Page 59 of Seal of Approval

Is that what we’re going to call being in jail now?

The young officer watched the older one, scrutinising his every move.

“Yes, Mr Reynard. I’m aware of your circumstances.” He glanced at Jasmine before returning his stern look to Max. “I will take your word that you were unaware of the court order. However, as of this moment, you are.”

Max’s jaw twitched.

“My advice to you is to contact a solicitor and not to come back here until the family court allows you access.”

Twitch. Twitch.

“Thank you, officer. I will take that under advisement.” Max turned his attention to us, but not before a sneaky glance at the young officer. He addressed Jasmine. “I’m sorry if I’ve upset you. I only wanted to see my children.”

“You can see Bailey and Rose when the family court grants you permission.”

Twitch. Twitch. Fucking twitch.

Max thanked the officers before walking away.

“Please contact us if he appears again,” the older officer said. “We’ll leave you to the rest of your day now.”

They headed back to their car. While they were still in earshot, I heard the sergeant say, “You’ve got a lot to learn about the arseholes of this world. That man was lying out of his arse.”

“Hopefully that deters him for a while,” Jack said. He strolled away, leaving Jasmine and me alone.

She turned to me. “He’ll be back.”

“I know. His thinly disguised anger said it all.”

“You saw it too. We’ll need to keep the kids close.”

I nodded. That man was ready to explode. I didn’t want the kids to see it, but I didn’t want them away from us either.

Jasmine looked down the road out of town. One way in. One way out. No escape if we needed it. If it came to it, I would protect her and the children with everything I had. I took her hand and led her along the sand.

“Was this what it was like with your father?” she asked.

I looked out at the water. This opening up thing was hard. “My father was emotionally coercive and physically abusive.” That was a good start. Stating facts and not feelings was easier. “The abuse was mainly directed at Steve and me. I took the brunt of it though. Steve is younger than me. It was my job to protect him.” Time and time again. I sighed. “My mother never learned. When she got cancer, people donated for her treatment. He took it all.”

Her hand tightened. “That’s terrible.”

“He wore her down until she had no opinions of her own. She always took his side.”

Jasmine shook her head. It would be hard for a mother like Jasmine to understand.

“Is that why you hide your feelings?”

My heart thumped. There was no hiding from her questions.

“I didn’t do it because he wanted me to. I did it to save myself. I didn’t want him to have power over me.” I sighed. “When Audrey and I got married, I vowed not to be like my father. I let her do what she wanted, never argued, never tried to convince her of anything.”

We stopped walking and sat at the end of the jetty.

“She was spoiled. And bored. In the end, she told me I was like my father, but my weapon was silence.”

“It must have hurt to hear that.”

“She knew those words would hurt.” Why couldn’t I stop myself from talking? They just kept flowing out of me. “She said me letting her do whatever she wanted showed that I didn’t care about her or our relationship.”

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