by Ford, Mia
Dad: It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, you need to stop. I need you home now. Right now.
This must be serious. Something must be going on. I don’t like the sound of it, it scares me. I wonder how panicked I should be. Since it doesn’t seem like my father is going to tell me anything over the phone, I guess the only thing that I can do is get my sorry ass there quickly to find out more.
I run. I should just call a car, but that doesn’t feel like it will happen quick enough, so I take off. My feet pound against the side walk, the concrete hurting my feet, but I carry on running. My heart pounds, my stomach races, butterflies flap inside of me. But I keep on going.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Reece
It’s the middle of the day when my phone ring blasts through the house. This time I’m absolutely convinced that it’s going to be Alexa. It has to be, doesn’t it? It’s been forever. A day and a half is crazy.
“Hello?” I don’t even look at the number when I pick up. I’m so keen to speak to her. “Al…”
“Moore?” the Admiral’s sharp voice greets me. Thank God I didn’t say her whole name. My heart races as I think about how crazy that could have been. “I need to speak to you and I need to do it right now.”
“Erm, what do you mean? Like at the office, because I have Oliver with me.”
“Yeah, that will be fine. I want you to come to my house. I want to speak to you there.”
“Is this about work?” This is weird. The Admiral is acting like a crazy person.
“It’s… yes. About work. I need to talk to you about work. I need you over here.”
There’s something in his tone that silences me. I don’t know what I can do to scrape away under the surface to find out what’s going on. I suppose I’ll just have to see when I get to his home. I would disagree since his tone seems so tense, I wouldn’t want Oliver around that after the past few days, but I don’t think I can. I have a feeling that the Admiral will jump down my throat and cause hell up if I even try.
“Right, sure. So, I guess I will just get Oliver ready and we’ll be over.”
“Make it snappy. I’m serious. We need to have this conversation now. Right now.”
And then he hangs up, leaving me totally confused. That was so strange. I guess it must be to do with the new position, the training new recruits’ position. Perhaps he needs to get me starting earlier than planned. That’s okay, I can do that. I will just need to sort the nanny out quicker than I was going to. I have interviews lined up anyway, it’s in motion. I can just push it along a little faster. It’ll be good, the motivation that I need.
“Right, Oliver, I guess it’s time to get ready then,” I tell my son who looks at me with wide, glazed over eyes. “What do you want to wear? Are you okay in what you’re in? You don’t look too messy… yeah, it’ll be fine.”
I pick him up from his seat and smile at him, but he seems to sense the racing of my heart and he starts to whimper. Oliver seems to be a sensitive boy, he picks up on my mood all the time. Whenever I’m in a bad place, he gets fussy and irritated. It doesn’t help, it creates a damn vicious cycle.
“What about me though? Do you think I’m okay?” I was in a tee shirt and jeans. Not exactly the outfit I would usually wear to see the Admiral, but I’m not working so it has to be okay. “Yeah, screw it. Let’s go.”
I’m a nervous wreck on the drive over to the Admiral’s house, I’m all jittery and weird. It takes all that I have to keep focused on the road, but with my son in the car, I have to keep my concentration levels high. Somehow, and I’m not quite sure how, we seem to make it to the Admiral’s house in one piece. That’s when I realize that I might finally get to see Alexa once more. I don’t know if she’s working today or not, but I might get my answers at last. It is driving me absolutely crazy that I still haven’t heard a damn thing from her.
“Right, come on then, Oliver.” I unclip him from his car seat. “Let’s find out what this is about.”
I’m all smiles by the time I make it to the front door. The thought that I might see the woman that I love, who at some point I might need to tell her that I love, over shadows any fear about the Admiral’s tone. At least, it does until the door flies open and I see the expression on his face. He’s definitely more furious than I thought…
“Hey…” I say quietly. “What’s going on? Is everything…?”
He doesn’t answer, he just walks inside and indicates for me to follow him. I do, my footsteps barely hitting the ground as I go. I feel like I’m floating on air, but in a really, really bad way.
There’s a woman sitting at the table, but it doesn’t seem to be Alexa. I’m curious as to who it is… until she turns around and I see that damn smug smile on her face all over again.
“Valencia?” My heart drops in to my shoes. This is bad… the worst. This is why she was giving me the smug look when she was leaving my house. Because she had a plan. This is the karma that she was talking about. It wasn’t some fate thing spinning my way at some point. It was her. She was plotting this all along, with the man that she knows… the one who brought her in to my life. Fuck. “Valencia, what are you doing here?”
“Oh, it’s nice to see you again, Reece,” she sneers. “What a surprise that you’re here.”
“Hmmm, it’s a surprise to see you as well. What is going on here?”
No one says anything, but the Admiral indicates for me to take a seat. I put a baby chair down and sit Oliver down in it with some toys, hoping that he’s going to be okay through all of this. Surely, the Admiral has considered my son when inviting me over here with him. He can’t yell in front of my child. I hope.
“What are we doing here?” I ask the Admiral. “I don’t know if this meeting about my nanny is appropriate.”
“Oh, appropriate. You’re here to tell me about what’s appropriate? That’s rich. Coming from you.”
