A Saviour

Thirty

"So it appears Mr Freeman's drug test has come back as a full pass." The judge said reading from the paperwork on the Monday morning in court. Kate rolled her eyes and Johnny cleared his throat. "However in light of the new evidence available. I will be reviewing the file once more in greater detail. Unsupervised visits are off the table for a while, until you can prove that you're a responsible man and capable of being in charge of a minor, do I make myself clear Mr Freeman?" The judge said sternly looking over his glasses. Kate took a deep breath, at least that was one win for her. "However your progress with the child seems to be going in the right direction, albeit small progress so I would now suggest just supervised, no longer court supervised visits but once a fortnight at yours and Miss Baxter's discretion." Johnny cleared his throat once more as Kate gasped. Her jaw dropped and remained open. She was expected to socialise and be present in this man's company every fortnight for the foreseeable future? Arriving back home, Katie scooped her daughter into her arms and cuddled her tight. "Oh baby girl, I'm so sorry about this whole mess."

A week later, Katie arrived at Ryan's apartment complex flanked by Travis and Mark. She was nervous to say the least but social services had checked out his place and deemed it habitable for a child to spend time there. They were a long way off Ryan having unsupervised or even overnight visits but this would be the start of Belle spending time in his space. Katie held Belle in her arms, but the toddler was keen to explore and venture down on her own two feet, however the mother needed to feel her child in her arms, to settle her nerves.

Travis showed Kate out the elevator as Mark followed and they made their way down to the end of the corridor where apartment 202 was. She braced herself before knocking on the door. Ryan answered it, dressed in a sharp crisp light blue shirt and chinos. He almost looked like when they had first met, shame she knew the truth now and not then though. "Hey Belle!" He said cheerfully before opening the door fully. "Nothing was written into the court order about your two beef monkeys" Ryan said sternly. "But.." Kate said. "We can call the lawyers if you want to drag it out further?" Ryan said eyeing his ex. Kate who just wanted this whole ordeal to be over with, shook her head looking at Travis and Mark "He's right. Ryan only has to allow access to me." "Kate" Travis said sternly. "Honestly I'll be fine. Go wait with the car or something." "Do what the good lady says." Ryan said his voice oozing with sarcasm. "Look.." Travis said stepping closer to the man before Kate stepped in the middle of them. Belle still firmly on her hip. She turned to Ryan "Would you give us a minute?" He nodded and retreated into his home. "Travis, don't make this harder than it already is. Please. I'll be two hours. Wait here, in the elevator or downstairs but I need to do this, I can't breach court rules it won't work in my favour." Travis reluctantly nodded "Fine. You call me as soon as you need me ok?" Kate nodded smiling at the man who was fast becoming like a brother to her. She re knocked on the door even though it was ajar and Ryan appeared "There's a starbies down the road you guys can wait there." Ryan said smugly. Travis clenched his jaw before spinning on the spot and heading down the corridor with Mark rapidly following. "Right, shall we?" Ryan said showing the two girls into his apartment.

"So you're settling in ok?" Kate said trying to make polite conversation as she put Belle on the floor in the living room. It was then she noticed the large pile of gifts on the rug. "Are they?" "Well I figured I missed a lot of birthdays and Christmases already so I'm trying to make up for it. Plus she will need stuff here to play with when she lives here." Kate clenched her jaw. Ryan was still adamant he wanted full custody of Belle and that was never going to happen. "So anyway can I get you a coffee?" "Sure that would be nice thank you." Kate slowly sat down on the edge of the couch watching as Belle tore into the various gifts, some were very sensible, and nice gestures, some were completely inappropriate and not age relevant at all but she encouraged her daughter as best she could. Ryan returned with two mugs of coffee. "Thank you." Kate placed her mug down on the side table before watching Belle look at the Teddy she had just opened. "J, J, J, J" she kept repeatedly saying as she stood and approached her mother. "J?" Ryan questioned. Kate knew this stood for Johnny, she was guilty of calling him it a lot and knew her daughter had picked up on it but decided not to voice that. "They are learning the alphabet at daycare, she's hung up on certain letters." Kate lied. "Ah well, well done Belle!" He said before sipping his own drink and then climbing onto the floor beside his daughter.

A while later, things were going remarkably well or as well as they could have been Kate thought. She took another sip of coffee when she came over rather hot and flustered. She loosened her cardigan before resuming her focus but after a few minutes she still felt out of sorts. She didn't want to, but eventually she decided to ditch her cardigan and although her little cami vest top was revealing, it did cool her significantly. Ryan watched from the rug where their daughter was playing as the woman yanked her cardigan off. "Are you ok?" He asked. "Yeah I'm fine, sorry." They resumed their focus before she stood up. "Could I get a glass of water please?" She asked quietly. He simply nodded, stood and left for the kitchen. Kate took deep breaths trying to calm herself, she wondered why she felt all jittery, and her chest was becoming tight. She brushed her hand through her daughter's curls to try and ground herself but it did little to relieve the symptoms. She wandered over to the other side of the room where a serving hatch showed the kitchen. She watched through the hatch discreetly as Ryan picked up a small bottle of pills and read the back before dropping one into the glass of water, and stirring it with a fork. Her hand covered her face to hide her gasp, as her head began to feel very heavy. She quickly moved to pick up Belle but then thought about grabbing her phone from her bag to call Travis when Ryan re entered the room handing her the same glass. "Thank you." She said avoiding eye contact with him. She began to pretend to take a sip before finding the courage. "You drugged me!!!" "What?" He said acting shocked. "You've drugged me!! You complete and utter psychopath!" He grabbed hold of her upper arms holding her in place. "You just needed something to keep you calm. You've turned erratic without me around! Look at you!" He said sadistically as her curled up fists banged his chest. She could feel her body failing her as her limbs felt incredibly heavy every time she lifted them, and her head was lulling to one side. "You drugged me!!" She said exasperated. He slapped her hard across the face, and she fell hitting the side of the coffee table before falling unconscious.

Ryan's eyes widened at the sight, this wasn't exactly how he had planned to execute his plan but he took it. He picked up Belle, attempting to put her shoes and jacket on the toddler, the child was confused and tried to wriggle out of his embrace before he began talking to her in a sickly sweet voice. "It's ok Belle. Daddy is gonna take good care of you. We don't need Mama anymore, she's nothing to us. I'll be there for you, you just need to do as you're told ok?" He navigated the toddler into her shoes and placed her jacket round her as he carried her to his front door. He opened the closet door grabbing a holdall out of it, and slung it over his shoulder before opening the front door quietly, and sticking his head out to see if anyone was around. He saw it was empty and rushed towards the stairwell at the end of the hallway where he dashed down the stairs.

Meanwhile, Kate lay unconscious on his living room floor bleeding from her injuries and none the wiser as to where her daughter was.