Chapter Four

My dad didn't say anything to me as we got out in front of the house.

And he didn't say anything as we walked up to the door.

He maintained his silence as he shut the door behind us and followed me through the hallway.

Maybe he's too mad to speak? I thought to myself.

This is working. My subconscious encouraged me.

I walked into the kitchen and my mum was sitting on one of the bar stools waiting.

She looked relieved when she first saw me, but her relief quickly turned to fury.

"Theodore Raymond Grey, what time do you call this?!" She demanded.

I glanced at the clock on the wall. Say it.

"10:45." I replied coolly, shrugging my shoulders.

She stared at me for a moment, shocked at my response.

My dad was walking past me as I spoke and that stopped him in his tracks. He turned to face me.

"Do you think this is funny?!" He spluttered, clearly outraged at my answer.

"Was I laughing?" I asked innocently.

I looked from one to the other, waiting for someone to say something. They both just stared at me, obviously lost for words.

"I'm going to go to bed." I muttered, turning towards the stairs.

"No you're not. You're going to come here, sit down and explain yourself." My mother said stiffly.

My dad looked like he was about to explode. Maybe he's going to hit me?

Come on, I dare you. I thought maliciously, staring back at him.

"Christian, why don't you go and make sure Phoebe is asleep, I'll deal with this." My mother said softly.

Dad looked at her in disbelief. But whatever he saw in her face made him reconsider.

"Fine." He grumbled, he headed for the stairs shaking his head as he went.

I stayed where I was.

"Come and sit down." My mum said gently.

"Do I have to?" I replied uncomfortably.

"Yes." She replied firmly.

I walked slowly over to the seat beside her, and sat down swivelling to face her. I kept my eyes down, staring at the kitchen counter.

"Look at me." She demanded softly.

I rolled my eyes, but grudgingly complied.

I thought she was going to be angry, but all I saw in her eyes was hurt and confusion.

"What's going on Teddy?" She said softly. "Does this have something to do with whatever happened this afternoon?" She prompted.

Uh Oh.

"Nothing's going on." I replied shrugging my shoulders. "I lost track of time, I don't see the big deal."

She stared at me, and for a moment it was like she could see right through me. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"We had no idea where you were. You weren't answering your phone. Anything could have happened to you." She whispered, I could hear the worry and panic in her voice.

Shit. This really isn't going to plan.

I didn't want to deal with tearful, worried, sympathetic mum. I wanted angry, selfish, so mad-he-may-hit-me dad.

"But nothing DID happened. I'm FINE. Jesus Christ, can I go to bed now?" I asked, the frustration I felt clearly evident in my voice.

She stared at me for a moment longer.

"This isn't going to happen again Teddy." She said firmly. "Is it?"

"Nope." I answered quickly, jumping off the stool and turning towards the stairs.

"Teddy?"

I rolled my eyes again and turned slowly to face her. "What?"

She looked like she was about to say something else, but changed her mind and instead she sighed "Good-night."

"Night." I said hastily, hurrying towards the stairs and taking them two at a time.

I shut the door to my room quietly and collapsed onto my bed.

Well…that worked. My subconscious sneered sarcastically at me.

I let it go. This was only the beginning…they just didn't know it yet.

Christian POV

Ana walked in shaking her head.

"How did it go?" I asked gently as she crawled into bed next to me.

"I don't know what's going on." She whispered. "This is so unlike him."

"I know…And that attitude!" I exclaimed quietly. "Where did that come from?!"

Ana shook her head. "It was like all the years of puberty hit him in 1 night! Did something happen this afternoon?" She asked suddenly.

That threw me for a second. "This afternoon?"

"Yes, right before I came in to tell you about the phone call with the Kate. When I walked down the hallway, I found Teddy just standing there, staring at your door." She frowned.

I tried to think back. Did I even talk to him yesterday? I'd been so busy the last couple of weeks trying to finalise a deal with a shipping company in South Korea. I hadn't been paying much attention…

"Oh, he came in to ask me if I could help him with his homework." I recalled suddenly. "I told him I was busy and said he should go and ask you."

Ana stared at me blankly.

"What?" I asked.

"You were talking and laughing with Phoebe when I came in." She reminded me.

"Yes…" I said, not understanding her point.

"So you're too busy to help your son with his homework…but not too busy to have a conversation with your daughter?" She questioned incredulously.

