Why do I feel this way?

Chapter 99: The Good and The Bad

The day was winding down. Vivian had just arrived at the nursery to collect Jamie and Ciara. As she entered, she saw Mandy walking to the preschool room ahead of her. In their conversation earlier, Siobhan specified it was Mandy's Henry involved in the lunch situation.

Vivian tensed up as she continued towards the room. As soon as Charlotte began handover with Mandy, her screeching voice pierced Vivian's ears. "Henry, who was it?" The boy smugly smiled, just like he had learned from his mom, and told her, "It was Jamie, mumma." Vivian took a deep breath preparing herself to endure the next few minutes.

Jamie had already turned his attention to his mum and heard what Henry told Mandy. Vivian noticed that Jamie's movements became slow as he dropped his head. As he made eye contact with his mum, his lip began to tremble and tears began to burn his eyes.

Next thing Vivian knew, Mandy had turned around and walked straight up to her. "Well, what do you have to say for your boy now, huh? He is a troublemaker and I don't think he should be able to come here anymore." Vivian's mouth dropped open as her face turned red. All she could do was stand still and be silent— unsure of what would happen if she allowed any reaction.

Sorscha and Carly both attempted to interject, but Mandy continued her rant. Since they failed at stopping the woman's verbal attack, the two tried their best to distract Jamie and Ciara.

Charlotte immediately panicked, "What do I do? What do I do?" She rushed over to the phone and dialed the office. Marjorie answered, "What can I do for you, my love?" There was no response from Charlotte, but she overheard that unmistakable voice. "Vivian, just because your son got sick doesn't mean he can treat others however he wants."

Marjorie's eyes almost popped out of her head. She spastically turned to Siobhan, "Mandy is tearing into Viv. You need to go to the pre..." Before Marjorie could finish her sentence, she caught the streak of blonde hair dashing out of the office.

Mandy continued her verbal attack on Vivian, "I can't believe you let Jamie act that way. You let him get away with everything when he was sick. Now, he thinks he can just do whatever." Vivian folded her arms across her chest. Her body was involuntarily shaking as her anger almost became unbearable.

A deep and confident tone filtered into the room, "Mandy, you have gone too far. Leave!" Siobhan steps protectively behind Vivian placing her hand gently on the small of her back. She knew Vivian was on the verge of breaking. It was important to the two women that they provided the example for Jamie when conflict arose. However, this situation had almost reached a critical point.

"Fine, but I will be going to head office about this." Siobhan chuckled, "Good luck with that. I'm sure they would love to see the rest of that incident report." The blonde turned looking Mandy directly in the eye, "You know... all the things Henry did before Jamie intervened." Mandy scoffed with a quick turn on her heel and she was gone.

Vivian turned to face Siobhan. Her trembling hands reached for her wife's. "Thank you, Bon. I wasn't going to make it much longer." A tear fell from her eye, "How could she talk about our sweet boy like that? I can't believe she brought up..." Siobhan gently brushed her thumb across her cheek wiping her tears away. "Viv, I know. I'm proud of you. You chose to be the example for our son. Violence isn't the answer and he watched you stand strong."

Charlotte, Sorscha and Carly unintentionally broke the two from their moment with their gasps and awes. It tore through the tension as Siobhan rolled her eyes and Vivian laughed. "Right, Char let's get this handover done."

Siobhan headed back to the office to get her things packed away. Vivian walked over to Charlotte and received a full report from the entire day. As Jamie showed Ciara over to her tray to collect her things, Vivian looked on in amazement. He had just completely taken on the role of a brother and it warmed her heart.