Page 125 of Road to Redemption

As a smirk pulled at my lips, Caleb and Abi came hurtling past with their own dirty plates, nearly knocking my heap from my hands with a gangly elbow.

“Sorry, Kiera!” Abi called back as they dumped their plates in the sink.

Spencer shot her a warning glance from her spot at the counter but didn’t say a word; she’d already contacted Abi’s school, but she was still on hold with Caleb’s guidance counselor. There was a lot to get in order for the next few days.

It wasn’t that the kids were trying to make a mess — clearly, Spencer had instilled manners in them from a very young age — but the practical skills didn’t always match their level of effort.

It’s fine. We can work on that after the dust settles on the whole Bill thing. They’ve got enough going on for now.

While I got busy wiping a stray smear of syrup from the doorway, Abi and Caleb bounded past, already on the hunt for new ways to pester Dom.

“Ohhh Dommmmm!” Abi called down the hallway. “You’d better watch out!”

“I’m not home,” Dom replied from the dining room, earning a cacophony of giggles as Abi sprinted into the room to get her.

Not ten seconds later, Dom’s faux cries of agony echoed down the hall.

“Sounds like she might need some back up,” I mused as I set my stack of dishes on top of Leo’s. “Why don’t you get out there?”

“Are you sure?” Leo eyed the mess. “I don’t want to leave you alone to clean all of this up.”

“I won’t be alone. Spence is here. Plus, the kids probably need to have some fun today, and I don’t know them nearly as well as you do.”

“If you’re sure,” she nodded, giving me a kiss on top of my head. “Just call if you need me.”

“Will do, Doctor,” I smirked, pulling a set of rubber gloves from the drawer by the sink.

Plugging the drain, I ran the hot tap to fill the sink, pressing two pumps of soap into the mix to ease off the grime. Once it was close to full, I shut off the water, grabbed the brush, and started scrubbing the muck off of each dish before slotting it into the dishwasher.

From her stool, Spencer frowned, drumming her fingers against the counter. “Leave it, I can do that.”

“I’m already doing it. You’ve got enough on your plate, anyway.”

“You shouldn’t be cleaning up all of this mess though. Here—” but as soon as she stood to stand, a voice murmured from her phone. The guidance counselor.

She sat back down with a huff before unmuting her phone. “Hi Mrs. Donaldson, how are you doing today? Uh-huh, yeah, I bet.”

I could only hear one end of the conversation, but it was clear from her easy, familiar tone that Spencer had been putting in the work with the kids’ schools for months if not years. They didn’t just know who she was — they trusted her.

In the other room, I could catch glimpses of Dom and Leo entertaining the kids. Before breakfast, Abi had asked to borrow some nail polish from me, and she was hard at work making sure that everyone left the dining room with a manicure.

Meanwhile Caleb was hanging close to Dom’s side, muttering quietly about comic books and old cars while Abi had at their hands.

Good, they don’t need to worry about these logistics…

“Yeah,” Spencer forced a smile. “I’m just calling to give you a heads up that he won’t be in for a few days. I already faxed in a doctor’s note to the main office, but I know that there’s a lot going on with graduation, and I didn’t want him to miss out on… No yeah, he’s okay. Just a bit under the weather. Thank you for asking.”

There was a lot that went unspoken in the exchange. I was willing to bet that if the school didn’t already know it, that Caleb’s hospital stay a few months ago had given them a pretty clear idea of what his home life was like. And I’m sure they were more than happy to bend a few rules to let Spencer step in to help.

Listening in on the phone call, I was both impressed and saddened by just how much Spencer had to juggle. The fact that she managed to keep such a good attitude through all of it was a miracle.

She shouldn’t have to carry all of it with a smile, though.

All I wanted to do was to make all of it better. But short of that, the most I could do was to try to take care of Spencer, to give her a bit of relief from constantly looking after everyone else.

The dishes are a start.

Despite the chaos that they introduced to the house, it was genuinely nice to have the kids around. For one thing, it brought out the nurturing side of my captors in a different context than I was used to.