I frowned as I thought about that for a second.

Phoebe reminded me so much of Mia. No one was ever too busy for her. She had everyone wrapped around her little finger, me especially.

But I loved my children equally. And I treated them equally….didn't I?

"I never looked at it like that." I said honestly and the sudden rush of guilt I felt wounded me.

Ana sighed heavily, "Well at least we know where this sudden onset of teenage rebellion is coming from."

"You reckon that's it?" I asked doubtfully. "Just because I couldn't help him with his homework?"

"I'm sure it's not the first time that's happened in the last few weeks…am I right?" She asked raising her eyebrows.

"I've been busy." I explained. It sounded like a poor excuse as it left my lips. It was a poor excuse.

"I know you've been busy love, I know how hard you've been working to secure this deal. But.."

"I should never be too busy for my family." I finished for her.

She was right, this was all my fault.

I rubbed my face with my hands and then ran them through my hair and shook my head.

"I'm a bad father." I said quietly. The words tore through my heart and brought a lump to my throat.

"No!" Ana whispered loudly, grabbing my hand as she did so. "You're an amazing father. Teddy and Phoebe love and adore you. You just got distracted the last few weeks. But now you know what went wrong, you can fix it."

"How do I fix it?" I pleaded quietly, "What do I do?"

Ana smiled at me and brought my hand to her lips. She kissed it softly and said. "You'll figure it out."

She had such faith in me. But in that moment I had no faith in myself. I'd hurt my son. The one thing I swore I'd never do. I promised him, when he was a tiny baby in my arms in the hospital and Ana lay sleeping beside us. I told him I would always love and protect him and make sure he never wanted for anything. But I'd broken that promise. All he wanted was my attention, and I had denied him that.

"What if he doesn't forgive me?" I pondered out loud.

"He will." Ana assured me, "He loves you, and Phoebe loves you, and I love you." She leaned over and kissed my cheek.

I sighed out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. "And I you, Ana."

"So what do we do about this sudden onset of teenage rebellion?" Ana asked thoughtfully.

"Let it happen." I answered simply.

"You think?" She asked doubtfully.

"I've been there." I assured her. "It's not the behaviour you need to address, it's the reasons behind the behaviour."

"All those therapy sessions finally being put to good use," Ana laughed, crossing her arms and smiling at me.

"What?" I finally asked when she continued to stare at me, smiling.

"Nothing." She said, "Just you." She leaned over and switched off her bedside lamp, then pulled the covers up over herself.

I smiled down at her, shaking my head. "If we give him positive attention but ignore the bad behaviour… He's such a good kid, eventually he'll realise that whatever he's trying to do isn't the best way to go about it."

"See, you know what you're doing." Ana said as she snuggled closer to me. "Everyone makes mistakes Christian. So long as you learn from them, everything will work itself out."

She closed her eyes and I watched as her breathing slowed. It had been a long time since I'd watched Ana sleep, it used to be one of my favourite past times. I sat there a while thinking to myself about how best to go about my plan. The contracts were going to be signed tomorrow and the negotiations finalised so that would no longer be a problem.

I got up from the bed gently, careful not to jostle my sleeping wife. I left the room and walked down the hall to Teddy's door. I opened it slowly, careful not to make a sound.

I took a step into the room, his light was still on but he was sprawled on the bed, fully clothed, shoes still on. His arm was draped over his eyes and he was fast asleep. I shook my head, walked over and took his shoes off gently, pulled the covers up over him and switched off his light.

I stood watching him for a moment. When did he get so grown up? It all happened so fast, it feels like only yesterday that his mother and I were standing here looking into his crib as he slept soundly.

"Oh Teddy Bear," I breathed. "I'm so sorry, I promise I'll make it up to you."

I closed his door silently and headed back to my room, checking on Phoebe as I went. She looked more and more like her mother every day.

As I lay down in bed a few minutes later, and turned out the light, I couldn't help the smile that crept across my face.

Teddy probably thinks this new change of attitude is some kind of genius masterful plan to teach me a lesson. God I love that kid.

Thank goodness he doesn't know what I was like at fifteen…

Bring it on kid, you obviously don't know who you're playing with.

Hey Guys!

See?! Christians not a bad guy!

Don't you remember how you were at fifteen?...I do haha

Please send me a review, I love reading them xx