Photos were taken. Lawyers were called. Police arrived, and then we were all interviewed.
Mack was first, a shaking, crying, and afraid mess. They took him into a separate room. Although he still needed a parent, they thought he may speak more if Griffin or I weren’t in the room with him. There was nothing for us to hide, and Griffin allowed it.
Mack copped the worst of the beatings we found out. His sexuality was just the tip of the ice. She had been flicking and pushing him around for years. He never actually fell down the back step and broke his arm. She pushed him, and he fell, landing the wrong way and breaking it.
I watched my husband fall apart over and over as he was reading back the statements. I, myself, began to cry, but I tried to remain strong. These three guys needed me. They needed a woman in their life to care for them. Karen and Griffin’s mother weren’t that type of woman. They were not caring or gentle. They needed the loving, tender side of a mother—a woman who would comfort them when they needed it.
After Toby came out, he was quiet and scared. Karen was still their mother. She gave birth to them, and I could understand the need to protect her still, but they were doing the right thing. A mother should never bash their kids the way she had done. I just hoped they could forgive themselves for turning her in and speaking up.
They were brave boys and deserved more.
“How is your relationship with the mother?” The constable had asked me, her judging eyes awaiting an answer.
How was the relationship? I would have laughed if it was not such a serious question. “As you’d expect, tense.”
Maybe not the right word. It was anything but.
“Do you and she get along?”
“No,” I said, blunt and straight to the point. “She hates me.”
Nodding, she began to write everything down. “And why do you assume she hates you? Do you and she ever exchange words? Have you ever done anything to upset her?”
“If you mean starting a relationship with her ex, then that would be it. I know she hates me as she’s made it quite clear.”
The writing stopped, and she looked up. Pausing, she asked me, “Has she ever made any threats towards you?”
I nodded, tucking a hair behind my ear. “She had me fired from my job. A few months back, she came in and started a fight in the women’s bathroom while I was cleaning—”
“Did you ever strike her back?”
“I defended myself. She punched me first, and then I hit her back.”
“I see. Was there a charge filed against this attack?” she asked, going back through her paperwork.
I shook my head. It was probably a bad move on my part. I should have done something about that right away. “There’s no surveillance in the bathrooms, and it would have been my word against hers.”
“Hmm…” She began to write again and sighed. “Anything else? Any threats made towards you or your husband?”
Plenty. I began to tell her about all the crazy things she had done to us and finished with threatening to bury me if her sons ever began to call me mum. “I have never pushed them to say that. They started it on their own, and she found out.”
“Well, as you can see, if you’re a mother, then hearing your children call another woman mum would be quite heartbreaking. Did you ever tell them to stop it?” I was really beginning to dislike this woman.
I just gave her an odd look. “Why would I tell them to stop it? Their own mother, if you want to call her that, has been beating them. They call me mum because I show them what a mother should be like. I treat them as my own children.”
“Do you have any children, Mrs James?”
Of course, that needed to be brought up. “No, I don’t. Are we done now? I’d like to go and check on the boys. I didn’t wait for her to answer me. I got up and left the room.
I gave Griffin an annoyed look and walked out. He came over, assuming I was mad at him. “Everything okay?”
“No. Just hate the police,” I said with a grumble under my breath.
He chuckled, pulling me close and brushing a hand through my hair as his lips met my forehead. “I know how you feel, baby.”
It had been a crazy evening, the police were thorough. They went back and forth with every little detail until the boys had talked themselves half-asleep. It was near midnight when they had all they needed and finally left. After tucking them into bed, Griffin and I had to sit down with his lawyer and go over what was to come next.
Even if we both knew, we still needed to hear those words.
We should not have smiled, but it was almost impossible once we were told that the boys were staying with us, that this was enough to keep them both and gain full custody. They just needed a Judge to sign off on everything tomorrow morning, and they would be ours.
Lifting his arm as he glanced down at his wrist, Griffin looked happy. “You think she’s been arrested yet?”
I nodded, hoping so. “I reckon. They were going straight there to pick her up.”
“Think she’ll squeal like a pig on the slaughter floor?” He said, referring to his pot smoking and racing.
I nodded. “Yeah, but like your lawyer said, that’s just a slap on the wrist compared to hitting the kids for so long as she had done.”
“True.”
She could blab her mouth all she wanted, but Griffin was not going anywhere. He had even told the detective about the racing one night, smoking as he gave a statement and offering himself up before she could try weasel some deal with a cop. The detective wrote it all down, but that was not their focus. He did not seem too interested in those as they were a thing of the past and he was already paying for the driving.
Walking towards him with my arms outstretched and reaching around his waist, I clung to him. “We got our boys back, baby.”
He offered me a smile, a gorgeous smile that reached his eyes. It was one I had not seen since he first heard they were not coming back here. “We got our boys back. We did indeed.”
