by M K Farrar
“Really? ’Cause I remember all those little sayings she had...”
“Shut the hell up, Violet! How dare you come into my house and start throwing all this shit at me?”
She no longer cared that Haiden was sitting right there.
Violet jumped to her feet. “I came because I’d had a panic attack, and I was hoping for a little sympathy from my big sister. But I should have known I wouldn’t be able to count on that. You say you’re nothing like Mum, but she never saw what was going on outside of her own head either.”
“Get out, Violet. I don’t need this shit first thing in the morning.”
“Can’t cope with it, huh? Jeez, lucky Ollie isn’t here. Maybe the boy is better off with his dad.”
Kristen grabbed Violet by the arm and marched her towards the front door.
She shook her off. “I can go. You don’t need to manhandle me.”
Kristen yanked open the front door. “Go, then.”
“Fine, I will. See, I told you that you were crazy.”
She tossed her hair over one shoulder and marched down the garden path, violently slamming the gate shut as she went.
Kristen let out a growl of frustration and slammed the front door shut as well. Tears of frustration welled in her eyes. How did Violet always manage to have this effect on her? Why couldn’t the two of them just get on? They had, when they were younger. Violet had been right when she’d said that Kristen had taken the worst of their mother’s erratic behaviour. She remembered how much she’d loved Violet—taking care of her little sister had been the most important thing in her life. But now it felt like everything she did or said was wrong, and the only thing Violet cared about was herself.
Movement at the living room door caught her attention and she looked to find Haiden half propped against the doorframe, watching her in concern.
“Are you okay? I’m sorry I let her in without checking with you first.”
She swiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “No, it’s not your fault. That’s just what my relationship with Violet is like. We seem incapable of not pushing each other’s buttons.”
“Was what she said about your mother true?”
“Yes, it was,” she admitted.
He nodded sympathetically. “I know what it’s like to grow up in a bad household.”
She looked up at him in surprise. “I thought you were close to your family.”
“Oh, well, I am now.” He glanced down and scuffed his foot across the carpet. “We had some issues when I was younger, though. My dad had some problems with drink, but he’s got it under control now. He’s not touched a drop in years.”
“Oh, right. I’m sorry to hear that.”
Was that why Haiden hadn’t been in touch with his family? She wanted to mention it, but she already understood how difficult it was talking about dark family matters, and she didn’t want to put him in the same position.
Haiden shrugged. “That’s okay. It’s in the past now, right?”
“Right,” she agreed.
A smile widened across his handsome face. “Better to focus on the future.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Hurry up, Ollie. We should have left five minutes ago!”
Ollie appeared at the top of the stairs, his hair still flattened on one side where he’d slept on it.
Stephen had dropped him off the previous day, with still no mention of the solicitor’s letter. She hoped that was the end of the subject, and while she desperately wanted to know what Stephen had planned, she didn’t want to be the one to bring it up and reignite the conversation if there was no need.
Ollie flew down the stairs towards her, and she caught him long enough to restyle his hair with her fingers. “You’ll have to do,” she said, mainly to herself.
Haiden had left for the bus half an hour ago. Neither of them had mentioned either the kiss they’d shared on the Saturday night, or Violet’s revelations about their upbringing yesterday. She appreciated him being discreet, but a part of her longed for him to mention the kiss. It was the first time she’d kissed a man since her divorce, and she couldn’t pretend like it didn’t mean anything to her. She was still in disbelief someone like Haiden even felt that way about someone like her, but no one had forced him to say those lovely things about her or kiss her in that way.
Kristen grazed the tips of her fingers to her lips, relishing the memory of how the kiss had felt for just a moment longer before she had to let the rest of the world in.
“Muuum,” a little voice whined from beside her. “You said we were going to be late.”
“Yes, of course,” she said, snapping herself from her reverie. “Let’s go.”
She snatched up her bag and the items Ollie needed for school before stepping out of the front door and locking it behind her. They walked down the garden path together and stepped out onto the pavement.
Her car was parked a little way along the street outside—they had no allocated parking and just had to hope they’d get somewhere close to the house—and they had to walk past it on their way up to school. The car seemed to be on a lean, and she frowned as they got closer.
Her mouth dropped open. “What the hell?”
From the side she was standing on, on the pavement, she could see that both of her tyres were flat.
“Wait there,” she told Ollie, positioning him away from the road.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just stay put for a minute, okay?”
She dropped his hand, checked for traffic, and then stepped out into the road to round the vehicle. To her dismay, the other two tyres were the same.
“Shit, shit, shit!”
“Mummy! You said a bad word,” Ollie scolded her. “You said it three times!”
“Sorry, sweetie.”
She exhaled a long sigh and went back onto the pavement to join him. Thank God they could just walk to school and she wasn’t going to need the car to get into work, but she still needed use of the car to go food shopping or head into town. How much was this going to cost her? New tyres were expensive, and she had no idea if this sort of thing was covered under her insurance. What the hell had happened, anyway? Had she driven over some glass?
