Ex-Husband

"Are you excited for tomorrow?" Mare asked the kids seated in the back of the car, talking about how their day went.

"Yess!!" Helia squealed excitedly.

"We can finally go to the same school!" Vesper was excited, but he was bouncing like Helia on the seat.

"And play together!" The girl beamed at him.

The relationship between them hasn't changed from a year ago when they first met apart from becoming best friends. Vesper went to the kindergarten in the west while Helia, the east. They often played together after school at either's house because of what happened previously.

They both graduated kindergarten weeks ago and were getting ready to go to the only primary school in the neighbourhood.

"Helia, stop bouncing." Mare looked at her daughter through the driving mirror and focused back on the road. The two pairs of mother and child went to park together on Aura's day off but since she received an urgent call, she went back and Mare was taking back the kids to her own house until Aura was done.

"Are we going to have dinner with aunti and Vesper?" The girl calmed down and asked once they reached the familiar road to their house.

"Yes." The mum answered and the conversation between the two kids resumed. Mare eyed at the two every now and then to see them giggling and gesturing for something she couldn't understand.

"We are here." Mare parked the car and let the kids remove their seat belts and jump out.

"Mummy, keys!" Her daughter held her tiny hands out.

"Here." The moment Mare handed the keys, her phone rang. Someone was calling her. "Make sure you put away your shoes and wash your hands!" She told the kids, rushing inside the house before picking up the call.

"Hi, Mare." The voice of a woman that was too familiar for Mare spoke first.

"Hey, Aura. You are done with work?" Mare smiled at her neighbour passing by.

"Yeah... No. Not exactly." Aura sounded tired and, most of all was somewhere quiet. She was whispering.

"What happened." Mare felt that something was off and went back into the car to get some privacy. She recalled how Aura acted when she picked up the phone. She first said it was from an unknown number but when she heard the voice over the phone, she immediately turned rigid and walked away from the kids saying it was a work thing. When she came back, she felt like she was in a panic but nevertheless didn't say anything and rushed off. Mare felt like there was something more into that but didn't think to question that.

"Are the kids around you?" Aura then asked quietly. She sounded cautious. She didn't want the kids to listen to the conversation she was going to have.

"No."

"Good. I don't want them to hear this." Aura composed herself once again to continue talking. "I- I didn't slip out because of work." She confessed as she closed her eyes.

"I somehow guessed that." Right then, Mare saw Helia and Vesper coming out of the house. She was about to stop them when she saw them carrying a small bucket and a shovel. They were going to build a sandcastle in the garden.

"Oh." The red-haired woman took a deep breath before talking. "It was my ex husband."

"What the heck?! Didn't you say that you changed everything?!" Mare almost honked the car in surprise.

"I don't know how he got my number." Mare could hear her friend breathing heavily. "He told me if I didn't meet him now, he will show himself to Vesper. I couldn't let that happen."

"What did he demand?" Helia waved her hands to her mother in the car when she noticed she had been stared at. Her mother waved back with a weird smile. She was still talking on the phone.

"He wanted to get back with us but I don't trust him. I told him that and he said at least hand over the custody of Vesper."

"Mummy, look what we built!" Helia opened the driver's seat suddenly and scared the s*it out of her mother. She was too short to be seen by Mare. "Did you see a zombie?"

"No. No, you just scared me, Helia." The mother put the phone on her shoulder as all mothers do and replied, "I'll see that once I am done with this."

"Okey dokey." Helia nodded her head and closed the door. She ran to tell her friend and continued to build another one.

"Are you with him now?" Mare asked once she was sure her daughter wouldn't come back.

"No. I asked him to give me time."

"You are not considering this, are you?!"

"Of course not! I know what kind of a man he is. Not gonna fool me twice." Aura sounded determined and finally in a completely quiet place. "I want Vesper to forget about him. I want him out of our lives."

"Have you reported to the police?"

"I just did." Aura got in her own small car and locked it before she slumped herself on the seat. "He already knows which kindergarten Vesper went to, my new workplace, everything apart from our house."

"How'd you know?"

"Because he spilt. He told me he could come and pick up Vesper if he wanted to. And how I look when I come to my workplace. F*ck..."

Mare nodded silently. "Why don't you stay with us for a few weeks until the police solve this. You don't want him to find your house, right? You guys are always welcome."

