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“I’m sorry, Nick. I won’t do it again. I promise. Please don’t hit me again.” She struggles to stand up straight.
Which is when his fist comes crashing against her jaw. The blow sends Dani sprawling across the island.
“Mom!” Tyler cries, running into the room and rushing to his mother’s side. “Stop!” he yells at his father. “What are you doing? Stop!”
“It’s okay, possum,” Dani says. “Go back to your room. It’s okay.”
“Stop hitting Mommy!” Tyler screams at his father. “Get away from her!”
“Go back upstairs, Goldilocks,” Nick orders, as Ben enters the kitchen. “Both of you.”
“Look at the fish!” Ben shouts.
Instinctively, all eyes turn toward the fishbowls, the glass of one having been pushed up against the glass of the other during the fracas. The two fish are now fully engorged and flailing against the glass at each other.
“Neptune!” Tyler cries, flinging himself toward the bowl.
“Leave the goddamn fish alone!” Nick shouts, grabbing his son by the collar of his pajama top to stop him as Tyler kicks at his father’s legs.
“It’s okay, sweetie,” Dani tells her son. “I’ll move the bowls.”
“I said, leave the goddamn fish alone!” Gripping his son’s collar in one hand, Nick moves to the island and sends the fishbowl flying to the floor with the back of the other. Glass shards shoot in all directions as water gushes from the bowl and the fish flops between jagged pieces of glass along the tile floor.
“Neptune!” Tyler breaks free of his father and scoops his fish into the palms of his hands as Ben stands there, wide-eyed. “Help me. He needs water.”
“I’ll get it,” Dani says.
“Goddamn, son of a bitch,” Nick mutters, marching from the room.
Her hands shaking, Dani fills a glass bowl with warm water and Tyler gingerly drops the fish inside.
“Is he gonna be all right?” Tyler asks. “Is he bleeding?”
“He’s not bleedin’. He’ll be fine. See? He’s swimmin’ around, all happy.” Dani looks toward her younger son, seemingly frozen to the spot. “Oh, honey-pie. Are you okay?” She kneels down and takes him in her arms.
“Your face is bleeding.”
“It’s nothin’. Just a little scratch.”
“What did you do to make Daddy so mad?” Ben asks.
Dani collapses on the floor. “Oh God,” she says, the force of her son’s words stronger than any blow to the head. “I didn’t do nothin’, darlin’. Your daddy was just a little upset….”
“Trying to turn my sons against me now, are you?” Nick says, reentering the room.
Dani gasps when she sees the .22 in his right hand. “Nick…”
“It wasn’t enough you poisoned the neighbors against me. Now you’re trying to do the same thing with our boys.”
Dani scrambles to her feet. “Please put the gun away, Nick. You’re scarin’ them.”
Nick’s gaze vacillates between Ben and Tyler. “I’m not scaring them. Well, maybe Goldilocks here a little bit. But not Ben. You’re not scared, are you, Benny-boy?”
Ben shakes his head, although his eyes remain frozen wide with terror.
“You go back upstairs now,” Nick tells his sons. “Mommy and I have some unfinished business to take care of.”
“I’m not leaving Mommy,” Tyler says.
