Finding out she had dated her boss was the least of my worries when my own flesh and blood was sequestered away.
It pained me on a level I never knew I possessed to know she had wilfully hidden my son from me. And then pained me even further having to bide my time whilst we put all the pieces into place to manipulate her into returning home. It had been Ant’s idea to strike on Axel’s birthday. We knew from her texts that she was planning a party, and we figured she would be stressed enough to let her guard down.
The original plan was to strike when she was at the bakery collecting Axel’s birthday cake. But then it occurred to me how fun it would be to toy with her.
There was a painting hanging in her hallway. It was an ugly fucking painting, with splashes of colour here, there, and everywhere. The painting was so busy and chaotic that she hadn’t even noticed that Hacksaw had cut a hole in the top corner and planted a tiny camera. It was through that camera that I had been able to watch her reaction to receiving the birthday card. It was also through the many other cameras that we decided not to kill the nanny.
Karen had been good to my son. You hear some horrific stories about staff abusing children when the parents were away, but that woman had treated him with nothing but kindness and affection. I was glad Axel was young because her absence would have left a hole in his life otherwise.
Just like you forced Rachel to do with that American kid. Just like the hole you forced Bee to have when you kicked Rachel out of your lives.
Yeah, well. I was a hypocrite sometimes. I could see that.
“How are you feeling about this, brother?” Vienna asked as Rachel walked out with the lawyer.
“It’s better than nothing, I suppose.”
“I think it's doomed to fail,” he said with a lopsided grin. “But fuck me, it’s going to be fun to watch you both try.”
“Thanks for that.”
“No, thankyou.I’m going to make a pretty penny out of this when I take bets with the rest of the club. I might even call a Church meeting and make the bet a mandatory thing.”
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“As your vice president, my place is by your side, with front row tickets to all the drama. Would you like me to sleep at the end of your bed so you don’t get up to no hanky panky?”
“Hanky panky?” I laughed, turning my head in his direction.
“You know… bumping uglies, hiding the sausage, the old horizontal dance. Unless you were never horizontal? Is Rachel a cowgirl type of woman? I’m gonna ask her what her favourite position is so I can get my references and jokes in order.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort.” I grabbed him by the neck of his cut before he could take another step.
Axel crawled over to us and brought me one of the fire trucks from the toy box. I bent low and scooped him up into my arms. “Can you say dada? Da-da.”
He said nothing.
“I don’t think he likes you. Give him here,” Vienna said, snatching him away from me. “Can you say Vienna? You’re gonna wanna say Vienna, kiddo. I know where all the treats are, and I’ll share them with you if you say my name before your dad’s.”
“You know he’s one, right?”
“And?”
“So he can’t understand your blackmail?”
“Okay, I see what you’re saying,” he nodded and then looked back at Axel. “Can you say Vienna?” he said, emphasising the syllables, his voice high pitched and baby-like. “Vienna is the best-a.”
“He can’t say Vienna,” Rachel came into the kitchen, using the same elongated version of his name. “But he can probably say wanker,” she stretched that word out too.
Vienna stuck his finger up at her and then walked out of the kitchen after handing Axel to me.
“So…” I said.
“So… When does Bee get home?”
“Soon. How about you go and see Jenna? I’m sure she’d love to show the baby off to someone who hasn’t already seen him for a change.”
“That sounds good,” she nodded. “What will you do?”
