"Auntie Chloe, Auntie Chloe!" Lou kept shouting until Chloe looked up at her smiling face. "Is ok." She said as she gave her a hug. Making her momentarily stop crying.
"What's ok Lou? Nothing about this situation is ok." Chloe asked but to no response as Lou got up and went over and kissed her mum on the cheek. She looked like a little angel at that moment. Dressed in her yellow nightgown with her hair-sopping wet from Chloe's tears and her very mangled elephant dangling from one hand. Chloe smiled and pulled her back towards her just as the heart monitor stopped. The beeps that before this had been constant and reassuring, a sign that everything was ok but now there was just a long, singular note that got into every corner of Chloe's body and made her shudder. Lou looked up at her with questions in her bright blue eyes. She asked what was going on, why was she upset and where was mum in one single look.
"It's ok, Lou." She told her as she stroked the hair out of her eyes and kissed her gently on the forehead. "Everything's going to be all right." And she actually believed it until she heard Sean's voice- bursting through her happiness like it was an old balloon.
"Come on Lou." He said: holding out his hand to her. "Let's take you home." He smiled a smile that didn't reach his eyes and left him looking hollow- almost dead. He wasn't crying and he didn't appear at all upset he just seemed shocked and disbelieving of what he'd just seen happen. He wanted to just ignore it all: pretend it never happened.
"You're not taking her any where with you." Chloe said in what she hoped was calm, level voice that showed no emotion. She didn't want him to know how much she hated him, how upset and angry she was with him. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he'd ruined another life, that she'd spend the rest of her days waking up screaming in the middle of the night because of what he'd done.
"Why not Chloe, she is my daughter." His voice was calm, dangerously calm and his eyes were locked with hers, un-blinking and un-feeling: as cold as he was.
"She may be your daughter but you are never going to see her again. You don’t deserve to." Chloe knew he was just playing games with her, winding her up to see who would snap first. She knew she should just walk away and not say anything to him. Rise above it and just leave but she couldn’t. He'd ruined so many lives, done so much damage that was permanent that she wanted to win: just this once she wanted to beat him.
"Why don’t I deserve to see her? I'm her dad, I love her, and I have more rights than you will ever have." Still the games went on.
"No Sean. That's where you're wrong. You gave up all parental rights to her the first time you hit her mother." Shaun looked away. Just for a second he was speechless- hurt by what she'd said. She'd won and he knew it. She grabbed Lou's hand and headed off towards the car. She got out of the building as quickly as she could, not daring to look behind her because she knew he'd be coming after her. She began to run as soon as she got outside, picking Lou up and running as fast as she could to try and get away from him and towards the airport. She knew how fast he could run and was just hoping that something or someone was going to get in his way: She hoped that the bad guy couldn’t really win. As she got to the car she put Lou down, taking out her keys she quickly bundled her into the back seat and ran around to get in the drivers seat. AS she started the engine she saw Sean come running up to the car, she locked the doors as he began to hammer on the windows, he was out of breath but still shouting and screaming. She reversed as fast as she could without driving into anything around her and then drove off. Once she got out of the parking space she got up the courage to look in the mirror and to her horror she saw him just getting into his car and getting ready to speed after her.
The journey there was a nightmare: it was like one of those car chases out of the movies that are exciting to watch but terrifying to be in. And when you're watching it at home you can rest safe in the knowledge that in the end the good guys will always win: good triumphing over evil and all that. But here she didn’t know the rules. First she was in front with him on her tail down a narrow country lane with no streetlights and Lou screaming her head off that she wanted to go home. Then they were on the open motorway: constantly looking around to see where he'd disappeared to, sometimes he would be right behind her and then he would be in front and then he drove right up beside her and when he caught her eye she was so shocked that she nearly lost control of the car. Once they got off the motorway she turned into the airport car park and managed to get Lou and the bag out of the car before she even saw him. He drove round the corner like a mad man and practically ran them down as they tried to cross the road. He abandoned the car at the edge of the road and got out. Chloe was walking quickly towards the airport entrance- trying to stay calm and not worry Lou. A few meters from the doors though she felt someone grab her arm and stop her walking, she struggled momentarily but he held her tight and she stopped, realising that it was pointless.
"What do you want?" She asked, turning to face him.
"I want my daughter back." He stated simply as Chloe tightened her grip on Lou's hand.
"Well you can't have her." Chloe said as the anger began to show in her voice
"I don’t need your permission to care for my own child." He shouted.
"Yes you do! Do you really think Tina would want you to look after her? She was leaving you for god's sake!"
"Well Tina's dead so it doesn’t matter anymore."
"Yes and who killed her?" Chloe asked, her eyes flashing.
"I'm not letting you take her." He said quietly. Chloe thought about this for a moment, she knew she couldn’t just take Lou away from him, even if it was the right thing to do, he was her father and did have parental rights. Suddenly she had an idea.
"Fine. Sean, you take her if that's what you want and then I can go straight to the police and tell them all about how you murdered Tina and then you'll go to prison and I'll get custody of her any way."
"You wouldn't." He said, shock in his voice that Chloe would even think that way.
"Or," Chloe continued "You could let me and Lou walk out of you life forever and you can leave a free man. Go about your life as if nothing ever happened, do your job, maybe even get married again." She smiled a small smile: knowing that he was going to have to let them go. He was selfish to the core and if it meant that he got out of trouble he wouldn’t care who her lost in the process.
"You can't make me choose between my child and my freedom, Chloe, that's not fair."
"Sean, there's nothing fair about what you did to Tina. This is justice. You could have another child, do your job and get on with your life. Don’t you think that's a slightly better idea than me bringing Lou to see you ever so often when you get visiting rights?"
"Ok, I'll do it."
"Good, now I wont hesitate to phone the police if you ever come any where near either of us again. They never close un-solved murders you know." He nodded and she let out a sigh of relief. So glad that Sean had decided to do the right thing for the first time in his life. She nodded at him in a way of a goodbye and turned and walked towards the check in desk.
When she'd finally got through all the formalities she found herself out of breath and very tearful. She was worn out by the day's activities and so glad that it was nearly over. She sat down against the wall and felt the tears pour down her cheeks: tears of relief and sorrow.
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