Something Real Read online

  Something Real

  Ariadne Wayne

  Northnet Limited

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Ariadne Wayne

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  He was hot.

  Dark hair and blue eyes, with those long eyelashes I could die for. A man in uniform? Who could resist that, right?

  Except, he’d asked a question that made my head swim, my blood racing away to who knows where, leaving me unable to answer.

  “Do you know where your children are?”

  I gulped, my throat tightening at the question. “They … they should be inside the house with Evan.”

  “Evan is …?” He cocked his head. I'd just pulled into my driveway to find the police car parked by the garage. This wasn't good, whatever it was.

  “Umm, my husband. Their father. Please, what’s this about? What’s happened?”

  Panic grew inside me, my hands tightening into fists in response. I strained to catch a breath as the fear grew.

  “I'm Officer Ben Parsons, Mrs Grant. We had a call from the school, and then from the day-care about Jack and Thomas. No one picked them up, and they couldn’t get hold of you. They call us as a last resort. Who was supposed to collect them?”

  Tears welled in my eyes, I didn’t know whether out of fear for my children, or Evan.

  “Evan was. He didn’t let me know he couldn’t pick them up, or I would have been there. I just changed jobs, I didn’t even think about updating my contact details.”

  “No mobile?”

  I nodded. “Yes, but the battery's dead. I didn't realise until I went to text my husband to say I'd be home late tonight.”

  He nodded, walking back to the car and opening the rear door. Jack came out first, followed by Thomas, and I dropped my shopping bags as they ran to me. A can rolled out of the bag and, under the car as I bent, hugging them tight, closing my eyes as I held my babies.

  “I’m so sorry, officer. I thought Evan would have called me at work if he needed anything.”

  I picked up the bags, pushing the contents back into them. Tears were rolling down my cheeks in relief at my boys being okay. Hopefully Evan was too.

  I stood, and Ben took the bags from my arms. “Let me take that. I’ll come in and we’ll have a chat with your husband.”

  Numb, I nodded as I led him to the door. I tried the handle first, but it was locked. Weird. Fishing the key out of my handbag, I slid it into the lock and turned. With a click the door opened and I stepped aside to let Ben go through first.

  He looked around as I guided him toward the kitchen. “Doesn’t look like your husband’s here. How about I check around the hospitals, see if he’s turned up at one of them?”

  I poked my head in the bedroom door, checking if Evan had fallen asleep or something stupid like that. He hadn’t done it before, but among all the other useless things he’d done, it was always a possibility.

  The wardrobe door was open, as were all his drawers.

  All his clothes were gone. My throat tightened at the realisation of what had happened.

  “Bastard,” I exclaimed, entering the room.

  Ben followed me, seeing the state of the furniture. “That explains things,” he said. He poked around in the wardrobe, as I scanned the room. Everything of Evan's was gone.

  I looked up at him, sighing. “I guess you can see now what happened. He didn’t even have the decency to tell me. And he’s obviously decided he has no obligation to take care of our children.”

  He sighed. “Now I understand the circumstances. I just need a promise this won’t happen again. I can put you onto some groups who might be able to help.”

  I shook my head. “I have no idea what I’m going to do, but no, nothing like this will ever happen again.”

  “Where’s Daddy?” Jack asked, standing in the doorway.

  “I don’t know, sweetheart. But, how about we have some dinner and watch some TV before going to bed?”

  Jack nodded. He was used to his father not being around all the time, though he'd always picked him up. Maybe the excitement at riding in the police car overrode any concern.

  I led Ben to the door, and he smiled at me as he paused before getting into his car. “I’m really sorry to see what’s happened, Mrs Grant. Have you got anyone to help you out?”

  “I’ll sort something out. Thank you so much for bringing them home.”

  “You’re welcome. They seem like good kids.”

  I grinned. “They are. Take after me.”

  At that, he laughed and I felt Thomas tugging on my skirt as I watched the car back down the driveway.

  “Police,” he said.

  “Did you have fun in the police car?” I asked, scooping him into my arms. He wrapped his little arms around my neck hugging me tight.

  “Love you, buddy,” I whispered, closing the door. Right now it seemed that the love I had for my children was all I had left.

  * * *

  One job—Evan had had one job to do that day. The same one job he’d had for the last couple of years. All he’d had to do was pick up the kids from school and day-care respectively. Not that hard, I would have thought. Thomas had only recently started day-care to get him used to socialising. One job.

  It hadn’t helped that I was running late. I’d just received my first pay from my new, higher-paying job and stopped to get groceries before coming home. I’d even splurged a little, buying steak we previously couldn’t afford, and still stashed in the car was a bottle of Moscato wine. That was my little reward for myself.

