-billion dollar business deal.” Olivia stepped into the open-plan apartment.

  The twins were seated on the sofa, Mason perched on the edge and frowning, Lucas leaning back, legs crossed and his foot jiggling. Raul was bent over the island, tapping his fingers on the granite. Harry stood silhouetted by the window, his hands on his hips.

  “What’s going on?” Evan asked, gesturing to Riley who was pacing and talking on his phone.

  “They still can’t find the kids’ aunt,” Mason said. “It’s like she doesn’t exist.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t,” Lucas said, then nibbled on his bottom lip.

  “But Banna seemed so sure.” Olivia thought of all the times Banna had said she was looking forward to meeting her aunt. The woman was very real in Banna’s mind.

  “Banna is only ten,” Harry said. “Perhaps her memory of the aunt’s name is wrong, or maybe she was a friend of the family and not an actual relative. Her parents have been dead for two years, Banna was even younger when she would have heard stories of a family in the UK.”

  “Aye, only Darius’s age,” Mason said. “Wouldn’t trust that wee fella to remember details accurately.”

  “Shit.” Evan tutted. “And they’ve traveled all this way.”

  “It cannot be in vain,” Raul said, straightening. “We have to do something.”

  Riley stopped pacing and set his attention on Harry. “Sure. Yeah. I’ll let them know.” He paused. “That soon. Okay. Thank you for your hard work on this and your time.”

  He hung up and slipped his phone into the pocket on his smart, pale-blue shirt. He’d had his hair cut and his moustache trimmed. Olivia wondered if the spruce-up was for Maria’s benefit.

  “Well?” Harry said. “What’s going on?”

  “The children’s aunt cannot be located, despite our best efforts,” Riley said. “Indeed, Tina wonders if she’s even real. Banna knows nothing about her other than a name she’s unsure of how to spell.”

  “Oh no, poor Banna, this was all she wanted. To get to her extended family.” Sadness welled in Olivia. She could imagine the girl’s heartache when told this information. And after all they’d been through.

  “There must be something they can do?” Harry said.

  Riley shook his head. “I’m really sorry, we’ve exhausted every avenue.” He paused. “I don’t usually let you down, but on this one, I’m at a brick wall, Harrington.”

  “What will happen to the children now?” Evan asked as he poured himself a coffee.

  Riley cleared his throat and shifted from one foot to the other.

  “Tell us?” Harry frowned.

  “They’ll be sent back to Cape Town. The authorities there will take over the case.”

  “Back to Cape Town?” Raul said. “Af
ter they’ve just finished this long journey? That is not good.”

  “No, it’s not.” Olivia accepted a cookie from Evan and nibbled it. “And the last thing they’ll want.” She brushed a few crumbs from her top.

  “I’m afraid, as minors, they don’t get a say in it. And the Spanish government don’t want to take on the cost of their care. They’ll be flown back later today.”

  “What? No. I understand there are the cost implications to the Spanish taxpayer, but to go straight back?” Lucas stood and folded his arms. “That’s madness.”

  “It’s the way it is.” Riley frowned. “I’m sorry, what else can I say?”

  “Will they be adopted or go into a care home?” Mason asked, rubbing his hand around the back of his neck as though it ached.

  “I can’t say for sure, but probably a care home.”

  “They won’t like that.” Mason paced around the table as though needing to use up energy. “They need stable adults in their lives. People who are special to them and care about what happens to them.”

  “They need love,” Olivia said. “That’s what every child deserves.” She glanced at Evan.

  “I agree,” he said, tipping his chin. He pulled in a deep breath. “Which is why they should come with us, to Australia.”

  “Come with us?” Harry said. “Are you serious, Evan?”

  “Yeah, the homestead has six bedrooms, more than enough room for all of us. There’s a school in the local town, and lets face it, we’re going to be a lot more settled now.” He shrugged. “We have to be.”

  “Si, we could give them the stability they need.” Raul grinned. “Excellent plan, Evan.”

  Olivia’s heart rate picked up. Just the thought of being with Banna, Amal, and Darius again created a longing inside her. She’d thought their goodbye was final, but maybe it wasn’t. Perhaps fate had something else in store for them all.

  Mason held his arms out wide. “We should do this. We really should.”

  “Aye,” Lucas said. “I know they’re not particularly noisy kids, but it’s been quiet without them.”

  “It has.” Harry nodded. He puffed up his cheeks then blew out a breath, as if letting the decision settle inside himself. “What do you think, Liv?”