I guess I could understand Caleb’s jealousy though. He had gone so long without knowing who his dad was, now he just wanted to be with him solely.
“Well, you just have to be nice to Shelia. Your dad seems to like her pretty well, so you should try too. Now, finish up your breakfast, I think you are in need of a bath. I can smell your stinky feet from here.” He giggled as he ate his last bite and I scooped him off the barstool and headed into the bathroom.
“ ‘Kay bud, strip down. I’m going to go grab a few towels from our bathroom since we’re all out in here. I have some serious laundry to do today after we pick up Tootsie. Doesn’t that sound like some fun times?” I started up the water, adding his favorite blue bubbles to the water and walked out to the hallway to grab towels.
“Here we go buddy, I found this in the closet.” I tossed a bath toy into the tub with a splash, gasping when he turned around to reach for it.
“Caleb, what happened?” I inched closer to the tub, squeezing my eyes shut before once again reopening them. Nope, I hadn’t being seeing things. Almost his entire back was covered in black and blue bruises.
I splayed my trembling hands across his soft skin gently examining each one. Some of them faintly resembled handprints and I immediately knew this was no accident. I blinked back the tears that I felt coming on, sucking in a deep breath to hold them inside.
Now was not the time for a breakdown. Now was the time to find out exactly what happened, so I could beat the shit out of that person. Caleb’s face had fallen grim but his lips remained pressed together tightly, they were almost white.
“Caleb,” I repeated in a soothing voice, “what happened? Was this an accident or did someone do this to you? Can you please tell Mommy so I can make sure it never happens again? Please, baby?” His only reply was a sharp shake of his head and he dropped down to sit in the water, quickly finding his bath toys and ignoring me. “ ‘Kay buddy, I forgot something I’ll be right back.”
I walked into our bedroom, trying to calm the shakiness of my hands as I picked up my phone. How I had not found out about this sooner was beyond me. He had to have been in pain, but no one would have ever known. He was one tough cookie and I had no idea how he was powering through that pain with a brave face. Just thinking about it made me sick to my stomach.
The phone was answered after only two rings. “Roy, you need to get over here right away.”
Chapter 24
Chase
The first day of conferences was finally over. I had been expecting it to be boring, but it had actually been pretty interesting. It actually made me feel professional and like a real grown up, not just some kid playing teacher. I had an opinion here and people respected it.
I would have much rather been home with Leah and Caleb, though. Right about now, I would be pulling into the driveway after work, most likely coming home to a nice dinner and the craziness of Caleb that I loved. Leah had really come around in the past month and we were now more of a family than we ever had been since we got married. I think the counseling sessions were really helping us out.
My phone rang as soon as I walked into my empty hotel room, which truthfully depressed the hell out of me. I couldn’t wait until I was home tomorrow night. My mood quickly changed when a picture of Leah lit up the screen.
“Hey baby, how’s it going? Missing me already of course?” I heard a loud whoosh of air come through the phone and her take a deep breath until she finally responded. Apparently, she was in a mood today. The doctor said she would still have those kind of days every once in a while.
“Chase, I need to tell you something but I don’t want you to freak out. Your hundreds of miles away and there isn’t anything you can do about it, okay?”
My heart froze when she said it. What the fuck was going on? “Leah, what in the hell is going on?”
“Chase, just calm down. Are you going to freak or not? If you are, I just won’t tell you and you’ll have to wait till you get home.”
I gripped the phone tightly in my hands and blew out a breath between my teeth. “Fine, Leah. Just get out with it.”
“Okay, well,” she dragged out, setting my nerves right on edge with what was to come next. “I was giving Caleb a bath, this was the first time I had seen him without any clothes on, he put on his own pajamas last night,” she rambled on.
I had no clue where this was going, but I wished she would just get on with it. “And this afternoon I got him in the bath and noticed the bruises all over his back, I mean they’re bad, Chase. I can actually see imprints of hands.” I sucked in a breath, immediately wanting to leave and go home, just like Leah warned me against.
But sometimes there were certain situations where family was the only thing that mattered. I held my breath, not sure if I wanted to hear anymore, but I knew I had to so I would know who to the beat the living shit out of. “So I immediately called Roy and told him to get over here.”