Bohwanox looked at Hector. ‘If you have something to say, then say it.’
He held his tongue. It didn’t sit well with him, but Hector already knew where their priorities lay. Even if Bohwanox were willing, Colt would surely not want to leave his children behind to go fight in some war with an enemy he’d never met. And for that, at least, Hector could not fault him.
Garovel picked up the conversation, first looking at the children, then at Colt. ‘I’ve been meaning to ask--where is their mother?’
Colt took his time answering. “She’s in an institution for the criminally insane.”
Hector blinked at that. He noticed the reapers exchange glances.
“And now you’re wondering why,” said Colt. “It’s because she tried to kill the children.”
“...W-why would she do that?”
“Doctors said the pregnancy made her snap, but I don’t know. She had always been violent with me. I just put up with it. And that was obviously a mistake, because one night, she decided to grab a knife. Attacked me first, then moved on to the crib. She managed to cut Thomas under the arm here.” Colt pulled the boy’s shirt up, revealing a scar along the right side of his ribcage. It was not a small scar. “I just about killed that bitch.”
Hector could only stare, mouth half-open.
“It went to court. My case didn’t play very well to the jury. I did beat the shit out of her, after all. Wasn’t hard for her to make it look like I was the one who cut Thomas.”
Everyone just listened.
“She was about to get full custody. I was about to go to prison. And that’s when Rofal showed up, telling me he could make sure I won the case.” Colt’s eyes fell to the table, and he scratched his forehead. “I’m still not sure how much of it he’d planned. He had her lawyer and the judge in his pocket. I suspected members of the jury, too.”
‘And then he quietly got a hold of your children?’ Garovel asked.
Colt nodded. He seemed like he was done talking. He merely watched Stephanie play with his thumb.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
300th page. You may recall
ReplyDeletethat on the 150th page, I said that I would up the word count by 25 each
time the story progressed another 150 pages. Welp. I was not lying.
Each page will be 325 words from now on.
Thanks for reading, all.
Hold on -- Rofal had LEGAL CUSTODY of the children? What kind of fucked up society is that? A known crime boss gets custody over a cop's children and nobody notices a conflict of interest there?
ReplyDeleteOr maybe I'm getting it wrong and everything was hush-hush. Rofal made Mrs. Colt lose the case, and in exchange made Colt hand over the children. Doesn't change the fact that at least the judge knew that Rofal now had leverage over Colt.
Also, I very much approve of the higher word count. :)
Don't work yourself to death though. The reapers have enough to do already.
Woo! That means more to read! :D
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to it. This is such a wonderful story. Dark, obviously, but I like this kind of story. And you write it so skillfully. ^w^
Rofal leveraged the case in Colt's favor and then quietly kept the children. I suppose I should make sure that's clear.
ReplyDelete<3
ReplyDelete:I
ReplyDeleteIt was all done on porpoise >=D
ReplyDeleteAh I didn't expect the issue with the twins' mom but I assumed something like that had happened with the Rofal Family
ReplyDelete300th page. You may recall that on the 150th page, I said that I would up the word count by 25 each time the story progressed another 150 pages. Welp. I was not lying. Each page will be 325 words from now on.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, all.