DISCLAIMER – You know the drill. The usual – I own nothing.

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Ryan listened to the empty ringing on the other send of the phone. It was late, but he knew that he had to call Theresa, right now. He had a feeling she would still be awake, drinking, smoking. As long as she was at home. It had been ringing for about four minutes and still no one had picked up. He breathed heavily, praying that Theresa would answer. "Come on...Pick up...Please..." he muttered. She had to be home. What about Chrissie? His heart pounded as he thought about his young, beautiful daughter. Had he been hoping for too much to leave her and Theresa alone? Finally the other end of the line clicked, and a small, sleepy voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Chrissie?" Ryan asked, shocked. It was almost eleven o'clock at night. What was she doing up?

"Oh," she yawned loudly. "Hi Daddy,"

"Sweetie," said Ryan. "What are you doing up so late?"

Chrissie breathed out deeply and sleepily, and answered, "I wasn't. I was asleep. But the phone was ringing and it wouldn't stop, so I answered it."

"Chrissie," asked Ryan. "Where's mummy?"

"I dunno." Chrissie said simply.

"You...You don't know? What do you mean baby?" he asked.

"She put me to bed and said that she was going out. I think she was going out to drink daddy. Or she might have been to see Sean..."

"Sean? Sweetie, who's Sean?" asked Ryan, struggling to keep his breathing calm.

"Her friend." Chrissie told him. "He came over last night, and him and mummy were drinking lots of wine in the kitchen. Then they went into the bedroom to talk."

"Talk?"

"That's what mummy told me. Then she gave me the sleeping medicine so I would go to sleep, and when I woke up the next morning Sean was gone." Her voice was tired and small, and Ryan realised that she truly had no idea what was happening. She yawned again.

"OK baby." Ryan said, his breathing get heavier as he tried to control his angry voice, his heart pounding in his chest. "You go back to bed now, OK? When mummy comes back, you tell her to call me, OK, at the hotel. Can you do that?"

"Uhuh," came the sleepy reply.

"OK, thank you Chrissie. And your mum shouldn't leave you by yourself, OK? If she ever tries to do that again, you call me, or you call your Grandma, kay?"

"Kay, daddy."

"OK sweetie. Night Chrissie, I love you."

"Love you too daddy, night."

"Night honey..." Ryan said, as his daughter hung up the phone.

As soon as Ryan knew Chrissie could no longer hear her, he threw down the phone, cursing bitterly. Theresa was cheating on him...That didn't anger him so much, as he remembered with a twang of regret what he had done with Marissa...But she was doing it in their own house, while her daughter was there; she had lied to her daughter, who trusted her so much, who still loved her after everything she had done to their family. She had gone out drinking, she had left her seven-year-old child at home, alone. She had gone too far. This was all starting to seem strangely familiar...a drunk mother who was never home, who never noticed her children...sleeping with strange men...Lies. Ryan remembered it all. He remembered how he had trusted his mother when he was young, when she said she would stop drinking and take care of him, he had believed it. He'd been so afraid for her, all those times he had knelt over her cold body after she collapsed on the floor. His childhood had been taken away from him; nights spent worrying about his mother, hearing his brother have sex in the room next to him, hardly bothering to hide his moans, buying drugs for his mother on the street, sneaking over to Theresa's house to have sex when they were thirteen, just to see if it was as good as it seemed. He had never been a child. And he didn't want the same thing to happen to Chrissie. This time, he was in a situation that he had the power to control.

He wouldn't let history repeat itself.