Charmaine floundered for a few seconds before regaining her composure enough to continue screaming. "I never said that's what I did!"
She was lying. I could always tell by the way her voice would go several octaves higher than normal.
"I'll find out either way. Now where's Andrew?"
I came here for my son and I would be damned if I left without him.
"He's busy . . ."
"No I'm not," Andrew cut her sentence off and ran out the front door and straight into me for a hug. "Dad! I'm so glad you're okay."
Andrew hadn't hugged me like this since he was a little boy. Now I mostly got manly slaps on the back, so I soaked it up.
"I'm fine, son. It's going to take more than a little plane to take me down." I purposely looked at Charmaine as I said it. Hoping she got my underlying message loud and clear.
"Are you staying for a bit?" Andrew asked when he pulled away with so much hope on his face.
Andrew was very much aware of the custody agreement since Charmaine loved to remind him any time he asked for extra time with me. So I knew exactly what he was trying to do with the question.
Before I could answer, his mother was throwing an answer out. "Andrew, you know it's not your father's time with you." But I was quick to contradict her. "Actually, I'm here to take you with me. Your mom has some stuff going on, so I thought it was best you come with me."
I could practically see the steam pouring out of Charmaine's ears for daring to go against her. Normally I was glad to back down because I knew she would take me back to court to reduce my visitation rights despite being a good father.
"Really?" I knew I was making the right choice when I heard the hope in my son's voice. I didn't have the first clue what had happened to him while I was captured, but I would be finding out.
"Yeah, son. Go grab your stuff while I talk to your mother."
If looks could kill, I would be a dead man.
At least Charmaine was smart enough to wait until Andrew was back inside the villa before she spoke again. "You can't just take him," she hissed at me.
Not only did I challenge her but I got right up into her space when I did it. "You really want to do this after what you said? It won't take my team long to discover what you did, and when we do, I will make sure to take you down. No lawyer is going to be able to save you."
"There's nothing for you to find." She crossed her arms and stuck her nose up in the air.
I leaned down and whispered, "We both know that's not true."
"And what about me?" Charmaine continued the hoity-toity attitude like she was better than me. "They’re threatening my life too."
I wanted nothing more than to tell her she could shove the protection she needed up her ass, but Matthew was right. That wasn't the kind of man I was.
"I'll make sure my boss sends someone to guard you."
It would be someone from the B team rather than my or Vortex’s team, but it would do. Charmaine deserved one of the celebrity bodyguards.
Thankfully Andrew chose that moment to come running out, so my ex didn't get the chance to say anything more in front of him. She was on thin ice the way it was and one wrong word would push me over the edge.
"I'm ready."
I watched and listened closely as Andrew said good-bye to his mother before we got back in the SUV.
We barely made it out of the driveway before Andrew started in with his questions. "Did your plane really crash? Where have you been this whole time? And why did Mom say you were dead if you weren't?"
I took a deep breath and centered myself before answering. I was a lot of things, but an asshole who talked shit about his ex to his kid wasn't one of them.
"Yes, the plane I was on did crash into the ocean. As far as I know, there was only me and one other survivor. It was a long few days before we got rescued and your mom was simply telling you what she heard from the airline. They thought there were no survivors."
"It doesn't make sense. The airline should be sure before making those kinds of statements."
