“Well come and wash my front then. Or just come, as long as it’s with me, inside me, I don’t mind.” He laughs, a little giggle, that’s so unlike him. “You. Lauren, have a dirty, dirty mind.”
“You love my dirty mind.”
“Fucking oath I do.”
He strips out of his clothes and slides in behinds me, pulling my back into his chest, he crosses his arms over my chest and cups each of my boobs, brushing his thumbs over my nipples. I shiver. “You cold baby? Turn the hot water back on.”
“I’m not cold, I’m horny.”
Jo walks through the door at that moment. “Oooookaaaaay. I can see we are all good here, we shall let ourselves out, give us a shout if you need anything, love yas lots”
“Like Jelly Tots.” We both call out.
We soak in the bath for a long while, we seem to have some of our best conversations here, we discuss what happened today and the fact that I need to speak to both of the boys, Gabe has already rung the police but they are not sure what they are going to charge Jason with yet, I’m not so much worried about charges this time, I just want him to get the help he so obviously needs. When Gabe decides that the babies have been in the water too long, I am ordered out, he wraps me in a towel, then takes me to our bed and worships every inch of me; one hour and two orgasms later, I am dressed in a hoodie and yoga pants, sitting on a stool at the bench top giving my account of what happened this morning to two police officers; Jay has been sectioned and admitted to a psychiatric unit at The Alfred, he will be assessed there before any charges will be laid but there is no chance of him getting out; I spoke to Ryder earlier and he is on his way over, for some reason, Gabe has called Cooper and Zac to come over too, although I’m not exactly sure why.
The police leave as Ryder arrives… He looks at me and simply asks “Dad?” I nod, I can already feel my bottom lip wobble; Gabe leans against the bench top, his hand at his jaw as he looks between me and Ryder
“You wanna beer mate?”
Ryder looks at my split lip. “I reckon I’m gonna need one mate. Cheers.”
Gabe takes two beers from the fridge and pops the caps, he passes one to Ryder who takes a deep swig, then comes and sits next to me on the sofa and takes hold of my hand.
“Did Dad do this?” I nod and proceed to tell him all that happened this morning and all that we have found out, I cry as I tell Ryder, I feel like such a failure, I should have known, I should have realised. How many times were my children in danger whilst in his care? Gabe comes and sits the other side of me, his arm around my shoulder; Ryder has silently shed tears as I have talked and my heart is breaking for him. He idolises his Dad, he’s always been much more of a Daddy’s boy than a Mummy’s and I cannot begin to imagine how hard all of this is to hear. He drains his bottle and puts the empty down on the floor, then takes my hand in both of his.
“You are and always have been a great Mum. Don’t ever think otherwise, what he did, what he’s done to you, to us, it’s not your fault. He’s a grown man Mum; he’s responsible and accountable for his own actions. He’s lied to all of us. To you especially, all these years, he’s lived a lie, that’s not your fault Mum, it’s really not. I’m fucking ashamed of him, he’s a dirty scumbag junkie. I’m done with him. If he ever comes near you again, I will fucking kill him, I swear to God.”
“Don’t say that Ryde, he’s sick, he needs help.”
“Then why didn’t he ask for it? All this time I’ve been trying to keep the business afloat, robbing Peter to pay Paul, working my arse off for next to nothing and the money’s just been going up his nose.”
“What do you mean? Is the business doing badly then? Why has nobody told me? What about the units? The rent money from them, where’s that been going?”
Mine and Jason’s finances are pretty complicated. On paper he owns the family home, I own four units that we developed and rent out. One of them to Ryder, who lives there rent free as part of his wage package, the business is owned by the three of us, myself Jason and Ryder, we bought Sonny out when he wanted the money to buy a property in the UK, but as far as the solicitors are concerned, any proceeds from property sales are to be split equally between the four of us. I have no idea, it’s the way the accountants and lawyers advised us to set things up so I just signed on the dotted line and went with it.
“The business is just scraping by Mum; the rent money is what has been keeping us going, only because I pay the blokes out of it before Dad gets to touch it. The last year or so, he’s just been drawing larger and larger amounts out of the business. Would seem now, we know why.”