Disclaimer: See previous chapter… lol

The Noble Fight

Chapter Two;
The Cold Shoulder

She sat at the kitchen table, her elbows on the table and her chin resting on her fingers, watching him as he came in. It was well after 9pm and Oscar was tucked up in bed, but Millie sat at the table, coffee cup in front of her, just waiting. He dropped his keys on the table before her and slid off his jacket, just waiting for her to say something. But she didn't, just judging him with her cold, silent stare. He sighed. "I'm assuming you want an explanation."

"That would be nice." She returned, her tone just as cold as her look.

"It was work." She frowned, standing up and putting her cup in the sink, her back turned to him more out of choice than necessity. "Look, I'm sorry but y…"

"No, Max, I don't want to hear it." She turned back to him, leaning on the counter with her arms crossed over her chest, frowning at him. "It's always work. I asked you for one day off and you couldn't even give us an hour."

"I saw someone at the park." Max admitted. "Someone I had to look up."

"And it had to be done straightaway?" He nodded and she looked away. "Fine, so, who was it then?"

"No one you'd know." He closed up, turning and walking away from her.

Millie followed. "There's something you're not telling me, I know it." She caught his arm and he stopped, glancing back at her. "Talk to me."

"It's not important." He shrugged her grip off and she scowled.

"But it's important enough to desert us? Is that what you want me to tell the girls at preschool? You embarrassed me."

"I don't care what the girls at preschool think." Max snapped, not accepting why she couldn't just leave him to what he did best and trust his judgement.

"Of course you don't because, as I always expected, you're all about work."

Max stopped his walk away from her. "What are you saying?" He frowned back at her.

"I'm saying you think yourself above my friends. Above the people important to me and Oscar." Max frowned. "No, don't pretend you have no idea what I'm talking about. You couldn't even manage one day."

"I had work." He turned away again.

"You love work more than you love me and Oscar." She snapped.

Max looked back at her with a frown, staring her down. "That's what you think?" She nodded. "Fine." He covered the distance between them with threatening steps and invaded her personal space. "You want to convince my son I'm a bad father?"

"Our son." Millie returned, her voice as emotionless as she could manage.

"He gets it from his grandmother, why not you as well? Tell him what he gets all the time – his father doesn't care, his father doesn't want him, his father is the bad guy every bloody t…"

"Daddy?" The little voice at the top of the stairs made the pair look up, right into the eyes of two-year-old Oscar. He was dressed in his duck pyjamas, looking tiny even from their angle, and he smiled at the sight of his father. "Why did you go today daddy?"

"Daddy had to go to work." Millie spoke with more venom than Max had ever heard from her. Oscar was too young to notice the tone as Max looked at her, glaring daggers. She didn't even flinch, just giving him a cold smile before looking back at her son. "You should go back to bed sweetheart, it's late."

"I want daddy to read me a story." Oscar pointed at Max as if they weren't certain of whom he was talking about.

"Sure, go pick one and I'll be up in a minute." Max smiled and Oscar ran off with a grin. He looked back at Millie to find her watching him, chewing her bottom lip. "After I read him a story, I'll take the lounge. Maybe it's for the best."

"Maybe." Millie agreed. She sighed then met his eye. "I'm not going to make him hate you, ever."

"I know." Max pushed a stray hair behind her ear then kissed her forehead. "Night."

"Night." With a sad smile she watched him ascend the stairs then headed to the linen cupboard to get him a pillow and a blanket for the lounge.