Melody (Ransom Drysdale)

9

"Where's the kid?" Ransom asked as he saw Melody eating some cereal at the breakfast bar the next morning. He'd got very little sleep after the interruption that had happened and now he wasn't exactly in the greatest of moods. He hadn't been since the au pair and the child had walked through his front door the previous morning.

"Like you'd even care Hugh" She threw back dryly and continued to eat.

"Carry on like you are and I'll have your ass sent back to England".

She swivelled around on the chair and stared at him. "Oh good, so you'll take responsibility of Audrey then? I'll just go pack my things" She slid off the stool and made for the stairs, but he stopped in front of her, glaring once more.

"You're staying".

"I don't have to, I can always quit" She now threatened him, although he'd probably tell her to do just that.

"And leave little sweet Audrey hanging?" He pouted, using his daughter as an excuse. "Let's face it, you ain't ever leaving and even you know that, because as soon as you do? You know I'll be on the phone to the first adoption agency that I can find".

Melody didn't know where it came from, but her hand connected with his cheek as she slapped him, looking furious. "If you don't want anything to do with her, then you don't use her as the excuse to keep me here. I'm here because I care about her more so than you or any of your toxic family - Harlan excluded. I don't understand how you can't look at her - she's your blood Hugh!" and before she let him say anything else, she stormed past him and back up to the nursery. She had to get out, take Audrey for a walk or at least something to get her away from Hugh Ransom Drysdale.

He followed her though, right into the nursery where she was getting Audrey ready. "I can;t look at her because how the fuck do you think I'm supposed to! I didn't want her and yet I was dumped with her anyway! If anything? Adoption would've been kinder!"

Audrey now began to cry as they argued and eventually Melody looked at him. "Just stop okay? You're making her upset by all this shouting".

"I'm not the only one arguing here Mel".

"No but you started it!" She retorted and began to bob the baby up and and down to stop her crying. "Look, if you want her to stop crying then arguing isn't going make it happen".

"So what do you suggest?"

Melody looked at him. "That you get yourself some earplugs for the nights because she's going to be upset waiting for milk, and that we avoid one another as best as possible".

"Bit hard to when I have people living here who I don't want to".

"So fuck off to the country club or wherever you like to lurk and find women to knock up, you stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours - but we need to not argue in front of the baby. This is just something we both need to deal with".

He muttered something about them both being a liability and walked out, Melody setting herself down in the rocking chair and feeling drained by the encounter.

Hugh seemed to have sucked all the air from the room and in the end she opened a window just to check whether she could still breathe or not. She had no idea just how they would manage to avoid one another given that Ransom's presence was just as intoxicating as he could be, but they had to try. At least she would, and if Ransom was serious about not wanting to be part of his child's life then he'd do all he could to stay away from them.

**

Ransom sat in the bar of the country club, swirling the whiskey around in his glass.

There was solace here. Quiet. Just how he liked it. Being around his own people with no screaming babies or stress. He'd usually escape to play a round of golf when the mood was right, but today he simply came to drink and try to not remember that back home there was a child that consistently cried for no reason.

If Melody wanted them to avoid one another then he gladly would.

Ransom thought back to the moment where he'd opened his front door to find the week old baby crying in her car seat. A bag of essentials and a note that simply said.

She's yours now. You probably won't remember me anyway, but this is what you left me with. Her name is Audrey.

He'd thought it was a joke at first, a sick one but on looking around and finding no one hiding in the bushes he'd soon realised that the baby had been left for real.

Of course Walt had been all over that shit, making fun of his mistakes, telling him that this was karma and that his life as he knew it would be over. Ransom wasn't going to let his dick of an uncle best him, and had already made the decision to simply take the baby to the adoption agency.

And then Harlan had stuck his nose in as usual. Dictating everything that should happen.

That was it. His own future was decided for him. The baby would be sticking around to spite him. Remind him that he should grow up and take responsibility.

A real punishment, now made even more so by the fact that the child and the woman brought in to look after her were being forced to live under the same roof as him.

If Harlan thought that this would make him change his way then he was very much mistaken. It only made him resent the baby even more, along with Melody who seemed to think that he should be making an effort.

His house. His life, His rules.

None of them had included children before and even now he apparently had one, it still wouldn't. They were simply guests.

Maybe Melody would become so fed up that she'd take the baby and just leave with her. He wouldn't even mind if it meant having his own house back.

Downing the last of the whiskey he checked the time. Almost 6pm. He'd best head back and hoped that Melody and the baby would be shut up in the nursery so he wouldn't have to see them.