Chapter 6

Rhea had sent her brother to wait in the car and then bombarded her partner with a volley of ferocious tearful punches. Simon could barely defend himself and Rhea shouted abuse at her cowering boyfriend.

"What the fuck have you blown thirty grand on in twelve months? I'm homeless. My daughter, our daughter is homeless. We are bankrupt. What the fuck have you done, Si?"

Simon stared at her blankly and bit his lip. "I've been stupid," he muttered and Rhea swelled furiously.

"We lose the house and all I get is 'I've been stupid.' I fucking know you've been stupid. How fucking stupid?"

"I can't explain it..." Simon stammered, tears streaming down his face.

Rhea clenched her fists and then grabbed her boyfriend by the shoulders throwing him back on the sofa. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a hunting knife holding it above his throat. "Tell me."

"Rhea, please put that down," Simon frantically begged and Rhea snorted.

"Tell me," she yelled firmly and the cold blade touched his skin. "Is it other women?"

Simon nodded and closed his eyes waiting for the white-hot pain Rhea was about to inflict but it didn't come.

"How many?"

Simon stammered again and Rhea gripped the knife firmly. Simon saw the fierce look in his lover's eyes and her flushed cheeks and was terrified. Rhea was not known for controlling her temper. "A few."

"Who?"

"People from work. Hookers."

"Hookers? You spent thirty grand on hookers?" Rhea screamed and moved the weapon above his face. Simon's eyes focused on the knife above him and then Rhea, who had tears running down her face and dripping off her chin.

"When was the last time?" Rhea screeched and Simon hesitated. "Fucking tell me," she yelled slapping her boyfriend across the cheek as hard as she could.

"Yesterday."

"Yesterday! How much of our money did you blow, Si?"

Simon hesitated again and Rhea raised her hand but Simon confessed before she could strike him. "Seven hundred."

Rhea climbed off of him and looked at him shocked. "Seven hundred pounds. You had all the sex you could want at home. Why?"

Simon shrugged and wiped his eyes. "She whips me," he murmured and Rhea howled. How could Simon do this to her? And Izzy? "But Rhea, please..."

Rhea didn't wait for him to finish. She punched him, hard, in his solar plexus and tearfully ran out of the room to plunge the knife into the front wheel of their battered motor, and then jumped in to the waiting car of her brother.

"Go," she shouted, her face soaked with her tears and the knife waving in front of her. A startled Andy put the car into gear and was about to pull out of the car parking space when Simon sprawled himself over the bonnet.

"Don't go Rhea. Don't go. Please. I'll change. Don't go," he wailed.

"Drive," Rhea said calmly. "Just kill the fucker."

"Rhea?"

"Go," she yelled, tears streaming down her face. "I never want to see him again."

Andy revved the engine, and Simon went to the passenger window.

"Rhea," he called but his partner ignored him and tearfully made the journey to Andy's house in silence.

"You still holding onto me?" Izzy squealed as Andy pushed her on her bike across his back garden. He had removed her stabilisers and she was nervous about riding her bike without them as she was scared of falling off (the same logic was not applied to her climbing the large tree at the end of his drive.)

"Yes, I've got you," Andy reassured his niece as she pedalled off away from him. His pocket vibrated and he retrieved his phone, just as Izzy cycled around the small cherry tree at the end of his garden and she saw that he was not supporting her.

"Look. I'm doing it by myself," she yelled as she whizzed past her uncle.

"Hello Zoe," Andy said into his phone and Rhea, watching her daughter play in the garden while worrying about her predicament, pricked up her ears. She had not spoken to Simon, and had put her phone on silent in the drawer, but this did not stop Simon ringing eighty times during the night and leaving twelve voicemail messages – none of which she had listened to. She had resisted the urge to phone her phone company and request a new number, her brain wanted to but her heart told her not to.

"Is Rhea there?" Zoe asked and Andy muttered that she was in the house. "How is she?"

"Coping. She keeps staring into space and crying. She was throwing up this morning."

"Well that's natural Andy, she has just had a shock."

Andy snorted. "Well anyway, she is utterly miserable but won't admit it."

"Do you blame her? Simon told me everything last night. Even stuff he didn't tell Rhea. You know, Rhea is good to have got rid of him, he isn't the same person who was my brother. I just don't understand him any more 'cause he's changed in the last year."

"You mean, just like John?" Andy asked, referring to her youngest brother who was currently nearing the end of a prison sentence. Zoe went quiet for a moment and then agreed. The trial of her brother had hit her hard a couple of years ago but before she could reply, the phone shot out of Andy's hands and Rhea put it to her ear.

"Zoe?" Rhea asked and the phone went silent for a moment.

