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By the time Kaylee was scrubbed clean, smelling delicious in the bubble bath which January presumed must cost a small fortune based on how soft her daughter’s skin was, January was exhausted.
She was blowing drying Kaylee’s hair while the child was wrapped in a thick towel when the knock on the door made her shut the machine off and open it.
ter was o
faced as he looked at her and held out the bag. “Clothing for you both. Kaylee, are you almost ready for your bedtime stories? I have a couple that were dropped off.”
“Yes. I’m almost ready. Mom is drying my hair. I already brushed my teeth.”
“Good girl.” He winked at Kaylee and gave her a small smile. “I will wait for you out here.”
“While you’re reading her stories, I’ll take a shower and get changed.”
“Fine.”
The cool tone of his voice made her shoot him an inquiring glance, but he’d already turned away.
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Kaylee looked at her mother, “did you fight with my dad too?”
“Kaylee, get dressed.” She dropped the pajamas she’d pulled from the bag onto the back of the toilet.
“My hair isn’t completely dry.”
“It’s dry enough. Go find your father, have him read you. bedtime stories and put you to bed.”
Kaylee looked at her worriedly, “you’re sleeping with me though right? I don’t want to sleep alone in a stranger’s place.”
“A strange place and yes, I’ll come sleep with you. I just want to shower and,” she paused as she looked in the bag and noted everything she used to use for her facial regime when she lived with Gulliver, “spend a few minutes giving myself a facial.” She set the boxes on the counter.
Kaylee looked in the bag and wrinkled her nose. “It’s too bad there isn’t candy in there. I think you would feel better if you ate candy. You’re really cranky. You’re almost as cranky as when we drove Henry to the rehabilitation center.”
Kaylee shimmied into her pajama bottoms and looked at her mother with a wide–eyed expression which made her mother. point to the door of the bathroom.
2/6
January shook her head in irritation as she closed the door
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behind the child who was calling out loudly for her father. She opened all the boxes and then pulled silk pajama shorts and top and rubbed them against her face. It was a long time since she’d splurged on anything this luxurious and she was taking advantage of the moment.
Once her shower was done she was feeling moderately better and she opened the bathroom door to find Gulliver sitting in the bed with Kaylee, his arm around her and she was curled up at his side listening to him read a story. Kaylee’s eyes were growing heavy and Gulliver was playing with Kaylee’s hair as if coaxing her to sleep.
January looked at the bed and decided she was not getting into the bed with him in it. She left them in the room and went into the living area and noted that the two glasses of wine were still sitting on the bar. Thisbe was gone and January wasn’t sad
about it.
Despite her daughter’s words, she was stuck on being right. She was pissed off that Thisbe was trying to put blame on her for something she felt no guilt over.
She grabbed the glass of red wine and took a long sip of it and closed her eyes enjoying the way it coated her tongue and palate. She let it linger and then opened her eyes to move back to the patio doors where she’d been earlier.
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Staring out the window she wasn’t sure how long she’d been
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there but eventually her wine glass was empty and the quiet murmurings of Gulliver reading the story were now faded. She assumed he was in the room, watching his daughter sleep for the first time. She herself watched Kaylee sleep all the time. There was nothing more angelic than her daughter asleep.
Footsteps sounding behind her made her look at the reflection in the glass and Gulliver was coming out of the room.
“She’s asleep?” January asked quietly.
“Yes.”
“Great, goodnight then,” January moved to set the empty wine glass on the bar counter and headed to the bedroom.
“We need to talk.”
“No, we don’t.”
“You can’t keep fighting with Thisbe.”
“She needs to fuck off.”
“She is your daughter’s aunt. You need to get along.”
“I don’t actually need to deal with her at all, Gulliver. She is
your sister, your family and your responsibility. She keeps 4/6.
coming at me hard.”
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“She has been with me for the last eight years, watching in real time how I struggled without you. She watched my heart break. and so she is –”
“Oh, go fuck yourself, Gulliver.” January was aware she was starting to rage again, and she grabbed the second glass of wine and chugged it. She turned at him. “You both need to back. off. You are more than welcome to build the relationship you want to cultivate with Kaylee, but I am not going to take the blame for the horse shit that happened eight years ago. You and Thisbe lied. Not once did you ever tell me the truth. Hell, if you’d told me that you were in line to be vovoi and worded it in a way which told me we were never in any danger, then maybe I wouldn’t have been so fucking terrified of you when Davis told me his opinion of who you were. I ran because I was scared and Thisbe standing here in this room telling me I ran because I wanted to hurt you both back is bullshit.”
“She said that?”
“Yeah, she said that. She then told me it’s my fault you missed out on Kaylee’s life. It’s not my fault and I’m not going to feel guilt for protecting my child from the monster you were made out to be because you left out all the pertinent details. Now, at the risk of sounding like a complete bitch, and I am going to own that name tonight, you and Thisbe need to get it through your heads that I don’t feel bad. I don’t care that you had your heart broken. I don’t care that you’ve grown closer because of 576
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how you both betrayed me. What I care about is that since she was born, I stopped being angry and stopped being vengeful against either of you. I put all my heart and my emotions into. being a mother. You were not worth my anger. Today, for the first time since I pushed her eight–pound body out of me, I feel a rage at a family I forced myself to let go off.”
“January,” his tone shifted now.
“No. Stop. I’m done for today, Gulliver. I am talked out. I am cried out. I am completely out of fucks to give about your feelings or Thisbe’s feelings. I’m going to bed. I’m going to wrap myself around the child I protected with my life and sleep because damn it all to hell, I deserve it. Good night, Gulliver.”
She walked around him, closed the door to the bedroom and leaned against it, closing her eyes and hating herself for the tears which rose unbidden once again.