Aura broke down when she heard the kind words of Mare. She didn't have her parents or siblings to help her but now, she had Mare. Someone who always had her back and supported her.

"You come and stay with us, tonight. I think the kids will be happy to hear that and we can drop them off to first day of school."

"Thank you, Mare. Thank you." Aura wiped her tears and spoke to the woman on the other side.

"No worries. Tell me when you reach the house. I'll help you with whatever that needs to be done with your house."

"That wouldn't be necessary... And I don't you leaving the kids alone."

"They won't be alone," Mare answered subtly to lighten up the mood. "Neo is here. I'll ask him to watch the kids while I'm gone." Neo Knight was her husband.

"Okay. Thank you, Mare. I'll call you once I'm in the neighbourhood." Aura hung up the phone and started the engine. She made sure her ex-husband, Kaison Ford, wasn't following her. She'd done the same thing when she took the road from the restaurant they met to the police station.

It took additional thirty minutes to get back home for Aura but she was just glad that no one was following her. Mare was already waiting for her with her car since they had many things to take to Mare's house.

Mare just came to embrace her friend tightly before showing her smile that was passed on to her daughter. "Lets get this done before the sun goes down, right?"

"Yep."

Only a streak of sunlight was visible in the sky when they were done. Aura locked every window and two doors securely and made sure she didn't forget anything in the house.

"I don't think Neo is preparing dinner so let's hurry." Mare chuckled and stepped on the pedal after Aura strapped herself with a seatbelt.

The journey was short and when they reached Knights' house, they saw a delivery man taking off with his motorcycle. It was clear that Neo ordered something for dinner.

"Hey, Mare. Hi Aura. Welcome." A man with dark skin smiled warmly. Both his hair and beards were trimmed perfectly and the beard was not able to cover his dimples when he spoke. He wore a navy blue light sweater with beige jeans. He looked like an elite businessman like he was.

"Hi. Thank you, Neo. For letting the both of us stay." Aura looked like she was about to cry again but held it in.

"No worries. We help each other in need, right?" He once again smiled and showed off his adorable dimples intentionally or not.

"Mummy!"

"Mummy." The kids heard the voices of their mother and ran out of the house.

"Helia, could you help mummy carry this?" Mare patted her daughter's head and gave the bag containing vegetables.

"Okay!" The small girl took off to the house and came back within a minute. She was energetic. "Next one!"

Then the two kids began competing who can carry the most. Then came back and forth with giggles and laughs.

"Neo, what did you order?" Mare asked as she took out the last things from the car and locked the door.

"Hey, don't blame me. The kids said that it was pre-celebration for getting into school. You know how I'm always not at home. I couldn't refuse them. Only this once, babe. Please?" Neo took the bag from his wife's hand and asked her.

"Fine." Mare was always weak to that face. And her daughter had taken after the father.

"Yey." Neo opened the door for the two ladies and made sure to put a padlock after checking everyone was in the house.

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"Where do you want to sleep, young man?" Mare asked the boy when they were ready to sleep.

"I want to sleep with mummy but... I want to sleep with Helia too."

"He-hey. This man is going to grow up as a womanizer, eh?" Neo smirked when he heard the boy's answer.

"Neo!" The wife turned around to see her husband scurry away to their daughter. "Don't mind him, hon."

"Young man, I'm not giving you my daughter." Neo once again spoke from beside Helia who was already dozing off ms ice cream bear.

"Mn." Vesper looked at his toes for a while. "I'll sleep with mummy. And then tomorrow, I sleep with Helia."

"Wise choice." Mare nodded and let the other mother take her son to sleep. The same went for Neo and Helia.

Neo and Mare waited for Aura while they talked.

"Wine?" The man asked but his wife's friend shook her head. "I know a very good lawyer for this type of thing. Do you want to bring it to the court?"

"Yes. Vesper may need a father but he's not the one we need." Aura spoke with determination in her eyes.

"Good. I'll contact him now." Neo left and came back later after an hour with the number of the lawyer and the address. "I'm not a night person. Ladies have a great night." He kissed his wife's cheek and went to their room.

"We are doing this together." Mare held her friend's hand tightly, matching her determination levels of Aura.

"Yes, we are." Aura nodded back. Looked back at the bunch of numbers on a small piece of paper she held in her hand. She took her first step to escape from her nightmare.