"Rhea. How are you?"

Rhea groaned and spoke in an abrupt tone. "I'll live. What's up?" Zoe paused again and when she didn't answer, Rhea continued. "I suppose I should ask how Simon is?"

"He's broken Rhea, utterly broken. But it is his own fault," Zoe told her. "He is staying at our house for a couple of days."

"I do need to see him and tell him something," Rhea finally admitted. "And I want to tell him, not him hear it from other people."

"Do you want to speak to him?"

"No. I want to kill him," Rhea replied calmly and sighed. "I'll come 'round later if Andy will give me a lift."

"I'll let him know." Rhea passed the phone back to Andy and wandered back to the house, almost tripping over her wobbly daughter.

"Stay in the car with Izzy," Rhea demanded of Andy as she got out of his car. Rhea knocked sharply on Zoe's front door, who let her in and they embraced. "He is in the garden."

"Cheers," she murmured, her voice devoid of emotion. Rhea spun round to face Zoe. "Look, I might be a bitch with Si over the next few days and weeks but I promise I'll do what's right in the long-run. OK?"

"He deserves everything he gets. You'll get no complaints from me whatever you do," Zoe replied and Rhea wiped her eyes.

"I, um, I have so many conflicting emotions, but in the end what Izzy needs has to come first."

Zoe nodded, and wiped a tear from her eye. "OK," she replied softly and Rhea walked through their small semi-detached house and onto the patio. Her partner was sat on the wall looking down the garden and she had to suppress an urge to kick him off of it. Ezra scratched himself on a garden chair and took a sip of his drink as Zoe walked past Rhea to sit next to him.

"Si," Rhea called out, her voice still cold and passionless and he spun around.

"Rhea, I'm so, so..."

"Shut up," Rhea barked dismissively and he looked at the ground, his facing dropping.

"My daughter, well our daughter is outside in the car with Andy. Please go and say goodbye," she told him and he stared at her.

"You can't stop me from seeing my own daughter."

"Oh, I am going to make your life so difficult," Rhea promised in a low voice, her fists clenched. "Maybe you screwing all those women was worth it. Worth losing a family for."

Simon buried his face in his hands and wailed. "I'm sorry Rhea. Please don't do this to Izzy."

Rhea breathed in deeply and clenched her fists. "Do this to Izzy? She is homeless thanks to you. You really are a selfish bastard, aren't you?"

"But..."

"Shut up! I'm going to see the bank tomorrow and then my solicitor to relinquish my stake in the flat and ask for it to be sold. Andy reckons that we are in negative equity so we will still owe lots but I will be suing you. And the CSA will be on the line as well."

Simon shrugged. "They are shutting the store so I have no income."

"That's your problem not mine," Rhea replied cruelly.

"Rhea please can we just do this..." Simon bawled and burst into tears. "I don't want to lose you."

Rhea puffed incredulously. "The moment you put your sick little games above me and your daughter you lost us. Oh, and one more thing, while you were out fucking our life up with your perversions, you also managed to get me pregnant."

"Oh congratulations," Ezra replied cheerfully. "Are we doing some sort celebration or..." He trailed off as Zoe gave him an exasperated expression. "Oh shit, yeah, sorry. I think. Sort of ... I'll go and check on Andy."

"Rhea, that's ... well surely we can try..."

"Not in a million years Si. And no I don't want to be carrying your baby and no I don't want to bring a child into a broken home."

Simon looked at Rhea and then Zoe open-mouthed. "No Rhea. Please not an abortion. Please."

Rhea sneered at her partner. "Are you going to see our daughter?" She hesitated as he shook his head, pleading with her to keep their baby, but she turned on her heels and left.

"Rhea. Rhea--," he cried after her but she was gone.

"Hey babe," the stocky Ezra cooed as his wife blew him a kiss from the bedroom door. Simon was sleeping on the sofa in their small terraced house and although she didn't want him to hear their sex, it was inevitable if they were to keep to the "schedule."

The "schedule," as originally devised by a fertility specialist at the Hospital, while delighting most men was leaving Ezra decidedly weary. He had been at a leaving dinner for a gentleman from work a few days ago, had had more than a couple of beers to drink, walked home and climbed into bed, completely shattered, only to be woken by an irate Zoe demanding a deposit of semen.

She had aggressively reminded him, during their intercourse, that alcohol reduces sperm count and his choice of underwear (Y-fronts) was not acceptable, as this also reduced his fertility. Ezra found it increasingly difficult to "perform" as Zoe passionlessly shouted at him and they had emotionless sex. After he had managed to squirt waves of his baby-making juice inside her, she confiscated all of his underwear so he could be commando and told him he was to be teetotal until she was knocked up.