Page 273 of The Bonus

“Yes.” They both run upstairs to get their swimming costumes on, and I walk out to the garden. “Hello.” I widen my eyes.

Did you forget I’m here?

His cold eyes hold mine and he sips his scotch, contempt drips from his every cell.

“What’s your problem?” I raise my eyebrow.

Silence.

He bends and turns the hot tub on, and it begins to bubble.

I swallow the lump in my throat, angry Gabriel Ferrara is someone I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

The kids run downstairs and jump into the hot tub. He clicks the safety net on. “Stay on the step,” he tells them. “I have to go inside for a moment, I’ll watch you through the window.” He turns and walks past me into the house.

Great.

He’s put them in the hot tub so we can fight without them hearing.

I walk in and he shuts the glass door behind us. “How fucking dare you!” he yells.

I jump, startled. “What?”

“I know what you did today,” he screams, the veins in his neck sticking out.

“Calm down.”

“I will not fucking calm down.”

“What did I do?”

“Arranging for my mother to meet my children?” He steps forward and I step back. “When you knew that I did not want her anywhere near them.”

Oh fuck…he thinks I called her. I did say that, didn’t I?

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

“It went well,” I say softly.

“I don’t give a flying fuck how it went,” he bellows so loud that the windows nearly shake. “You.” His jaw flexes as he clenches his teeth. “You have no idea what you have done.”

“Then tell me,” I spit. “How can I make an informed decision if I don’t know why they can’t see her?”

“Because I fucking said so!” he screams.

My eyes flick out to the kids in the hot tub, happily playing away, oblivious to their drama queen father.

“I’ve made the decision that she is never to see these children and YOU…purposely went against my wishes.”

“She’s your mother!” I yell back, I’m getting pissed now. “What was I supposed to do?”

He narrows his eyes and his chin tilts to the sky as if having a realization.

“Show me your phone,” he says.

“What?”

“I want to see where you called her to arrange this meeting.”

---