Brothers at War [#Wattys2017]

four (i)

One week down. Only two more to go.

That was the only thought which was keeping me sane. Counting down the days until I could finally return home and pretend that I was entirely over Matt once again.

By the end of this week, Matt would have renewed his vows, and he would be celebrating he start of his life again, with a woman that he loved. I, on the other hand, would return to the same mundane routine I had undertaken since Callie turned one and I returned to work.

Evva would come around every single morning, half seven on the dot, and I would work for the entire day so that I could earn the money I needed to spoil my little girl. But I was relieved that Callie would be starting nursery next month, because it wasn't fair that Evva, at just under eight months pregnant, was running around after an overactive three-year-old all day while I was at work.

I would, finally, be able to afford to take Callie on a proper holiday. The one thing she has always wanted. To travel abroad somewhere and spend some time as a family.

If I wanted it to be a proper family, I would tell Matt the truth, and I would invite him along as well. That was never likely to happen though, and I knew I was being selfish because Callie kept asking where her daddy was, but I was still convinced that I was doing the right thing by keeping her daddy from her.

The mere thought of Matt trying to fight for Callie made me feel sick. I would be lost without my little girl because, for all the stress she caused me and the tears I had shed over her, she was my world and I adored her. I spoilt her, perhaps more than I should have done, but if I could give her the world, then I would do.

I would never let Matt take her from me. She was my baby. I was the one who had raised her, been there for her, loved her, and given her the best that a mother could give their daughter.

I would fight whoever tried to come between Callie and I, and I would be the one winning that battle.

"What are you thinking about, sweetie?" My mother's voice interrupted any potential violent thoughts I could develop towards Matt.

"Nothing. I was just thinking about how much my life has changed," I lied. I had been lying to my mother for a long time now, especially about Callie, but my mother had never known how to keep her mouth shut. She would have told everyone what I had done, including her two ex-husbands, one of which was my father who would skin me alive if he ever discovered I had done the same thing my mother did to him. She would tell her current husband, the cousins I don't ever remember meeting, and my grandparents too.

No.

My mother would never know the truth about Callie's father.

As far as she was concerned, Callie was the result of a drunken one night stand I have absolutely no recollection of, other than waking up naked in his bed and sneaking out the following morning.

"I know. My baby has her own baby. If only Logan—" but, as always happened at the mention of my brother, she trailed off and didn't finish her sentence. I knew what she meant though and I also knew that Logan would be the overprotective, ever-doting uncle, just as he had been the overprotective, doting older brother. "Now. Where is she? I have plans with her today."

"She's asleep. She won't be awake for another hour."

"Sophie—"

"It's part of her routine. I don't want to disturb it more than I have done." My mother had reprimanded me more than once for allowing Callie to sleep past eight in the morning. Because when Logan and I were her age, as she often likes to remind me, she would wake us both up at the crack of dawn so that we were tired again by seven in the evening. "But I am taking Callie down to the pool today. I promised her that I would."

"You are supposed to be spending the day with Amena. Remember?"

"But—"

"No. I am too old for horse riding and I am more than capable of taking Callie down to the pool." I was positive that, in this moment, my mother was trying to ruin my life and making my guilt conscious even guiltier than it already was. I didn't want to spend the day with a woman who I was certain I was going to hate, or perhaps I had just programmed myself to hate her so that I didn't feel as guilty about sleeping with her husband.

"You do remember what happened the last time I got on a horse. Right?"

"Stop making excuses, get dressed, and at least pretend that you don't hate a woman you've never even met."

"I don't ha—"

"I might not have been the best mother to you when you were younger, but I do know how to read you like a book, Sophie. I always have done." My mother walked over to the bed and sat beside Callie, brushing her hair from her eyes, and a wave of envy shot through me at the sight: I envied that my mother was a better grandmother to my daughter than she was a mother to her daughter. "Now, I am going to spend the day with my granddaughter, and you are going to spend the day actually socialising."

"But—"

"There is nothing more to be said. Now, go and get ready, while I get Callie ready."

And, with that, I knew that there was nothing more to be said and that I was going to have to grin and bare what the day had in store for me.

What do you think happened to Logan?

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