  Exhausted, I went out to the car, retrieving the wine. As I steamed the potatoes to mash them I drank straight from the bottle, not wanting to think about the whole screwed up situation. I could drink the whole bottle, but the thoughts wouldn't go away.

  With Evan gone, my entire pay rise would be wiped out with increased childcare costs. There wasn’t a hope in hell of support; he’d barely worked in the years we’d been together. Clearly he had found someone else to leech off.

  Tipping the potatoes into a bowl, I took out the potato masher and began to thump them into submission. With a bit of milk and butter they complied, but the tension released in that simple act flowed out of me, giving me that tiny bit of satisfaction of winning at something.

  I plated the food for the kids, taking it out to the dining table where they waited patiently.

  “Where’s Daddy?” Jack asked.

  “I don’t know, baby.”

  He frowned. “He’s naughty.”

  “Eat your dinner, honey. It’s getting cold.”

  I didn’t know what to say to him, I didn’t know how to feel myself. Evan and I had once hit rock bottom, to the point where I hadn’t wanted to continue, but I’d kept going for Jack
and Thomas. But, I thought we’d turned a corner the previous night when after all this time together, he'd shown me more appreciation than he had in years.

  When the boys were tucked up in bed, I sat back, swigging the last of the wine out of the bottle on the couch, turning on the television for company and closing my eyes.

  Tears rolled down my cheeks, but not because of Evan’s treatment of me. He’d been taking me for granted for years and I knew it. I had been the one who took care of everything, the one who worked for everything, and none of it had ever been good enough. I just never thought he would hurt our children this badly. Clearly, he didn’t even care.

  Our relationship had been built on necessity rather than passion; I always knew that. Whatever he’d felt for me at the start had deteriorated pretty quickly. He’d taken responsibility when I’d become pregnant with Jack, but truth be told, he was a shitty husband, and an even shittier father.

  And yet, I still felt his touch from last night, when I thought we’d started something new. When he’d climbed into bed with me and loved me the way he once had, all tender strokes and kisses that lit a fire in me that I’d thought long since extinguished.

  “I love you, Olivia,” he’d said.

  And I’d been dumb enough to believe him.

  Chapter Two

  The night before

  I’d come home as usual, and cooked the kids’ dinner. We had some chicken pieces in the freezer and I crumbed and baked them with creamy mashed potato and vegetables. It was basic and didn’t cost a lot, but my boys loved it, and so did Evan.

  Normally he’d have dinner with us and then go out. He’d come home any time of the evening, and there were times when I’d been sure I’d smelled perfume on him, but I didn’t have the energy or inclination to fight. I was so busy with work and children and the house, on automatic pilot all the time.

  After dinner, I’d dressed the boys for bed, and they’d brushed their teeth before I snuggled them in under their blankets, read them a story, and kissed them goodnight.

  I’d not expected to find Evan still there and sitting at the dining room table, watching as I crossed the room.

  I stood at the kitchen counter, running the water to wash the dishes.

  Dropping the dinner plates into the sink, I picked up the dish brush to clean. He came up behind me, and I breathed in his scent as he wrapped his arms around my waist. This was different; Evan rarely showed any affection, and intimate contact was usually initiated by me.

  “What have you done?” I asked.

  “Can’t a man hold his wife?” he whispered in my ear. He wore the musky aftershave the kids had bought him last Christmas. I recognised it because I liked it so much; I’d never expected him to wear it, though.

  “It’s not like you, that’s all.”

  He grazed my neck with his lips, and for the first time in what felt like forever, tingles grew over my neck and arms, growing in intensity as his hands roamed my body.

  “Evan. What’s going on?”

  He released me, and I turned around, brush still in hand. Evan took the brush from me and threw it in the sink.

  His mouth claimed mine as he pressed me against the counter, raising a hand to one of my breasts, stroking it.

  My breathing grew heavier. Maybe our relationship had been crappy lately, but my body still reacted to his. We’d been together for so long, there was nothing that we didn’t know about one another. He knew just which buttons to press to get me going.

  “Evan,” I whispered.

  “Forget the dishes. Let’s go to bed.”

  I followed him, and he held my hand all the way to the bedroom. He was so tender, touching me as he had never done before, as we made love. Nothing like the frantic sex we'd had when we were younger, the crazy back seat rushed job that got us into trouble in the first place.

  He fell asleep curled up around me, his nose against my cheek as I laid on my back and stared up at the ceiling.

  Was this a turning point? It had seemed for so long that we were just cruising, waiting for an ending as it couldn’t go on forever. The feelings I’d thought were dead had been revived in just one night.

  He’d grazed my breasts with his teeth, and I smiled at the mark he’d left that would leave me with the memories of this night.

  The candle, so close to being extinguished, ignited at his touch. For the first time in forever, I felt loved.