“Me?” I lean forwards to talk only to him. I don’t want Valencia in this conversation. “I don’t know what you have heard, but I have a side of the story as well. I don’t know what bitterness Valencia has told you…”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with Valencia actually. Not really.”
I dart my eyes towards her and see that giant smirk on her face. She is freaking loving this.
“Okay, so if this isn’t about Valencia, then what is it about?”
There’s a sound at the door, which makes all three of us turn around. My heart starts pounding in my mouth, who the hell is this now? Why is someone else coming to join this not so fun party?
“Come here,” the Admiral calls out gruffly. “This involves you too.”
It’s Alexa. I thought that seeing her would be a delightful, positive moment. After all this time not talking to her, I assumed that my heart would skip about ten beats, but considering the situation I feel like shit. If we’re all here like this, there’s only one thing that it can mean… someone knows. We have been found out.
I gulp thickly, trying to swallow down all the sheer terror in my throat. I need to think fast, to find a way to get the hell out of this. There has to be some excuse that we can come up with! We probably should have talked about this more, to discuss what we would say if this situation ever came around. We were foolish to assume that there wouldn’t be some big comeuppance for this. Absolute idiots.
“What… what…?” Alexa doesn’t look pleased to see me either. All the color drains from her face. “What the hell is going on, Dad? Why did you call me back for an emergency meeting when I had stuff to do?”
“Sit down,” her father growls. “We need to talk right now.”
She does as he commands and folds her hands in her lap. If it’s possible, she looks even paler than she did before. I’m actually a little worried that she’s going to pass out in a moment.
“Valencia has come to me with some very troubling news,” he finally begins. “And I can already see on the look on both of your faces you know exactly what we�
��re talking about.” He darts his eyes between us both, growing increasingly filled with rage by the moment. “So, I don’t want you to insult my intelligence by lying.”
I glance over to Alexa, wondering what she wants me to say. We need to be on the same page about this. But she’s all pale and stressed, unable to say a damn thing. It looks like this is going to be left up to me.
“Erm, I don’t know… I’m not too sure what you’re talking about.” Shit, this isn’t going to work.
“Don’t give me that, I don’t want to hear any lies. I just said that to you.”
“I… I…” Fucking hell, I am not good under pressure. I’m supposed to be, I usually am, but not now.
“You… you… what? Hmmm?” the Admiral snaps. “You’ve been fooling around with my daughter?”
He slaps some pictures on the table then, sneaky ones of the pair of us that have been taken in my home. That have been taken since the very first time she came in to my home. We thought that we were being so smart, keeping us from Valencia, but it seems like she’s known all along. She’s been holding this, just waiting for the right moment to use it against me. Damn, she is manipulative. More than I gave her credit for.
“I… I…”
“You are going to need to start saying things soon, Moore. I’m serious. You cannot talk your way out of this. There are pictures of you here kissing my daughter, sleeping in the same bed as her…”
“Damn, Valencia, you are crazy,” I can’t help but murmur. “This is insane.”
Valencia smirks, Alexa looks like she’s going to vomit hard, I just don’t know what to do.
“Mr. Martin, I don’t know what to say to you right now. This is bad…”
“You’re right it’s bad. It’s worse than you could ever imagine, Reece. You must have known that when you started fucking my young daughter. Young… that’s the optimum word here.”
I wait for Alexa to yell that she isn’t that young, she normally would, but she’s still silent. I think all the words have been stripped from her throat, she doesn’t seem able to speak or move or anything.
“We didn’t mean for it to happen,” I try, but the Admiral shakes his head.
“No, I don’t want to her clichés. There are many times you could have stopped this.”
“I know, but… I might be… I don’t know, falling for her.”
That has to cause a reaction, seriously. Someone needs to reply to this, but a thick heavy silence fills the room instead. No one even seems to look at one another, everyone is just stuck.
Then then Admiral snaps and begins yelling. He shouts so loud that I can hardly hear the words. It’s all just noise. Especially when he begins banging furiously on the table to display his anger. Now, with a few simple choice words, I have pushed him over the edge in to the abyss. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to drag him back out again however hard I try. I’m fucked, we all are. No good can come from this.
Shit, when Valencia said that karma was coming for me I had absolutely no idea what she meant. She is an enemy that I didn’t anticipate. She’s worse than I ever could have imagined. Firing her was the worst thing I ever could have done with hindsight. I’m an idiot.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Alexa
Dad knows, I think to myself in a panicked state. He really knows. There is evidence and everything.
I cannot believe that Valencia did this to me, to us. Actually, I can, she’s a crazy ass bitch. But this… this seems absolutely insane. I don’t even know what to do. And now my father is yelling, screaming actually. Of all the times that I’ve been in the shit with him, it hasn’t ever been like this. He’s never been so mad. I don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to calm him down. This might actually give him a heart attack.
