Unplugged (Blue Phoenix, #3)(78)

“Ella?” Liam asks.

“Daddy says you’re not very nice, but I think you are because you make Mummy happy,” she replies.

I choke back the tears I promised I’d hide, aware how this is hurting Liam further. “You know Liam is a nice man.”

“Yeah, because he took her to f-ucking Disneyland!” snarls Craig.

“No! Jesus, Craig, do you think Ella only likes Liam because of what he can buy her?”

Liam quietly persuades Ella to climb off my lap. We exchange a look and I nod to indicate I’m okay to talk. I don’t want Ella in the room.

“This was the whole point of mediation. Why the hell did you do this?” I hiss as soon as the door clicks closed.

“Because you were taking her from me!”

“I was not! You got to see her more than you deserved; we were sorting this out properly.” I scrub an annoying tear escaping down my cheek. “Now I don’t think I’ll ever trust you with Ella!”

Craig buries his hands into the pocket of his green board shorts and stares at his shoes.

Rising, I approach Craig. “I want to take her home. Please.”

“No.”

I make an exasperated noise. “Craig, Liam has lawyers on this; please do this willingly or things will get out of control.”

“Don’t make me run further then.”

The air is punched from my lungs as easily as if he’d slugged me himself. “No. You wouldn’t...”

“She’s mine,” he growls. “My daughter.”

Stepping back, I rake my hands into my hair. “She’s not a possession. She doesn’t belong to you!”

“You’re not taking her!” he shouts.

My brave anger retreats by the minute. When Craig decides to do something, he will, and I have no doubt he intends to follow through.

“She wants to go home! You can’t keep her here!”

“Call the f-ucking police! I don’t care; we’ll go before they get here.”

“Craig, please!”

I’m in hell. I came to Italy to find my daughter, to reason with this man and failed. Did I expect him to hand her over? Be contrite? Craig doesn’t care about anyone else. Everything I’ve held in today breaks through the levy and I stumble to the sofa, gripping the arm as bile stings my throat.

“You’re a shit mother anyway.”

Before I comprehend what’s happening, Liam is in the room with us. He seizes Craig around the throat and slams him against the wall, and I wince at the sound of Craig’s head hitting the plaster.

“Don’t talk to Cerys like that or I’ll make sure you can’t walk out of this f-ucking room!” yells Liam, his nose almost touching Craig’s.

“Get the f-uck off me!”

“We’re taking Ella. Where’s her passport?”

Craig pulls at Liam’s fingers but Liam presses him harder into the wall. “Give me her f-ucking passport!”

“I can’t do anything with your hands around my f-ucking throat!” gasps Craig.

Liam loosens his grip and steps back, blocking Craig’s way out of the corner.

“Who the f-uck do you think you are?” says Craig, rubbing his neck.

“Someone who cares more about Ella than you do.”

“Bullshit! I love my daughter. My daughter.”

Craig stumbles back as Liam moves toward him again. “What? So this is love, what you did? Taking her from her mother and not letting Ella speak to her? Is that what a loving parent does? You’re the one talking bullshit.”

I ready myself to intervene. This Liam scares me, the anger coming off him in waves. I know Liam’s hidden intentions toward Craig and his refusal to cooperate with Liam isn’t helping. The longer this goes on the more worried I am that Liam’s going to hurt Craig badly.

“I’m protecting her,” says Craig over Liam’s shoulder to me. “He’ll hurt you, both of you. Look at him! He can’t control himself.”

“Oh, you have no f-ucking idea, mate,” says Liam, loosening his grip slightly.

“Liam wouldn’t hurt us!” I retort.

Despite dropping his physical grip on Craig, Liam’s face remains close. “I will never hurt Ella or Cerys. The day I met your daughter, I met a lost little girl, unhappy because her dad had kicked her out at Christmas. So you’re not exactly father of the year, are you?”

“And you are? Once you’ve had your fun and you go back to your rich and famous lifestyle and dump her,” says Craig, pushing Liam away.

“That’s not it. You’re worried about the opposite. You think Liam will replace you. You said that you were worried we’d move away!” I retort.

Craig snorts. “Jesus, Cerys, I’m not as delusional as you. Don’t you see? This would never work. Sure, you might move away and be with him a while, but he’ll drop you like a hot brick when he realises you’re not worth the hassle. I’m trying to protect her from that.”

His words are rewarded with a shove in his chest as Liam smacks him against the wall again. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Oh, right? So you’re going to marry an average, single woman with a kid and live happily ever after in your Hollywood mansion?” says Craig with a laugh.