‘I want Mimi to be allowed outside in the grounds.’
?
‘I can’t believe it.’
Blaire sighs, runs a hand through her black hair, wavy curls that sit in a face shaping bob.‘You really never noticed?’
‘It rains all the fucking time in Varrow.I just thought…’ He trails off, didn’t really give it much thought, truth be told.Even now, he can’t quite accept it.‘She’sbeenoutside, though, right?She has to have been outside.’
‘No,’ Blaire corrects, ‘she hasn’t.Clara even requested it, but Mr Penhalyx insisted that if ventilation was sufficient and there was plenty of sunshine in the playroom, then that was good enough.She’s not allowed to leave the Estate even just for the grounds.When Jules tried to take her out, he was punished.’
‘How was he punished?’he asks in a barren whisper.
‘I wasn’t here for it, but Clara told me he was put on strict lockdown.’
‘I’m calling him.’
‘That’s a mistake.’
If it was anyone else, he’d ignore the warning, but he trusts Blaire as much as he trusts anyone, on par with Carrigan and maybe above at this point, so he stops in his tracks, rubs his eyes.‘She needssunshine.She needs fresh air, fucking hell, she’s a little kid!’he barks at no one who deserves it.Penhalyx deserves it.He deserves a nail gun in the face except he’s nothere, it’s just Lachlan and staff and Jules and the little girl he… loves.
LachlanlovesMimi, despite trying not to, since the day he carried her around when she got sick.He wants her to have sunshine, mud, flowers and bees, to see a real rainbow.
Never been outside… he can’t fathom it.
Blaire surveys him worriedly.‘When was the last time you took a day off?’
He can’t remember.‘I need to plan for the party.’
‘You should go spend time with your family.Take a day.’
‘No, you don’t underst—’
‘This is ajob,’she says, rising to stand.‘Take the day.Get your head clear.Come back tomorrow and we’ll talk security.’
?
He takes a day off.
It’shideous.
Lachlan has paid his mother’s medical bills but still has a chunk of change leftover from hishazard pay.He could go anywhere, do anything, but he just wants to go back and be with the kids, make them safe, figure out awayto get that little girl into the natural world somehow.
Blaire is right.Carrigan is too.
It’s a job.He shouldn’t be this involved.
The worst part of it is that he knows Penhalyxwantedthis, deep down.
That Mimi is not onlyJules’kitten, but his.
Lachlan forces himself to drive to see his mother.It’s a mistake.He’s in a bad mood.The nurse who greets him at the door doesn’t recognise him.
When asked who he is, Lachlan is tempted to snap,I’m the one who pays you, but keeps cool and polite, says he’s Jocelyn’s son.
‘Oh, I thought you were serving overseas,’ the nurse says, smiling warmly anyway.‘Do you want some coffee?’
‘Uh, yes please.’The house is newly upgraded to help his mom with whatever she needs, less stress for Margot.‘How’s she been lately?’