First, the dating website thing happens to me, so I decide to ignore Reece and end it. Okay, so I didn’t tell him that it was over, but why should I? He’s the one screwing around, proving that it isn’t serious. But now this… now my father knows, even though it’s over, and I’m having to suffer the consequences anyway. That really sucks. I’ve been hurt, and now I’m about to have my life wrecked at the same time. Thank God I’m moving out. I mean, I cannot move out fast enough to avoid all of this, but at least it can’t last forever.
“Don’t you have anything to say, Alexa?” Dad shouts. “Do I have to hear it all from this clown?”
I can’t even look at Reece, not without the agony tearing through me. Every time I even see him, I am transported back to the moment I saw his face on my phone screen, when Rebecca sent me the dating profile thing. There are too many emotions attached that that which I really cannot set free right now.
“I… I don’t know, Dad.” Tears fill my eyes, which don’t help anything. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Is he the reason why you have been out late every night? Why we’ve been fighting all the time? If Reece fucking Moore is the reason why your attitude has been so bad then things are going to get worse for you.”
I shrug helplessly. I don’t have enough emotional energy for this right now. There are so many things that I could say to answer this question, or series of questions, but I can’t make it happen. I’m too stuck in the rut of this horrible situation. I’m deep in a hole, and I cannot climb out however hard I try.
“Alexa, I am serious. This is the worst thing that you have ever done, I mean, I have been disappointed in you before, but never quite like this. I thought that you were acting in a slutty way, but not like this.”
“S… slutty?” I stammer awkwardly. “You can’t say that about me. I’m your daughter.”
But he doesn’t care. He simply sneers and continues on with his slut shaming tirade. I have to tune the words out before they do any real damage to me. I’m injured enough, this has just been the worst time for me.
The air is punctuated by the sounds of Oliver crying. I didn’t even realize that he was here until this moment. I’m surprised that he’s managed to hold his howls back until right now. If I was a baby, I’d be weeping like there was no tomorrow. I’d be doing whatever I could to stop this from happening.
It does stop my dad from shouting, but only for a moment. He continues on with his crazy screaming, like he isn’t having a damaging impact on the baby. Since Reece seems frozen to the spot, arguing with my father, not seeing at all what a pointless exercise this is, unable to actually move one inch, I take it upon myself to rise from my chair and to make my way over to Oliver. I naturally scoop him up in my arms and hold him against my chest. The boy needs comfort and it seems like I’m the only one who can make that happen.
“Shh, shh, shh,” I say quietly directly to him. “It’s okay, it is. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but it is.”
The tears stream silently down my cheeks and I’m sure that Oliver can feel them but he calms a little anyway. He still whimpers, but the howls aren’t as loud or as violent. I really need to get him away from all of the yelling, but it isn’t my responsibility. It isn’t my right, this is not my child. All I can do is this.
“What are you doing?” Dad snaps. “Why are you holding Reece’s baby? Do you think you’re going to be his step mom or something? That’s ridiculous. You’re only a child yourself. You can’t do that.”
I’m taken aback. I can barely keep on my feet because he’s just said that. I know my father doesn’t think much of me, he never has done, but that was low. That was the lowest of the low.
“Dad, please just stop yelling. Oliver doesn’t like it at all. He’s getting upset because of you.”
“And you know all about children now, do you? That’s just stupid. Moore, are you seriously letting my daughter near your child? If so, then you are dumber than I thought you were!”
“Now, hang on a minute.” Reece bangs his fists on the table, now matching my father’s temper. “I don’t think you should speak about Alexa like that. She’s been very good with my son. I don’t know why you see her in such a bad way. She
’s actually a great person with a lot of potential. You should try and see her…”
“Oh, so you fucked her a couple of times and now you are an expert? Moore, you have no idea. You are a fool. She has you sucked in. You are making a total idiot of yourself with her.”
I can’t breathe, everything feels impossible, the room is spinning. Thank goodness Reece takes Oliver from me before I drop him on the floor and make the situation even worse. My dad hates me.
“You know what, Moore? I’m going to talk to you about what I really called you here for,” Dad continues. “And that’s your new job position, because something really needs to be done here.”
“Please don’t take me off the training,” Reece pleads. “I don’t want to be back in the office.”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. You won’t be back in the office.” I can feel a trap coming on, but I can’t find the words to warn Reece not to fall in it. “Because you are going back in to the field.”
“Field?” he gushes. “What do you mean? I can’t go back. What about Oliver?”
Dad smirks and shrugs. “I don’t know what you’re going to do about that. It really isn’t my problem. Other people on the force have children, and they find a way around it. I cannot make any more exceptions for you. In case you have forgotten, I have been good to you. I have made sure that your life is easy, I have been a friend to you. But not anymore. I now know how you treat your friends, and it isn’t good.”
“I… I’m sorry, but you cannot do this,” Reece begs. “You can’t.”
“Well, since you cannot leave your job right now because of your contract, I don’t see that you have any choice, Reece. You are required to go wherever you are put on.”
Reece holds his hands up in a surrendering gesture. “Look, I get it. I understand what you’re trying to tell me now. I will stay away from Alexa, I will do whatever you want me to, I will keep on with the desk job. Anything. Just don’t send me away from my son. Oliver needs me, he does. He cannot lose me as well as his mother.”
