Page 48 of From Now On

He is not running away.

Family is hope, a future, love.

Not only, and not always genetics, but a choice.

Nina and Duke are his choice.

He couldn’t tell them that at the house because he doesn’t want to get their hopes up but he is going to London to meet with a solicitor he knows.

To find out where he stands.

Accidents happen. It’s what you do afterwards that counts.

This.

Thisis what Charlie is doing afterwards.

Fighting.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Duke

So, this morning had been awful. Terrible. Horrible.

Duke had come downstairs, and Aunt Violet had asked, ‘Have you done your homework?’

‘Yes,’ Duke had lied. He hadn’t been able to because, as it turns out, Mum telling him that being banker at Monopoly made him brilliant at maths wasn’t true at all. He didn’t understand prime numbers or factors or literally anything.

Duke had concentrated intently on tipping cornflakes into his bowl and Nina’s, flooding them with milk, hoping that was the end of the conversation.

It wasn’t.

‘How did you find it?’ Aunt Violet asked.

‘Fine,’ Duke had replied because, although she’d asked a question, he knew she didn’t really want to hear his answer. ‘Fine’ seemed to avoid her going off on one of her long speeches about how lucky he was to live here and go to school and how he didn’t know he was born, which was ridiculous, because if he hadn’t been born he wouldn’t be here, now, so of course he knew it. Fine seemed to be the word to use when you wanted to avoid a proper conversation.No wonder adults said it so much.

Surprisingly, she hadn’t said anything else though. Just stared out of the kitchen window with a faraway look in her eyes until the doorbell had rung. She’d bounced up and down on her toes a few times like boxers do before she’d strode down the hall.

It was Charlie! He wasn’t in New York!

Aunt Violet had bundled him and Nina out of the kitchen and closed the door although they had remained in the hallway, their ears pressed against the wood.

When Charlie had said he’d come to get the children, Nina had actually squeezed Duke’s hand so hard he’d pulled away and tried to give her a glare but she’d been smiling and then so was he.

They were going home!

Except they weren’t.

Aunt Violet said some stuff and Charlie didn’t say much at all.

Afterwards he had come out the kitchen and told them he was going back to London. Before Duke could ask any questions, Nina had dug her fingers into his arm and yanked him away.

Now, when they get outside, he pulls his arm away from Nina. ‘But we need to talk to Charlie, tell him that we want to live with him. He might change his mind and stay.’

‘He won’t change his mind. You heard him. He barely put up a fight. He’s only here to ease his conscience.’

‘He didn’t go to America. That has to mean something.’

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