Page 46 of Tempting the Player
“Where is Lucia? Where is Lucia? Like you give a fuck. You left her. You left her on her own – she’s four years old. You don’tgive a crap about her, you never have, and you never will. How can you leave a four-year-old in the house on her own?”
She bites her lip and laughs nervously. “Oh come on, Nathan, I was gone half an hour tops – she was watching a film, she was fine.”
“You are not fit to be a mother, we were a hell of a lot happier before you came back on the scene, so this is it, I'm giving you your freedom – we don’t want you, and we sure as hell don’t need you here - go and do what the hell you want to do, but go and do it on your own.
Her face distorts, making her uglier than I've ever seen her. “This is because ofher,” She spits out, “if you hadn’t met her, you’d have been happy with me, but I can’t live up to Saint fucking Kate, can I? Nothing I do is good enough, because Kate can do it better.”
“Don’t even think of bringing her into this – but you are right, she’s a hundred times the mother and the woman that you will ever be, she gave us a taste of what life can be like. When she treats my kid as though she's her own and a girlfriend who acts like she actually wants to be around me and cares about me - and it was fucking sweet. But make no mistake, this would have happened had I met her or not. You are not fit to be Lucia’s mother. Do you realise that I could have you arrested for what you’ve done? If anything had happened to her, I swear to God I would have hunted you down and I would have made you suffer. Lucky for you, she’s fine... upset, but fine. But we are done. You’re getting your things and you’re going. Don’t know where – don’t care.” I turn to carry on packing.
“You’re taking a mother away from her child – do you think that’s fair on Lucia?”
Is she fucking serious?
“What’s fair on Lucia is that the woman who has got her right now is standing at her kitchen worktops baking with twofour-year-olds, making them happy, spending time with them, showing them love. Have you done that ever? Even once?”
She doesn’t say anything.
“No, I didn’t think so. I'm going to get her now. I’ll be gone an hour, make sure you're gone by the time I get back, or I’ll be phoning the police.”
“But Lucia?”
“I won’t stop you from having supervised visits with Lucia... supervised visits . . . but after the shit you have pulled today, you can visit her at your parents’ house or with your parents, and that is it. I’ll be telling them what you’ve done today - they’ll be as disgusted with you as I am. I don’t want you near this house again... ever.”
I walk past her and down the stairs to get my phone and keys and walk out of the front door, slamming it as I do. I walk to Kate's house.
Chapter 20
Kate
It’s Thursday morning - the morning after the crazy night where everything seems to have happened. Should I be happy that they're having problems? No, because that means that Lucia isn’t happy, and I might be an idiot, but I don’t like seeing Nathan unhappy either.
He came around last night to pick Lucia up, but he didn’t say much. He stayed and had a piece of the cake we’d baked, but his mind was elsewhere—understandably. I didn’t say anything . . . not my place, but it’s hard not to get involved when I was involved a couple of months ago . . . about as involved as you could get. After an hour, he thanked me, gathered Lucia’s belongings, and took her home. Lucia relaxed once she’d got to mine. Baking took her mind off the whole ‘Home Alone’ episode.
There’s no way he’d stay with Nikki after that, surely? What kind of mother does that? I'm still reeling about it, as a mum, it makes me go cold inside and makes me so bloody angry.
I hold Jess's hand as she happily skips to school, jabbering on about how she hopes that this week it will be her turn to be the star of the week. I walk into the playground and see Nathan straight away. I let go of Jess's hand so that she could go straight to Lucia. I checked around for another mum to talk to – dammit – the one time I couldn’t see anyone. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him make his way over to me.
“Hey, Kate.”
I glance around to see if anyone is watching us - the last thing I need is more ammunition for the gossipmongers.
“Hi, everything OK?”
He rubs his hand over his face, his hair is a mess, and his eyes look heavy. “Actually, yes, I think it is… or it will be soon.”
I frown. What does he mean by that?
He carries on, “Can I talk to you, after the kids have gone to school, I mean?”
“What’s there to talk about? No... and anyway, I have to go to work.”
“You don’t start until ten. Please… five minutes.”
Jesus, I don’t want to get into this on the playground, as more and more parents arrive, they're gonna be watching us.
“Fine, five minutes.”
“Great,” he gives me a small smile and walks away.