“Come on, let’s get you to breakfast club. We’re already late.”
There was nothing she could do about the car right now. She needed to get to work, and she knew she was already in the headteacher’s bad books for kicking up a fuss about Felix Hurst. In fact, she’d never figured out if he’d even had the chat with the two boys that he’d promised.
She glanced down at Ollie, half-skipping happily along beside her. He was in a good mood, and she didn’t want to spoil things by bringing up the bullying, or that he was supposed to have had a little talk with the headteacher. She knew each of those things would upset him, and she had enough on her mind without having to worry about getting Ollie into breakfast club when he was upset about something. Maybe it wasn’t her finest parenting moment, but sometimes she just needed to do what she could to get through.
After dropping Ollie off, she called the local garage and told them what had happened. The car would need to be brought in for that many tyres to be replaced and they could send the tow truck that afternoon. Thank goodness for the extra money Haiden’s board had brought in. Though she never would have wanted to spend the money on the car, at least she had it.
She went straight to the headteacher’s office. Andrew Larson was in his usual position behind his desk, and he looked up when she knocked and popped her head around the door.
“Andrew, I’m really sorry to do this, but is there any chance I can take an hour off this afternoon? I’ve had a bit of an emergency I need to deal with.”
He frowned at her, and her heart sank. “Really, Kristen? Can’t it be done at another time?”
“I’ll take it as my lunch break,” she insisted. “It’s just the tow truck is coming for my car and I don’t have any way of getting to the garage, so I’m hoping they’ll give
me a lift. I’ll try to get back as soon as I can.”
He exhaled another long sigh but waved her away. “Fine, but if any extra work builds up, you’ll have to stay late to do it.”
“Not a problem. Thanks, Andrew.”
For once, it would be nice of him to be on her side, to just say ‘sure, Kristen. Take the day off if you need it.’ She was a good employee and couldn’t even remember the last time she’d had a day off sick, but he treated her like she was nothing more than a constant inconvenience.
With a sigh, and wishing she could catch a break just once, she went to her own office and sat down. She needed to stay ahead of things if she wasn’t going to be here until seven that night.
“I’M GOING TO HEAD OFF now, Anna,” she announced after working through her lunch break. She grabbed her handbag out from under the desk. “You going to be okay without me?”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine. Hope they can fix your car.”
“Thanks. Hope I can afford for them to fix my car.”
She left the school and hurried home, conscious of the time. As she approached her street, the tow truck was already there.
“Hi,” she said, hurrying up to the two men who looked like they were dealing with things. “I’m the owner. Kristen Scott.”
The bigger of the two men turned towards her. “Oh, hi. This is your car?”
“Yes, it is. I came out this morning and found it like this.”
“Have you called the police and reported it?”
She jolted back in shock. “What? No, why would I?”
His big, meaty slab of a forehead crumpled in a frown. “I’m sorry, but it looks like someone’s done this on purpose.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you’ve got great big slashes in each of your tyres. Looks like someone’s taken a kitchen knife to them to me.”
She ran cold. “Couldn’t I have just run over something? I drove the car to the supermarket yesterday afternoon. Maybe I did it then.”
She didn’t like the thought that someone else had done this to her vehicle. Was it just a couple of kids out causing trouble, or was this more menacing and someone had attacked her car on purpose?
“Unless you ran over someone holding a couple of large knives, I’d say that was pretty unlikely.”
“Shit.”
She ran her hand through her hair and shook her head in disbelief. Someone had done this deliberately. But who? The memory of her fight with Violet popped into her head. Surely Violet wouldn’t have done this to her car, no matter how angry she was. Violet could be a little unstable at times, but she knew how short of money Kristen was, and that this would cost a fortune to repair. No matter how bad things were between them, Violet had never resorted to destroying her property.
She thought back to the broken flowerpots. Or maybe Violet had destroyed her property before, and it was just that she’d never linked the two.
She let out a sigh. “Okay, thanks. Do you need me to come to the garage now?”
“Nah, we’ll give you a call when we get everything priced up.”
“If there’s any way of doing this the cheapest way possible, I’d really appreciate it.”
“There’s no way we can mend the tyres, but we might have some second-hand ones we can source for you. That’ll keep the price down.”
“Thanks. I’d really appreciate it. Things are a little tight at the moment.”
He gave her a rueful smile. “I know the feeling.”
It was a small kindness, but it brought tears to her eyes.
She left them to go back to school. He’d said she should report this to the police, but if Violet was responsible, did she really want to get the cops involved?
Chapter Eighteen
“How did it go?” Anna asked when she got back to school. “All sorted?”
“As much as it can be, for now.”
She considered confiding in Anna about what the tow truck guy had said, but then decided not to. Anna liked to gossip, and she didn’t want it getting around that someone had slashed her tyres deliberately. A chill ran through her at the thought. What if it wasn’t Violet, and was someone else she hadn’t even thought of? She liked to think she didn’t have many enemies, but that wasn’t exactly the truth, was it? Lately, it felt like she had more enemies than friends.
