Frayed Silk(74)

Fiona was arrested and has been denied bail. Her trial is coming up, and Leo’s agreed to testify against her as well as two of the other four males she’s assaulted in the past. One of them being Dylan’s—who’s now her ex-husband—former personal assistant. He came forward when Dylan tried to contact him several months ago. I haven’t seen her since that day Lola and I went over to her house, and I’m glad for it. I hope she rots in whatever jail she’s been thrown into. But I do feel terrible for her kids. They seem to be doing well, though. Dylan sold the house and downsized. He bought a new one down by the other side of the bay after he was granted full custody of Rupert and Henry when Fiona went to jail several months ago.

They’ve even come over to our place for playdates a few times, which is another reason I’m glad that Leo stuck it out with Dr. Tonks. But he seems to be able to look past it. He’s never treated them any differently, and as far as we know, the twins don’t know a thing about what their mother has done. Even though I know they probably wonder, I hope it stays that way for a long time to come.

Walking through the doors, Leo grabs a shopping cart, and we make our way through the aisles as I pull out my list that I’ve been adding to over the past month. Basically, every time Greta mentioned something, I wrote it down discreetly. Stepping onto my tippy toes, I grab a few of the Barbies that are on my list from the top shelf then keep walking until we get to the stuffed toys. I grab the ones with beady eyes that she wanted and throw them in, too. I keep going, almost getting everything on the list except for a toy baby.

“Does she really need all this shit?” Leo’s eyes widen as he stares into the cart.

“Of course, she does. She only turns eight once.”

I finally find it on an end display and check the box to make sure it’s the right one.

“Right.” He moves in behind me, his hands skating over my stomach and his lips going to my ear. “Just like she’ll only turn nine once then ten once …”

“Oh, be quiet.” I laugh.

He stops chuckling as he eyes the boxed doll I’m inspecting then tugs it from my hands and steps back to look at it. “What the fuck?”

“Leo.” I glance around, smiling an apology to an elderly lady who frowns at us.

“It poops, Lia. It fucking poops.”

I laugh again. “What do you expect? You can feed it, so it’s gotta come out, right?”

He glares at it like it’s the most offensive thing he’s ever seen. “Christ, it even has diapers …” he mutters disbelievingly to the box.

Rolling my eyes, I tell him, “Yeah, for the poop. Genius.”

“And it has a pacifier.” His eyes narrow. “Nope. Too damn realistic. You’ll put ideas in her head. It’s not the same as when she was three years old. It was cute then but scary now,” he says resolutely, and he places it back on the shelf.

My hand flies to my forehead as I rub it and beg for some kind of divine intervention. “Leo … it’s a doll.”

“For now. Next thing you know, she’ll be coming home from school and saying she’s got a boyfriend.” He scoffs. “Yeah, no thanks. Let’s go; she’s got enough shit in here.” He moves the cart down the aisle as I stand here, biting my lip to keep from blurting out that little Adam Davies from down the street seems to have already laid his claim on her. He writes her notes and puts scratch-and-sniff stickers on them, telling her she’ll marry him when they’re old enough to drive. Because you can’t get married without a car, he said. I laughed so hard that I almost cried. Then I tucked the note with the others in the keepsake box that I have for each of the kids. Well away from Leo’s eyes.

Reaching over, I quickly grab the doll and hold it behind my back, asking a staff member who’s walking by if they could please hold it for me until next week while Leo’s fiddling with some squishy ball down at the registers. She smiles warily and takes it from me after I warn her to wait until I’m gone. I join Leo just as he hands the lady at the register his Amex after she’s finished putting all the items through.

“We’re gonna need a bigger house if this keeps up,” he mutters while moving the cart back over to the store entrance.

“Our house is plenty big enough. How about we grab some coffee?” I ask in an effort to perk him up a bit. He nods, and we both grab some bags and walk them outside to the car, which is parked halfway down the street.

“Oh. Can we stop by the shelter quickly?” I need to give Glenda the bags of clothes I cleaned out of the kids wardrobes, and I won’t be in until later this week. Now, I go in to help on Fridays, and thankfully, no one asked much about why I’d been gone or about the change.

Leo nods, and we both put the bags of toys in the car before making our way over to the other side of the city where the women’s shelter is located. Pulling up outside it, I quickly grab the bags of clothes from the trunk while Leo gets out and locks the car.

“Wait up,” he says.

Turning around, I furrow my brows as I see him jump up the curb. He grabs the bags from me, holding the door open with his backside and waiting until I walk in ahead of him before following. I think this is the first time he’s ever been in here, but I don’t say anything. I just smile at Glenda and introduce them both when she comes out the front. Leo hands the bags to her.