  He woke me in the morning with kisses, just before the sun came up. Another half hour and I’d be out of bed and getting our children ready for school and day-care, dropping them off on my way to work.

  “What’s going on?” I whispered. He hadn’t been like this our entire relationship, not even at the beginning when we were two awkward kids trying to work out what to do.

  “I love you, Olivia,” he said, his eyes so dark in the half-light.

  My heart flipped as he kissed me again, his tongue dancing with mine as he stroked my body, and I was like putty in his hands as we made love again.

  Later I stood at the stove, flipping pancakes for breakfast. The boys were out of bed and playing in the living room and I never heard a thing as he came up behind me again, his hand landing on my inner thigh as he reached between my legs.

  “What is it with you?” I laughed, as he kissed my neck.

  “Just loving my wife. I think she deserves it.”

  * * *

  Sleeping alone was weird, even though I’d done it a million times before while Evan was out God knows where, doing God knows what. Waking alone was awful.

  Thankfully, it was Saturday, so I had the weekend to prepare for Monday. Our drop-off routine could stay the same, but I’d have to speak to my boss about finishing early until I could shuffle the hours around at day-care.

  I left the kids eating breakfast in front of cartoons while I took a closer look at what Evan had taken. His side of the wardrobe was completely empty, and my suitcase was gone too. I guess he needed the baggage.

  Sighing, I caught a glimpse of my jewellery box out of the corner of my eye. It wasn't sitting the way it normally did, on the top right hand corner of my bedside cabinet. I shifted it back into place before lifting the lid. I didn’t have much: a few things he’d given me over the years and my new pride and joy, a silver bracelet from my old work place. My leaving gift.

  The box was empty. It wouldn't have been worth much, but my workmates had thought enough of me to give it to me the bracelet as a gift. It might be new, but their kindness gave it sentimental value.

  Pain and anger growing in my chest, I picked up the box and slammed it against the wall. Jack appeared in the doorway, Thomas trailing behind.

  “Mummy? You okay?”

  I sat back on the bed. “Come on you two.”

  Jack jumped up on the bed with great gusto. Thomas tried to climb and I slid my arm around him, pulling him up beside me.

  “Daddy’s gone,” Jack said.

  “Yeah, looks like it buddy.”

  Thomas snuggled into me. At three, he probably had no idea what was going on, only that Mummy was sad. I closed my eyes as Jack snuggled in to my other side. At least my babies were safe.

  Mid morning, I picked up the phone as I sat on the couch. It was best to try to sort out the work situation before Monday, and not just dump it on my boss. I prayed she’d be understanding.

  I flicked through my phone. Missed calls from my best friend, Donna, but none from Evan when he hadn't picked up the boys.

  Rebecca had called me herself to let me know I had the job. Her number was near the top, and I pressed dial, holding my breath.

  "Rebecca Wallace."

  “Hi Rebecca, it’s Olivia,”

  “Olivia? Is everything alright?”

  I guess calling the boss on the weekend when you’ve just completed your first week of work is a bit unusual.

  “Not really. It’s not work-related. I’ve had somewhat of a crisis at home.” The tears were coming again at having to explain what had happen
ed when I couldn’t even process it.

  “You don’t sound good.”

  “I didn’t want to lay this all on you, but my husband left me last night.” Here I was, crying down the phone to a woman who was still a stranger.

  “Oh, God. Are you okay? Do you have someone with you?”

  “I have my boys.” I sniffed. “That’s why I’m calling you. I need to sort out after-school care and changing day-care hours, but I’ll need to finish work early for at least the next few days until I've organised it.”

  “Of course. Anything you need. I’m so sorry, Olivia. If you need anything else, just call me, okay?”

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “No problem. I don’t know you well, but he’s an idiot.”

  I laughed through my tears. “Thanks.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief as I hung up the phone. At least that was sorted. I could call Donna. Her boyfriend, Craig, was one of Evan’s friends, and over the years we’d bonded. But she’d always said I was too good for Evan, and I couldn’t deal with the ‘I told you so’ she’d inevitably come out with.

  I couldn’t handle her today.

  Chapter Three

  Monday drop-off went fine. Jake’s before-school carers were more than happy to change his hours for the following week, leaving me with five days of early pick-ups. I could live with that.

  Thomas was a bit teary, but that had been normal lately. I hated leaving him as much as he hated me leaving, but I had to work to support us, even more so now. There was a full-time position he could slot into, so at least that was sorted.

  The sympathy I got everywhere I went was amazing. There was no hiding what Evan had done, and if anything, it helped get things sorted for the following week. The feeling of relief was immense.

  And then I went to work.

  I sat at my desk, staring at the papers, wondering where to start. I’d finished the week before feeling so organised, having a plan for this week, but the events of the weekend had been such a distraction, I felt as if I were starting all over again.