The bell rang to signal the end of school. While she wasn’t finished with her work yet, she knew the afterschool club Ollie attended allowed the children to have a play for fifteen minutes or so to burn off some steam. She caught his eye through the window and gave him a wave before he ran off again.
The phone rang, and she answered it. One of the parents was running late, and they’d need their child watched until they could get there—ten or fifteen minutes at the most.
Shouts came from the playground.
Her heart thumped, and she jumped to her feet. Instinctively, she knew it had to do with Ollie. Kristen ran out of the office and into the playground. Though school was over, some of the kids had been having a run around before going home, the mums standing in small groups and catching up on the gossip.
Ollie should have been with the afterschool club group, who were given a separate area of the playground, but instead she saw him tussling with Felix, a small gang of other boys standing around them.
“Hey!” she yelled. “Hey, stop that, now!”
She ran over and grabbed both boys, pulling them apart. She was shocked to see blood running from Ollie’s nose, while the bigger boy looked fine except for ruffled hair and his shirt pulled out of his trousers.
“What the hell is going on here?” she demanded.
Both boys stared sullenly at the ground, refusing to answer.
“Are you okay, baby?” she asked her son, fishing into her pocket for a tissue and giving it to him to put to his bleeding nose.
The clip-clop of high heels marched towards them.
She turned to discover Rachelle standing behind her, immaculately dressed as always, an expression of concern on her made-up face.
“Felix was fighting with Ollie again,” Kristen snapped.
“He started it,” Felix said, sulkily.
Kristen let out a huff of air. “Oh, please. How did Ollie start it?”
Felix poked out his lower lip. “He called me a name. I heard him!”
Ollie looked both baffled and worried. “No, I didn’t. I was just playing, and he told me to come over ’cause he wanted to ask me something.”
Rachelle stepped in. “Then we just have two children’s words against each other.”
Kristen ignored her and looked to Felix. “Is that true?”
“No! He called me an idiot. I heard him!”
“Even if Ollie did call you an idiot,” she said, “which I highly doubt he did, that’s no reason to punch him in the nose.”
“I didn’t. He must have hit it on the ground or something.”
“See,” Rachelle said, “Felix didn’t even hit him. It was just an accident.”
Kristen saw red. She’d had enough of this woman making out like her son was innocent all the time, when that clearly wasn’t the case. Before she had even considered what she was doing, she spun around to face Rachelle.
“I swear to God,” she said, shoving a finger into Rachelle’s smug face, “if you won’t punish your kid for hurting mine, I’ll do it myself.”
Her eyes widened, her mouth dropping open in aghast horror. “Did you just threaten my son?”
“I mean it, Rachelle. If Felix lays a single finger on Ollie again, I’ll show him exactly how it feels to be bitten, and hit, and pushed over.” Her fury was blinding, the words pouring from her mouth. She was so angry and frustrated—frustrated at the school’s insistence they’d done everything they could to protect Ollie, when that clearly wasn’t the case, and frustrated by Rachelle’s refusal to see and accept what a horrible little bully her son was. Kristen had never hurt a child, and had no intention of doing so, but she just wante
d this all to stop. She’d worked hard for so many years to hold everything together, that to have it all fall apart because of one six-year-old boy felt horrendously unfair.
“You can’t go around physically threatening small children,” Rachelle snapped. “What the hell is wrong with you? You work at a school, and you think that kind of behaviour is all right? I’m afraid that if you plan to hurt my child, how many other children are you thinking about hurting.”
Kristen stuttered, jerking back in shock. “What? No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I don’t plan on hurting children!”
“Really? Because that’s not what it sounded like to me. Frankly, Kristen, I think this has become a safe-guarding issue now, and really needs to be reported.”
She spluttered with disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me! Your son is violent towards mine, day after day, and you think I’m the one who is the safe-guarding issue?”
“The boys are just children. They rough and tumble a little. It’s perfectly normal, and perhaps it will help Ollie to toughen up instead of being so overprotected all the time.”
Kristen clenched her fists to her sides to prevent herself launching at the other woman and clawing her face off. She’d never been a violent person, but somehow the combination of Rachelle and Felix sparked something inside her. All she was trying to do was take care of her child—that was all she’d ever wanted to do—and now somehow that was demonising her.
Just like her mother.
“Stop making excuses for Felix,” she managed to splutter. “It’s not play if one of the children involved doesn’t want to be and ends up getting hurt. I won’t put up with it anymore, Rachelle!”
Her eyes were hard and cold. “Yeah, I heard you. You’ll hurt Felix, isn’t that what you said?”
“Stop twisting my words and think about parenting your son properly instead.”
Not letting her get another word in, she took Ollie by the hand and marched him towards the bathrooms. She needed to clean up his poor nose and then she’d take him home early. Screw whatever Andrew might think about it. Taking care of Ollie was more important than trying to please a headteacher who was consistently failing him.