Chapter 3: Baby bear

"Get outta my way."

Peter stared at his wife, at the fire in her eyes, and, knowing how volatile she could be, felt his resolve weaken, but only for a moment. He knew that if he gave up now he would have lost his only chance at the life he so desperately wanted back.

"Not until you talk to me."

"We're way past talking," Carla laughed bitterly. "Now, move."

"No."

"Fine," she shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Carla began pushing the pram towards Peter, not slowing down as she neared him. Instead she manoeuvred the pram so that the wheels of the top-of-the-range all-terrain buggy she'd splashed out on ran straight over Peter's foot.

"Hit me with that thing as many times as you want," Peter declared. "But I'm not budging. Actually, keep going, I quite like it."

"You like it?"

"Yeah," he said with a smile, looking down at the baby lying in the pram who was staring up at him placidly with her soft brown eyes, eyes that she'd inherited from her father. "This is the closest I've ever been to my daughter. Carla, please," he focused his gaze on Carla now, working the magic of those eyes on her, a magic that Carla had never been able to resist. "Please let me know her, let her know me."

"I told you to get out!" Tina punctuated her demand with a hard shove into Rob's shoulder.

"Trust me," he replied, raising his hands in the air, a physical barrier between them. "We don't wanna be here any more than you want us here, but this is important. Five minutes and we're gone. Please."

"Fine," Tina relented with a sigh, crossing her arms across her chest and glancing up at the wall clock. "Your time starts now."

"Thank you," Rob said gratefully. "We're not actually here to see you."

"Who would," Tracy couldn't help but interject.

"Trace!" Rob flashed a harsh look at Tracy. "Sorry, Tina."

"Don't apologise to me," Tina shrugged. "She's your girlfriend."

"Wife, actually," Tracy couldn't help but smirk and raise her left hand in the air, proudly flashing her engagement and wedding rings.

"You really are a sucker for punishment marrying her," Tina scoffed, an amused smile playing on her lips. "So, if it's not me you want, who is it?"

"Peter."

"Is this some sort of joke?" Tina asked incredulously, all traces of her smile disappearing from her face in an instant.

"I don't joke when it comes to losers like Peter."

"Oi!" Tracy exclaimed indignantly. "Don't call my brother a loser."

"Okay, then, you tell me, Trace, what should I call a man who abandons his pregnant wife to run off with his bit on the side to live in this shi– shoebox?"

"I dunno," Tracy shrugged. "An idiot?"

"Fine, Peter's an idiot. You happy?"

"Oh my god," Tina murmured, glancing from Rob to Tracy and back again. "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

"Enough with the games," Tracy cried. "Just tell me when my brother will be back. Or, better still, where he is, then we can go meet him and not have to look at your miserable face any longer."

"I should've known, it's not just me he's lied to. I guess that makes me the idiot for trusting him."

"Tina…"

"Peter's not here," Tina explained. "I haven't seen him for months. I thought… I thought he'd chosen her and gone back home."

"Nice place," Peter observed as he followed Carla inside her flat, noting the high-end finishes and flashy interior design.

"Better than your pokey flat, that's for sure."

Peter watched Carla intently as she tossed her keys onto the kitchen counter and bent over the pram, reaching out and gently caressing their daughter's cheek.

"You always did want something better," he reflected. "Better than anything I could give you."

"I wanted it for us, for our family."

"I know."

"What do you want, Peter?" Carla asked abruptly, determined to maintain her composure and not stray too far into reminisces about her past with Peter.

"I want…" Peter picked up from the kitchen counter the teddy bear that Carla had been pondering earlier. "You got Mr Bear."

"Mr Bear?"

"Yeah," Peter said with a smile, holding up the teddy bear so that it was facing Carla and moving it's arm up and down as if it was waving at her. "Mr Bear. I bought him for… I don't even know what my own daughter's name is."

"You bought that bear?"

"It reminded me of the one you bought, do you remember? Not long after you told me you were pregnant."

"Of course I remember."

"So…" he nodded to where their daughter was lying in her pram. "What did you name her?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing? That's a weird name."

"You're not as funny as you think you are."

"Oh, come on, Carla, lighten up."

"Lighten up? Are you serious? You're telling me to lighten up when I've spent months of my pregnancy alone? When I had to give birth with Michelle as my birthing partner because my husband decided he'd rather be having a grand old time by the seaside with his… slapper."

"That's not true."

"Peter, please stop lying to me, for once in your life, and tell me the truth."

"You want the truth?"

"Please."

"The truth is… I didn't spend a single night with Tina in Portsmouth. I knew straight away I'd made a mistake. I knew before we left but… I didn't know how to stop it, everything was planned and Tina… Tina can be very determined."

"Don't you dare try and blame her for what you did."

"I'm not, I'm just trying to explain myself."

"Okay," Carla nodded. "Go on."

"By the time we got to Portsmouth, I knew without a doubt where I wanted to be, who I wanted to be with. And it wasn't Tina. It was my wife, it was you. Because I love you, Carla. I never stopped loving you."

"You loved me while you were in bed with Tina? Is that seriously what you're trying to tell me?"

"Deep down, yes."

"So where have you been? If you had this epiphany on day one. Hmm? You've been gone for months."

"I was, umm, I was ashamed of myself. And I was a coward. I didn't know how to come back, how to say I was wrong."

"Where were you?"

"I've been staying with a mate of mine, a sober mate from my AA group."

"You mean to say, you've been here all along? Here in Manchester?"

"I've been a fifteen, not even that, a ten minute walk away."

"Right," Carla shook her head in disbelief. "And now you think that you can just walk back in here like nothing ever happened? And what? Pick up where we left off?"

"Of course not, I know I'm going to have to earn back your trust."

"Trust?" Carla snorted with derision. "Peter, I will never ever trust you again. In fact, I don't ever want to see you again."

"Carla."

"Get out."

"Can we please talk about this?"

"Peter, you need to go. Right now."

"What about her," Peter pleaded. "What about our daughter? Doesn't she deserve a father?"

"A father?" Carla cried, rounding on Peter, shoving him, pushing him towards the door, out of her flat and, so she thought she wanted, out of her life. "You're no father to her! Being a father means sticking around! It means not taking the easy option! Not running away! Now, get out!"

"Fine, I'll go. But, Carla," he gripped onto her hand and refused to let go, no matter how much she tried to pull away. "I will be back. I will prove myself to you. To her. I will not give up on our family."