The Formidable

21

Jase winced at the screaming. Until the late afternoon on Friday, Mia had been an angel. Then she had become possessed, throwing a fit because he had taken his burner phone away. His first instinct was to give it back, if for nothing else but to stop the noise, but Madison stopped him in his tracks.

"Don't," she said from the sofa. "Don't give her things she wants just because she fusses. You're the adult."

"What do I do then?" Jase asked, watching Mia as she threw herself onto the floor, her face screwed up and beet red. 

"You let her get on with it," Madison said. After a few minutes, Mia stopped. The tears disappeared, and she climbed up onto the sofa next to Jase, picking up the teddy Sam and Janine had brought back when they'd gone out shopping earlier. 

"You finished?" Jase asked when she looked up at him. She grunted in response and found her dummy in the crack of the sofa cushions, sticking it in her mouth and wriggling around until she was comfortable resting her head on his arm.

"Well done, you got through your first temper tantrum," Madison said, leaving the sofa to make Mia some dinner before she was put to bed. Jase remained where he was, curling Mia's ringlets around his finger gently. She huffed and he chuckled.

"It must be a hard life, having people do everything for you," he said. 

Madison came back with a bowl of cut up spaghetti Bolognese. "Right Mimi, come here," she said, placing the food on the table and lifting Mia into one of the wooden chairs. "I made some for you as well," she told Jase. He thanked her and retrieved a bowl from the kitchen. "How is it?" Madison asked.

"It's the best meal I've ever had in this house," he replied, almost finishing the serving before the steam had stopped coming off it. "I didn't see more out there. What are you having?"

"I'll have some toast later or something," she replied. 

When Mia finished, Jase took the plates out and filled the sink whilst Madison put children's programmes on the TV. He allowed himself a cigarette as he washed up, listening to music from the television in the front room. It was so simplistically surreal to be doing such mundane things that his Nokia ringtone breaking the mirage made him flinch.

He was greeted by Callum on the line, someone that had been around for a long time and was one of the few people Jase felt he could trust that didn't have anything to do with the house beyond a brief visit or one of their parties.

"Alright mate? What's up?" Jase asked, tapping his cigarette into the ashtray on the windowsill.

"I'm having a bit of a get together, your girl's here," Callum replied. 

Jase's brows furrowed.  "What girl?" 

"Rebecca, I think." Jase already had a bad feeling about what Callum was going to follow up with. No one ever called with good news. "I don't know what's going on and I don't want to know, but she's talking about Madison." Jase remained silent and Callum lowered his voice. "She's saying she's alive and living in the house." Jase walked out of the kitchen and stood in the living room doorway. Mia was watching the television. Madison turned to look at him, reading his body language like a book. Callum carried on. "And that she has a kid that may or may not be yours." The last part made the back of his head throb with icy beats. "I don't know if she's spouting pure shit or what, but if she's not, there are people here." Callum didn't need to fill in the blanks of what he meant. There were people there Jase wouldn't want knowing such intimate business.

"Keep her there," Jase finally spoke, hanging up.

"What's happened?" Madison asked. Jase took a drag on the cigarette, heading back into the kitchen.

"Bag your stuff up," he ordered. Madison followed him, leaving Mia on the sofa.

"What's happened?" she repeated. Jase stubbed the cigarette out.

"Rebecca's been talking about you and Mia," he replied. There was no initial reaction to the news, no gritted teeth and screams of death threats. 

"What are we going to do?" she asked, surprisingly calm. Jase messaged Sam, letting him know what Callum had fed back then he turned to Madison, placing his hands on her upper arms.

"I'm going to get Kieran to take you and Mia to mine, it's safe there. I didn't want to have to use it yet but depending on who's heard what, I can't risk keeping you here."

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I'm going to go and get Rebecca-"

"I'm coming," she interrupted. 

Jase sighed, ignoring her warning glare. "I think it's best-"

"I didn't ask you what you think is best. I'm coming. I'll call Lily, she can stay with Mia at yours and I'll meet you wherever it is you're going." There was no use arguing, she wouldn't take no for an answer for a decision she'd already made, especially not when it concerned Mia's safety.

"I'm just going to talk to her," he said.