Chapter 258

Nicolas

“You think we should call her now?”  “No leave it till we get home; she will just rant and rave in your ear and still do the same when we get home.”  “What if something is wrong?”  My imagination was running away with me.  “Wouldn’t Isabella have phoned if something was wrong?”  “Off course she would have.”  “Well then there is nothing seriously wrong stop worrying.”  I couldn’t understand why Nicol was so calm I mean it was a lot of miss calls but as I sat back and thought about it, I knew Isabella would have called and if she couldn’t get a hold of me, she would have called Geoffrey so there was really nothing to worry about.  When we reached our apartment building, I was calm and ready for whatever Nikki was going to through at us.  Maybe I should just take my lead from Nicol but then on the other hand Nicol never had 7 missed calls from her daughter before because Nikki never had a phone.  As we got in the lift Nicol got on her tiptoes and kissed me.  She wanted to pull away but I wasn’t ready to let her so I deepend the kiss when I finally let go of her, she looked me in the eyes touched my cheek and said “Thank you for today.” “It’s my pleasure sweetheart.  You were really scared at the OBGYN?”  “I was but now I’m good the baby is growing and we have nothing to worry about except maybe the teen that is waiting for us in the apartment.  We both laughed as the lift doors open.

Clearly Nikki must have heard the doors because she came running out of the kitchen.  “Where have you been?  And why didn’t you answer my calls?”  Nicol was as cool as a cucumber “Hello Nikki How was your day?”  Nicol and I was very strict when it came to rules.  “Mom” Nikki moaned.  “I could have been dead; I could have cut my hand off and not you or dad answered my call.”  I stepped forward “Sweet Pea if any of that happened Isabella would have called us, there will be times we are not able to take your calls like today for example. You can’t keep on calling us.”  “What if Isabella wasn’t here?”  She challenged me “Well then you wouldn’t have been here although you do have Rika as well.”  “Rika is there to make sure I’m okay at school not at home.”  Someone was being snippy with us.  “Okay what was the big emergency?”  Nicol asked finish with the debating.  “It’s probable not important to you.”  She said with an attitude.  “Nikki, you can tell us but I’m not going to beg you.  We are sorry we didn’t answer but like your dad said there will be times we are not able to answer your calls and today was one of those days.  So, when you are ready, I’m going to the kitchen to get some tea.”  Nicol said to Nikki then she turned around and walked straight to the kitchen.  I didn’t know what to say or do so I follow Nicol to the kitchen. I walked behind her and pushed her against the kitchen counter whispering in her ear “Was that the right thing to do?”  “I don’t know but she will come and speak to us when she is ready.”  And like Nicol called it, Nikki walked into the kitchen when I Iook up I saw tears where streaming down her face.

“Nikki what’s wrong, we really sorry we didn’t answer your call but we were really busy.”  “I’m not crying about that. Not any more”  I went to sit and picked her up to sit on my lap, she actually allowed it which means she was not herself.  “What happened?”  “It’s Kevin.”  She said sobbing.  “What about Kevin did he hurt you?”  I will squeeze the life out of him if he hurt her.  “No not deliberately.”  “Then what happened angel?”  Nicol said as she came to sit in front of me and Nikki.  “In the middle of class his mom came to fetch him.  It was like it was something that happened often.”  “Why do you think that?”  “Well Kevin didn’t take anything from the table not his books just his personal stuff then he walked to me and said “His sorry, but he won’t see me again.”  “I asked him what he mend and he said it’s complicated but one day when his much older he’ll come and look for me.”  Fuck they had to run and this didn’t make any sense to Nikki no wonder she was calling us so much.  She pushed her head into my chest and cried and cried and cried.  I knew this won’t be the only time I’ll hold her like this because of a boy but she was barely 12 and her heart is broken.  I looked at Nicol with the question on my face ‘should we tell her?’  and Nicol nodded.

“Let’s go sit in the living room okay.”  I said as I carried her to the living room with Nicol behind us.  When I sat down with Nikki still in my arms, I asked her “You want to know the truth sweet pea?”  “How would you know what the truth is dad?  Or why he left?  I’m not trying to be funny but how could you know?”  This could go off well or it could be an absolute cluster fuck.  “Well, I know more than you’ll think sweet pea.  Like the fact that Kevin isn’t his real name, his real name is Devin and his mother’s real name is Beth not Lesley.”  She got of my lap and just looked at me like she didn’t believe me.   “It can’t be true?  Why would they have different names? It doesn’t make sense not even a little?”