Sleep did not come as fast as I hoped it would. I was exhausted and lying in Griffin's arms as he slept soundly beside me. I felt drained, emotionally and physically. A headache was starting to come on. My nerves were tense.
Beginning to worry, I laid there and felt sick. What if this does not go the way his lawyer promised? My stomach churned at the thought of Karen indeed striking a deal and getting off. Griffin’s parents could get involved. Maybe they would take her side.
Oh, god. My stomach rolled again, and I sat up with my hand clasping over my mouth. “Griffin.”
“Mmm?” he mumbled, rolling over to his side. “I’m not snoring.”
“No.” I felt sick with worry. “What if this all goes wrong? What if the judge… What if you go to jail?” God, that was a real possibility. He could go to prison for his racing.
He turned the bedside lamp on, but I was already out of bed and rushing to the bathroom. I broke into cold sweat with tears in my eyes as I fell to my knees and threw up hard.
“Ayla.”
I felt a hand slowly rubbing against my lower back, but I could not talk. I just threw up again. I was afraid of losing him. I could not lose this man.
I turned around as I wiped my chin and mouth with the back of my hand and shook my head. “I can’t live without you.”
Crouching down, he sighed and pulled me onto his lap. I was a sick mess, yet he was not bothered. True love right here. “Pretty, you’re not going to lose me. We’re going to be just fine. I promise.”
“I’m scared.
“Me too. Me too, Ayla.”
A hot shower and I felt somewhat better, but the queasiness did not ease up until the next morning when the phone call came in, and Griffin pulled me aside. We had gotten immediate full custody, and Karen was being charged with numerous child abuse offences. She had failed to provide a safe environment for them. After the police took her into custody, they searched her home and found traces of ice and other drugs throughout the house.
The next step was to tell the boys that they would not be going back home with her. They were with us indefinitely and completely with the custody finalised. We would tell them after Griffin comes to terms with everything that had happened this past evening.
“Do you want to go away?” I suggested. Maybe that camping trip could help.
“I feel like getting back into the tattoo chair.”
“Let me tattoo something on you?” I suggested, really wanting to have a go at it.
He cocked his brow, smirking. “I don’t want a flower or something girly.”
I laughed, flicking him with the tea towel. “No, silly. I’ll make it cool.”
“Cool, huh?” He seemed to think about it. “Alright, then. I’ll set the gun up later today, and you can give me some ink. Where do you want to work on me?”
A glanced at his groin, and he shook his head. I laughed. “Kidding. Maybe on your wrist? Under your watch band?”
“Ah, I know what you’re going to put on there.”
“My name.” I nodded.
“I’ve already got that over my heart. Why do you want it there too?”
“Baby, if I could, I’d have my name all over your body for the world to see.” I would, too.
***
After breakfast dishes, I took another shower as my headache had come back on. It was driving me mad. I felt like death and put it down to the night of stress we had endured. In other words, I was blaming Karen for the hell my head was in right now.
Drying off, I pulled open my draw to moisturise my face and glanced at the blue box. It was taunting me. Pee on me, and you’ll see you’re not pregnant, it seemed to say just like last month and the month before that. I don’t know why I could not just wait until I was like a month late. Call it eagerness, but I pulled out the Clearblue pregnancy box and unwrapped the two sticks inside. I did not trust the normal tests. I needed to read the word pregnant or not pregnant. Otherwise, I would just be searching for two little lines that weren’t there but my mind was imagining.
I waited and waited, and then the word flashed up on the screen.
My heart dropped as did the tests in my hand. Quickly tossing the box in the bottom of the small bin, I took the tests and shoved them in my underwear drawer, not wanting Griffin to see that I craved and took them.
All three of them were playing on the Xbox One when I found them in Toby’s room. “Are you boys hungry for some lunch?”
“Dad said we can go out and get a huge burger.”
I smiled, leaning against the door. “Oh, yum. Can I join or is this a boys only lunch?”
“You can come. Mum’s the exception.” Mack smiled warmly.
“Hmm, I don’t know. Maybe I want to spend the day at home playing the Xbox once you all leave. I could totally beat your high scores.”
All three looked at me mortified. “No, please don’t!” Toby begged.
“Yes, not again!” Mack groaned.
Griffin laughed. “Yeah, you erased like twenty gig of saved games. They’ve only just got back to where you erased it all.”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “I didn’t erase anything. It asked me if I wanted to format the device. How was I meant to know that it’d delete it all?”
“Formatting is erasing, Mum.” Toby laughed, rolling onto his back and cracking up at me hysterically.
I pretended to be annoyed and scrunched my face up. “Fine. I won’t touch anything. I’m coming with you now. Screw your boy’s trip out. I’m tagging along, and you can watch me kiss your dad in public.”
“Eww. Gross.”
I just laughed. They made me smile so freaking hard at times.
