Reyona unblocked Maxwell's number and forwarded the message to him.
She was tempted to call Mary to tell her she wouldn't be having anything to do with the kids from now on but she stopped herself.
Somehow she knew she might not be able to hold out against that sweet woman who had other people's issues dumped on her lap.
"It is none of my business," she muttered to herself out loud.
She had barely seen the delivered notification before his call came through.
Reyona swore at her slowness in blocking his number back. She disconnected the call and proceeded to block the number again.
Her finger hovered over the block button for a second as a thought occurred to her.
His call came in again and she automatically disconnected it.
Then she pressed the message bar and sent Maria's number to him.
Call her and stop pestering me. She tagged the number and blocked his number again.
She had thought of deleting the number earlier but since that could make her pick up his call unaware, she decided this way was better.
As she proceeded towards the bathroom to have a long soak, she firmly tucked away the young faces trying to invade her mind.
She simply banished the face of a dying woman shamelessly begging her for help because she had no one else to turn to.
"Nothing to do with me," She said out loud as she opened the sliding door that led to the bathroom.
She had no time to think of irrelevant matters.
The only thing she was going to think of that morning was the lazy weekend she was going to enjoy.
She might even take a drive later.
She couldn't remember the last time she had taken one.
She was going to think only of her pleasure.
Not even once would she think about the date that the social worker had sent that they were coming for the children.
**********
Maxwell swore as he stepped out of the Kayooma Child Protective Services.
Just like the first time he had tried to discuss with them, they had been polite and pleasant.
All while denying him the one thing he asked for.
Yes, they believed he was their step-uncle.
Yes, they were not saying he was lying even though he had no documents to back that claim up.
Oh, they understand that the children do not even know his name because he has been away from their lives since their birth.
But then, if they had to overlook the fact that there was nothing to connect him to them apart from his claim, they simply couldn't ignore his status.
They know his reputation in Kayooma and believe a man of his calibre would not do something as despicable as lie about his relationship with those vulnerable children, but then his status was the problem.
His status! Who the fuck knew that meant anything?!
Not even the associate commissioner who owes him a favour was able to do much.
All because of his status!
The man had suggested he could find a solution to that though, or at least find his sister.
"How exactly am I supposed to change that within the few days' notice they gave?"
As Maxwell drove away from the administrative building with its swaying flags, he couldn't remember when he had last felt so helpless.
Oh, he could remember. It was when she had been unconscious.
Now she wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, and his goddamned sister was nowhere to be found.
Maxwell had tried his best to find those two, yet it seemed as if they had both gone underground.
Everything his investigators had turned up had been futile.
"God damn it!" Maxwell swore once again, accidentally hitting his horn and blasting eerily at the car in front of him.
He waved his apology at the driver as they waited for the lights to turn green.
Where could those two be?
Their shadow had not even been detected at the airports.
Maxwell was certain that those two were still very much in Kayooma.
The question is; where exactly had they burrowed in?
Maxwell wished he could just say fuck this and look away from the whole situation, but he was already in this.
She is family, which made those kids his family too.
As much as he hated it, his father's teaching had been too embedded in him for him to watch those two kids get sucked into the system.
Andre Rohan would turn over in his grave.
Admitting to himself that the consideration of his dead father was not the only reason, Maxwell thought of the other reason why he couldn't just walk away.
His experience on the dark sides of the streets had made him meet the likes of them.
Children who were placed in foster homes, which had turned out to be hell for them, instead of the haven promised.
Most of them had run away and chosen the street where they could call their shots and live according to their rules.
Only a few had been able to master the rules of the street enough to call the shots.
People like Don.
Most of the others had ended up being gutted out in gang fights, O*'d from sub***nces that their street fathers gave them to try or even ended up in a worse state.
A state that Maxwell would probably have ended up in if it had not been because of Don.
Maxwell knew he just couldn't let those kids get sucked into that kind of hell without doing anything about it.
But what?
"Where the fuck are you, bitch?" he muttered darkly as he thought of the hinted allegation that Steve had believed was waiting for her when they found her.
At first, he had been concerned and wondered if she had become that vicious in the few years they had not seen each other.
He had even thought the police doing the investigation might be wrong.
But at the moment, Maxwell didn't care anymore.
She could get hanged for her crimes for all he cares, but he would be damned if he would let her drag those innocent children into hell with her.
A loud honk behind Maxwell jolted him out of his thoughts.
"Move it, will you?" a lady screeched from the car behind him.
Maxwell realised the lights had turned green and the car in the front had moved.
"Damn it," he said as he quickly moved.