My Best Friends Brother

Chapter 141

JOSH'S P.O.V.

Four days.

Four fucking days I had this bitch's son for before she even fucking realised he wasn't in her apartment anymore.

She really needs to stop looking at me like that or I'm going to launch across this fucking table at her like I'm Brie after three glasses of fucking gin and she's some white-trash rodent looking at Steve.

The poor excuse for a healthy womb wasn't even in Las Vegas like she said she'd be, she was in a totally different part of the country! So the police that Hannah sent couldn't even arrest her earlier.

They caught her coming off the plane and immediately she started with her usual bullshit.

"I want my son back! I left him with a babysitter, it's not my fault that she ran off and left him, even the police said I can't be charged with child abandonment or any of that shit so why the fuck is my son still with this fucking fairy?!" Stephanie rubs her temples for the third time in the last half hour, we've had this conversation with Chrissy five times already but she has all the brain cells of a dead fucking donkey and I can see that even Stephanie's training as a social worker is being tested with this one.

"You left him with a thirteen year old child Chrissy! Not to mention he didn't even have any fucking food and the state on the place, like fuck am I giving him back to you." Chrissy grinds those fake veneers of hers so much that I expect them to turn to dust in her mouth.

I hope you choke on them the day Lee knocks them down your fucking throat.

"I didn't know she was thirteen you idiot! She looked lots older than that! I left her money for food and if that little shit had slept all night like he said he would then she wouldn't have fucking left him there! It's not my fault!" Of course she doesn't think this is her fucking fault, she never thinks anything is her fault.

"And the fact you didn't even leave a phone to call him on? The fact he was bleeding alone in the dark because there was no electricity?!" I honestly tried to keep my cool when I first walked in here but every time I think back to the state on Liam that night I just want to fucking punch something.

He isn't the type of kid that would've ever screamed for help, too scared of the consequences. Instead he just stayed there alone in that fucking apartment terrified out of his fucking mind every time he heard a noise outside.

Aren't they supposed to burn witches at the stake? Because I want to see this bitch fucking burn.

"I told you! The electricity was a misunderstanding with my landlord! It's fixed now! Fuck off Josh.." Oh yeah, I'm sure you fixed it, by shoving the guys cock down your throat instead of paying the fucking bill.

She's been sitting across this table from me for almost an hour and yet she still hasn't asked once how her son is. She's revolting.

Liam explained to me and Miles the next morning about what happened. The girl Liam was left with apparently had an older boyfriend who she let into the apartment and he scared the shit out of the kid. When Liam started to cry they both just laughed, locking him inside for 'his own safety', going down the fire escape and never coming back. He was on his own in that place for days; no food, no lights, there wasn't even fucking hot water!

"I understand your frustrations Chrissy," Stephanie tries again, how she's managing to be so patient with this absolute cunt is beyond me. "The police confirmed that you left Liam in the care of another but you have to understand, you left him with someone completely inappropriate, even if you were under the impression they were older, and without access to basic human needs. Although they couldn't bring criminal charges this all gives me cause for concern, as did the conditions we found Liam was living in when I returned to your apartment. We'd already spoken about the changes you needed to make, as far as I could see you hadn't even tried."

Chrissy stares up at me through her spider leg eyelashes and I can already see what's about to happen before she even starts it, dramatically throwing her arms over her face and releasing a bout of ridiculously comical, hysterical crying - that absolutely nobody in the room is fucking buying.

"I didn't leave it like that!" She sobs, wiping away invisible tears from her cheeks. "It must have been that babysitter, she is to blame for all of this! Please, I just want my son back."

Liam is not her son. Liam was never her son. Liam was only ever a tool for her to use, someone she could hold over me and Steve, a kid that she could treat like an ATM to keep getting money out of me.

I'm grateful that Stephanie isn't accepting this for a minute, almost rolling her eyes and letting out a deep breath as she scribbles down notes in her book.

Chrissy reaches into her handbag, one that probably costs more than everything in Liam's entire fucking bedroom, and pulls out a silk handkerchief to dab her face, not actually letting it touch the skin because God forbid she ruins her fucking makeup.

"We are going to arrange for you to have some supervised contact with your son, however for the duration of this assessment the courts have granted temporary custody of Liam to Josh. I understand that this is difficult for you Chrissy, these situations are not common but you have to appreciate that a full assessment must be undertaken. Our hope is always to reunite families, I'm sure that this won't be a permanent solution if changes can be made, but for now this is what has to happen."

Oh, it's going to be fucking permanent. I'm going to make sure of it.

The irritating little bleach blonde weasel flares with so much anger her fist crunch, her knuckles popping as she clenches tightly and gives up all the facade that she's actually upset about this series of events.

She doesn't give a fuck, she doesn't care that that kid was hurt or the trauma that he suffered, this is just a game to her and she's pissed off that she's losing.

Liam doesn't even want to see her. I know that Chrissy has never beaten him or abused him in that way but she has still neglected him more than any child should be neglected. He is always going to have a love for her because she's his mother but I think the relief that he wouldn't need to see her if he doesn't want to was kind of overwhelming, it's not going to be easy for him though. She's his family whether we like it or not.

"Supervised contact with my own son? Custody to him?! I will have your fucking job for this!" Chrissy stomps up onto her dangerously high heels, her dress so low that she has to readjust her tits just to stop them spilling out as she starts to shake with fury. "My boyfriend is powerful! He knows people! I want my son back, now or you'll all fucking regret it!"

