Filed To Story: The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel
He’d stated
“Congratulations, you’ll be a great mother, great parents.”
He smiled at her and then Wil, and he really did mean that.
“Your car is also out the front. That’s a set for each car Wil has, the other two sets will now be on Wil’s desk for him to pick up tomorrow when he comes to the office.”
Anabell smiled right at him. No real annoyance came from her like it normally would, and hadn’t done for several weeks now. He was willing to be that stemmed from her and Marilyn talking now, like they’d used to back in the day. He also thought that just maybe, she could also see that he really was trying to be a better person where Marilyn was concerned.
Or maybe she just had more information on Marilyn than both he and Wil knew about. Perhaps Anabell knew something he did not. He stood and talked to many people and left when everyone else did. He wasn’t one to go out often unless it was work or charity??elated, but he did know more than half the people in this room. Most stayed even after Wil and Anabell managed to sneak out unnoticed by all. Something that also made him chuckle when it was realised by both of their parents. He knew they’d gone off to celebrate in their own way. It was something they had always done.
Calvin returned to his office and spent the afternoon trying not to think about having no contact with the boys at all for the rest of the week. They’d texted him last night after getting home and even said ‘Goodnight. dad. Something he himself returned ‘Goodnight boys.
He’d gotten a good morning text every morning, since they’d snuck that phone away with them, and realised just how much of a pair of early risers they were. Those two were up with the sun every day. He’d smiled when reading it and sent back a simple ‘Morning boys.’ It was he knew how he was going to address them on a daily basis, when he could be around them all the time.
That was a nice thought to have rolling around inside his mind, being around them all the time to be able to say that. But then that very night as he sat there on his lounge reading one of Marilyn’s books, he couldn’t und the help but miss those texts from his sons that he’d gotten for the past three days. It was getting time they would text him good night, and it didn’t come. It made him sigh a little heavily as he realised he wanted to text with them, missed their interactions with each other, and it had made him feel connected to them.
It kind of felt, he thought, like he was just a dad who was away on a business trip, so communicated via texts instead of being there in person to talk to them. Where he got that all??mportant good night, every night, and he realised just how hard a time this was going to be for him, not being able to talk to them about whatever it was they wanted to share with him.
He hoped it wasn’t just as hard on them as it was on him, that they’d handle it better than he would. That they wouldn’t badger their mother about taking the phone away from them. It was, he thought, not that harsh of a punishment, not really. But they might consider it to be on their side, when all they wanted to do was to talk to their dad, to get to know him was all.
Now they didn’t have the chance to do that, but he could also understand that they had likely just broken her trust as well. Marilyn was likely to be very unhappy with the two of them right this very moment, and if all she did was take the phone away, something she’d give back to them at some point. He could see it wasn’t all that bad a punishment either, mild on her end.
+ Foints
He could only hope things weren’t as strained over there as what his mind was allowing him to think it might be. Wil was right. He had no idea what she was actually like as a mother. He’d never once seen her in that capacity, she’d always kept the boys out of everything. Protecting them from him and his behaviour, and he knew it.
She likely didn’t want them to be just like him, and now they had just done something sneaky and underhanded to get what they wanted, and that was very much ‘a him thing, to do. He scrubbed a hand over his face, there was nothing he could do about it.
Marilyn
For the next three days, she saw those two boys get home from school and run off to check the mailbox. She knew they were looking for a new phone to arrive, they’d not once coughed up the truth of what they’d done. That they’d told Calvin everything about that trip, and with that old phone gone she wondered if they actually thought they’d gotten away with it. There would be no conversation thread on a new phone.
Now it was Friday afternoon, and they’d just come back from checking the mail. Her two children were now standing before her in her writing studio. She’d never actually hidden that phone. It was where she’d left it on Tuesday morning, on the corner of her desk. They’d just not come in here during the past three days was all.
Now they were in here and both of them could see it was right there.
Callum reached out for it, and she simply moved out of his reach.
“Mum?”
“Yes Callum.”
She asked right back.
“Is that dad’s phone for us?”
he asked.
“Mm, I guess, seeing as he bought it, you could call it his phone. But technically it is my phone, not yours or
Vincents. It was given to me to check his whereabouts every day, not for you to do so. That was a privilege I granted you. So it’s my phone.”
She reminded them.
“You told us it fell in the creek,”
Callum stated as he stared at her.
“Is there something the two of you need to tell me?”
she asked right back.
They shook their heads no.
She could, however, see that they were both now looking at the phone.
“Do you two recall the rules around this phone?”
she asked and picked it up, and opened it when they just nodded.
“Because I recall the rules clearly, no phone calls or texting and I believe the phone was to stay in the house at all times, never leave it.”
she repeated the rules
“They were the rules yes?”
“Yes.”
They nodded.
Marilyn turned the phone around to show them the texts that had gone between themselves, and Calvin and their eyes fell to the floor.
“Do you recall what I said would happen if you broke them?”
she went on and saw them both nod slowly.
“I stated you’d have no more access to it. That is all I did.”
“You lied about the phone being lost in the creek,”
Vincent murmured.
“It doesn’t feel very nice now, does it, to be lied to about something important.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.