Page 73 of Our Lips Are Sealed
“Don’t fight me on this.”
“Like hell I won’t.”
Shoving her aside, he shouted for Toby and CeCe. Hearing Ben’s voice, Toby ran into the hall. “You’re back! Are we going to the beach house now?”
“Ben, don’t do this.” Miranda stepped in front of him when CeCe followed. “You can’t just let them go with him.”
Toby’s gaze darted between all the adults, and sensing something was off, he latched onto his sister’s hand. “Go where?”
“Get upstairs and gather your things,” Ben told the boy over Miranda’s head. “You’re going to be with your father.”
CeCe popped her thumb in her mouth, whimpering as Toby shook his head, bravely defying his uncle. “No, sir, we’re not going with him. You said I make my own choices, and I’m choosing not to go.”
Ben’s mouth pressed into a hard line. “I said you can make your own choices unless I say otherwise, and now, I’m saying otherwise. I’m sorry, Toby, but you have to go to your father.”
“You’re scaring them.” Simone pulled Miranda aside, moving between Ben and the children. “They’ve lost their mother and sister, and are hurting. Hell, we’re all hurting. It’s not just you.”
His eyes slid to hers, the two of them knowing each other’s limits better than anyone else in the room. “Get out of the way, Simone.”
“I’m not going to let you just give them to Charlie.”
“They belong to him.”
“I said no!”
“God dammit!” He screamed in her face, morphing into the Benjamin Fairweather only the outside world was permitted to see. The man he kept tucked away from those that mattered. A monster the other monsters feared. “Why can’t you mind your own fucking business?”
Lord help her, but she slapped him. Out of reflex and fear, she slapped him right in the face hard enough to turn his head.
Gasping at what she’d done, Simone curled her striking hand to her chest, knowing that none of this was right. She and Ben were friends. Best friends. They were suffering together and caught in this cyclone of misery where things had gone too far.
“I’m so sorry, Ben.”
But like everything else in a world without Laura Jean, her apology meant nothing to him. Ben’s head rolled forward again, and the man she considered family was gone. “Get out of my way, or you can get out of this house.”
Her chin trembled. He wasn’t the type of person to make empty threats. “Oh, so, that’s how it’s going to be? I have to pick between my babies or my home?”
Stepping forward, Ben spoke low enough to where no one else could hear. “Neither of which truly belongs to you.”
Simone rolled her shoulders, her heart in knots. “Don’t be like this,” she pleaded. “Tell me why you’re agreeing to let them go.”
His anger lessened to a degree, the excruciating sorrow returning. “There was no will.”
“What?”
“Laura Jean had no will, and Charlie is threatening to call social services about Evie if we don’t give him his children.”
It was almost a relief to hear that all he was worried about was the situation involving Evie’s guardianship. “No one is going to take her from us.”
“I’m not leaving it to chance.”
Evie was in a bad place and could worsen if someone tried to remove her from them. But while Simone understood his concern, that didn’t mean they should be forced to give up two for the price of one.
“Toby and CeCe don’t need to live through another nightmare,” she told him. “You’re not the only one dying inside, Ben,”
The statement was meant to appeal to his rational side, but the rage in him reappeared instead, and Simone could do nothing when he knocked her out of the way to grab Toby by his upper arm to drag the boy to the front door.
Josie attempted to block the way, but Ben easily maneuvered around her, making it out to the porch with Toby shrieking the entire time.
