She looks just like her mother in some ways. Long, brown hair, where her sisters inherited my black hair, and blue eyes. Tess says that Katy makes up for not looking like me by acting as I do. She loves logic puzzles and can be withdrawn around strangers like I am. But she’s also Tess’ daughter, so that’s her saving grace. No need for Tess to use her skills as a children’s counsellor to help our kids.
Yet.
“Pumpkin,” I greet her, and swing her onto my lap. She squeals but knows if she interrupts me while I’m working the price will be cuddles.
She has a carrier bag in her hand, the contents of which thud against my shoulder.
“Daddy, we bought you a present!”
“I’m the one who gives presents around here,” I grumble.
It’s my favourite thing to do, spoil my kids and my wife. Trips abroad, books—Tess has turned all the kids into bookworms—and e-readers, computers, and toys. I have zero self-control.
I knew the kids would slot into that same place in my heart as Tess did, but I was shocked at how the feeling showed itself. I think having fallen in love with Tess, it was easier to recognise the sensation, and not fight it.
I suppose it’s natural. I felt bad about wanting to keep Tess because she was a girl almost half my age, and I’d kidnapped her. Our children, by contrast, I’ve never felt guilty about caring for them.
“Do you know that Halloween is soon, Daddy?” Katy asks.
“I may have heard about that,” I say dryly.
Our kids have decided Halloween is their favourite annual event. Tess says they inherited my love of scaring people.
“Well, Mummy took us shopping for costumes, and I saw something perfect for you, Daddy.” My little girl is gleeful, bouncing on my lap. She has a gap in her teeth where she’s lost a milk tooth, and it’s a bittersweet reminder she won’t be this age forever.
“That’s nice,” I say distractedly, thinking about whether I should check if it’s normal for a child not to have an adult tooth in that gap yet.
“Will you wear it on Halloween?” Katy demands.
“Of course.” Probably her teeth are fine. But she does eat a lot of sugar.
“Would you like to see the mask?” She brings the bag to her chest, bumping my arm as she does, and my brain finally clicks into what she’s saying.
A mask?
That’s, Uh…
“Mummy said we should wait until Halloween, but I want you to see it. I think you’ll like it!”
She’s so excited, that despite the sinking feeling in my stomach, I nod.
“I’m sure I will.”
“Look!” She pulls the mask out of the bag, and my heart stutters.
Because what else would it be?
“Mummy said you’d prefer blue, but I knew you’d like pink!”
It’s a black mask with glowing neon pink crossed-out eyes and a grinning mouth.
Almost exactly the same as the one in Tess and my bedroom upstairs, locked in a box that also holds our various adult toys.
The last time I wore that mask, I chased down Katy’s mother in the woods outside our house in the country with a baby monitor clipped to my back pocket. Then I held Tess down and fucked her, telling her that she was such a good, filthy girl for me. The time before, I was with two of the London Maths Club and we disposed of a man who Tess and I had tracked online for months.
But there is no way Katy has ever seen that mask.
“Do you like it, Daddy?” Katy asks earnestly.