Sit the fuck down you silicone filled fucking cheap overused sex doll.

I shouldn't smirk, this case is the furthest thing from funny but in all honesty she looks like a Chihuahua snapping at the heels of a Great Dane right now. Loud and shrill but with no actual fucking power behind her at all.

"Threats are not going to help you here Miss Aberenchie." Stephanie doesn't even rise from her seat. I've quickly figured out that she's one of those social workers that doesn't feel strongly one way or the other about the adults in the room, she's not on my side or on Chrissy's, she's on Liam's. I appreciate that. "I understand that this is difficult for you and there are people I can put you in touch with who can help you cope with this temporary separation from your son, but I want to make clear that I will not be arranging for any contact between you and him until I feel that you are in a more stable mental state. I suggest that you calm yourself and sit down."

Chrissy is used to manipulating her way out of every set of circumstances she finds herself in, she's been doing it her entire life. Now that she's dealing with someone who she can't do that with, she doesn't know how to react.

She looks down at the chair and for a single moment I think she may actually sit the fuck down, but quickly it she grabs her bag and storms from the room, somehow acting like she's the fucking victim here.

Well, I guess that means she doesn't want to see him then? Colour me absolutely not fucking surprised.

Stephanie informs me that she will be visiting Liam at school once a week just to make sure everything is going well during his placement with me as I leave the room, but I'm not worried, in the few days that he's been with me I've already seen a change in that kid.

He's actually fucking happy.

I don't think I truly realised how much of his anxiety was innately tide to being in that house with his mother. When I was granted an emergency temporary custody order of him, and informed him that he wouldn't have to go back there anytime soon, it was like I watched a weight disappear that had been chained around his body.

I'm familiar with the feeling, especially lately.

Stepping outside the building, I almost get all the way to my car before a sharp set of acrylic nails dig into my arm and force me to twist around. You'd think that Chrissy would look tired or even upset at the fact she hasn't seen her son for almost two fucking weeks, but clearly she just looks pissed that he's with me more than anything else.

"Get your fucking hands off me." The evil bitch grins whilst digging her nails further into my bicep, of course her strength is nothing much to mine as I rip my arm free from her clutches and watch one of her nails ping from her finger to hit the sidewalk as she holds her hand to her chest like I just fucking stabbed her or something.

"You won't get away with this. He's not your fucking kid Josh, he's mine. I fucking made him which means he's my fucking possession." Possession. Property. Something to be owned and used. That's exactly how she sees him. "I will make your life a living fucking hell, I will get that kid back one way or another because I'd rather see him fucking dead than with you."

In a moment of absolute insanity at hearing those words my hand launches out ready to grab her by the fucking throat, only for me to realise at the last moment that she's fucking smirking. The sunlight bounces off something poking out of her bag – her phone, the camera lens facing right at me.

The cunts trying to record me fucking up...

This is what she wants, she's a sadistic fucking bitch that just wants this kid back, even though she doesn't give a fuck about him. She's truly willing to do anything to get it.

I let my hand continue to travel forward, brushing her hair behind her shoulder instead of grabbing her neck and leaning against it like I'm welcoming her in a familiar embrace.

"I know you don't mean that Chrissy, I know that deep down you really just want what's best for Liam, just like me." The sight of her jaw clenching and teeth grinding together meets my vision as I smile and continue to talk sweetly to her. "If you'd just called me to come and pick him up that day we could have avoided this whole situation, I don't understand why you didn't but I'm sure you had good reasons." Pretending to be nice to her is literally making me want to throw up on her knock-off designer dress but it's too fucking funny not to keep doing it considering the look on her face right now.

"You know damn well why I didn't call you. You would have gone running to that fucking social worker and said I dumped him on your last minute. Like fuck was that happening. You've always had an obsession with that fucking kid.... Guess you've always had a thing for kids though right? You still dating that little cute one with the great ass? I mean, he's still got to be in fucking college right... bit young for you don't you think?"

I'm not biting to this shit, instead I just tap her on the shoulder gently and give her the most condescending look I can muster, shooting a wink at the camera in her bag before jumping inside my car just as she breaks out into another fucking tantrum.

"I will fucking end you Joshua Jones!" She continues to scream, pounding her fists against the passenger window of my car as I attempt to take off and get the fuck away from this useless piece of shit. "I swear to God, I will fucking destroy you!"

Chrissy has never been a stranger to a bit of threatening to get her own way but I've never actually seen her look this adamant on anything.

She can't do shit though and she knows it.

I won't ever let her get Liam back. The minute she gets him in her arms she'll take off to another part of the country just to prove a point and I'll never see that kid again. The only reason she even agreed to move back here with him was because of all the fucking cheques I wrote her, now she knows she won't be getting a penny out of me she has no reason to let me be a part of his life.

The only hope I have is keeping custody of him, I have to trust in the system. I really just hoped that she'd be in fucking gaol by now, I'm pretty sure the reason she isn't has more to do with her head landing in the right officer's laps than it does with her actually being innocent of a fucking crime. Hannah did what she could but even she can't make evidence appear, this is with the social workers now.

Chrissy doesn't give a fuck about him, everyone knows that, but she does give a fuck about her reputation. Too many people know about Liam for her to pretend that he just never existed, and he's always been a prize to her more than a son anyway, something to hold over our family.

She doesn't want him, she just doesn't want me to have him.