***
Lunch was amazing and delicious. We had a great time. I did not know why, but when Griffin gave me that look, I had to wonder why on earth he was going to tell them about their mother here—in public and over lunch. Maybe because they looked so happy.
“I need to tell you boys something. Just don’t go screaming at us or anything, okay?”
Then I realised he was doing it in public because he was nervous. He worried that they would not be happy about this new move and that they would probably hate him. I reached over, squeezing his thigh to give him support.
They looked at us, and Toby frowned. “You’re not breaking up, are you?”
“God, no. He can’t get rid of me that easily.” I snorted. “Like I’d ever leave your dad, anyway. He’s got lots of money.”
Griffin laughed, shaking his head. “Thanks, Ayla. Glad to know that’s the big thing you like most about me.”
“Not the only big thing I love,” I whispered with my hand playfully moving closer to his groin region. He stopped me by taking my hand in his and lifting it, placing a kiss.
“Your mother has been arrested. There’s a good chance she’s going to jail,” he told them in a shaky voice.
All humour was gone. Mack just looked at him. “How long for?”
“No less than five years. There were some other things that has become known, and she’s in a lot of trouble.” Drugs. “She didn’t fight the charges and has admitted to everything.”
Toby nodded, picking up his burger. “I don’t want to see her ever again. I hate the bitch.”
Griffin sighed. “You can’t say that.”
“Me, too!” Mack added. “I don’t want to go anywhere near her again.”
“Do we get to stay with you still?” Toby asked as if that part had not been made clear.
I reached over with my free hand and squeezed his forearm gently. “Of course, you are. We wouldn’t have you live anywhere else.”
“Ayla’s right. It’s just going to be the four of us from now on.” Griffin assured them but then seemed to realise his choice of words. “No matter what, you boys will always have a home here with us. If you don’t want to see her again, then I won’t push you to do so. It’s your choice, but at home, we have rules and expect you to follow them. Ayla’s not going to be pushed around, and you have to treat her—”
“Dad, we know this already.” Toby rolled his eyes. “She’s our mum. We love her.”
“Duh.” Mack retorted.
I could not help but get in on it too. “Yeah, Griffin, duh.”
“Cheeky,” he leant in, ignoring the boy's groans of displeasure at the sight of us having a quick kiss. It was nothing over the top, but it definitely left me wanting more. That would come later once the boys are in bed and fast asleep… after I give him the best tattoo he would ever receive.
***
Griffin sat back down on the sofa in the shed after cleaning himself up as I straddled his lap again, taking hold of his hand tighter and getting a firmer grip on him. The gun was in my other hand, and I felt nervous but excited.
“You know, we could have done this when you were riding my cock.”
“I wouldn’t be able to focus.” I smiled, trying to concentrate as his fingers slipped into the fabric of my panties. “Stop it.”
“Like you told me to stop it half an hour ago? You begged for it.” His voice was once again husky.
I pried his hand away from slipping into my underwear. “Stop it. You distracted me.”
“I could distract you once again,” he said, trying to pout. “Fine, I give up, but I want you afterwards. You’re really sexy holding that in your hand.”
I raised a brow. “Hmm, that’s exactly what I thought when you first inked me. Maybe that’s why I slept with you again.”
He laughed as he leant forwards and kissed my nose. “Thanks pretty. I love you, too.”
“Close your eyes.” I urged him. “I need to focus, please.”
He smiled an adorable grin but complied with my request. “Don’t you dare draw a cock in there.”
I laughed. “We’ll, there goes my surprise.” One eye opened, and he just shook his head. “Don’t worry. I’m not. It’s not going to say Ayla, though.”
“No?” He seemed confused, and I just shrugged. I could not ruin the surprise.
The ink hit his skin, and of course, he faked a huge scream which scared me and almost had me falling off his lap. I could have injured us both with that. My heartbeat returned to normal once he promised to never do that again.
It took me a little longer. I was scared to go in too deep and hit some vein. He had told me about that once—blood everywhere and a man passed out on his floor. Not the image I would enjoy having in our shed.
“Okay. It’s finished now.” I set the gun back and admired my work of art on his left wrist.
Opening his eyes up, he lifted his wrist up and looked at it.
1+1=3
He stared at with a confused expression, scanning his eyes over the letters I had inked there. “I don’t get it. Isn’t it meant to be two? Not three?”
My smile did not falter. “Griffin, think about it. Really think about it. In this room, there’s you, me and…” I lingered the huge hint in the air for him.
His eyes widened, and his mouth parted in a half-smile as he darted those blue orbs of his between us, directly on my stomach. “No…” I almost did not hear his gasp.
“Yes.”
“Say it,” he begged in a soft, pleading whisper.
“Best tattoo ever,” I said through laughter.
Glaring at me, his hands slid to my hips and held me tight. “Yes, but not what I meant. Say it, Ayla.”
“I’m pregnant.”