Gold Digger

Lottie

“Obviously, if violence is involved, we really need to see if we’re meeting Hayley’s needs because —”

“Who hurt my sister?” I said in a low, furious voice. Hayley squeezed my hand, and I looked down at her. She gave me a quick shake of her head, which only infuriated me further – that head shake meant, don’t bother, there’s no point . I clenched my teeth in frustration. Both Hayley’s knees were scraped, and she had a bruise blooming under her left eye.

“I don’t think that rehashing the specifics is really of any value. The other children involved are?—”

“Children?” my voice was rising now. “Multiple children attacked my sister?”

The head teacher shifted uncomfortably. “Well, the other children are also injured. I believe it was a playground dispute that escalated and?—”Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

“And how the hell would a playground dispute escalate or even start when my sister doesn’t speak ?” I was shouting now. I knew shouting was counterproductive, but I couldn’t help it – these people were supposed to keep Hayley safe. Playground dispute, my arse. Hayley had been targeted by bullies again. My chest constricted and I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe. Then I felt his hand on my back.

“Breathe, Lottie,” he murmured in my ear, and I felt my eyes sting but blinked the tears away.

“If we could keep this civilised,” the headteacher said, her mouth set in a disproving line. “There’s no need for raised voices.”

“But you’re not hearing me,” I said through my clenched teeth. “Hayley couldn’t have started a playground dispute – she doesn’t speak to the other kids. She’s being bullied. You’re supposed to keep her safe and you’re not doing it. You need to keep her safe.” My voice broke on the last few words which only made me angrier. I did not want to appear weak in front of these people. I needed them to listen to me.

“Miss Forest,” Hayley’s class teacher put in. “You have to understand, there are over thirty children in each class and?—”

“What is the SEN budget allocated for Hayley?” Ollie put in, his voice calm but firm.

When we first arrived at the school and saw Hayley, she ran to me and gave me a tight hug. Ollie’s furious expression as he looked down at us was so fierce I had thought he might lose his shit there and then. But by the time Hayley had pulled back and looked up at him he’d managed a tight smile for her as he smoothed her hair back from her tear-stained face. “Don’t you worry, stowaway,” he’d said, taking her hand in his. “We’ll sort this out.” Then we’d been led to the headteacher’s office by the form teacher and now he seemed to be the picture of calm.

“Er… I’m not?—”

He smiled a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Shall I remind you? Hayley has a SEN budget of six thousand a year. Where was her teaching assistant when this playground incident occurred?”

“She doesn’t have a teaching assistant.”

Ollie’s eyebrows went up in mock surprise. I had a feeling he knew very well that Hayley didn’t have a teaching assistant – something I’d been pushing for months. “What is the money being spent on then?”

The headteacher’s face started getting red. “We don’t allocate the budget on an individual basis. The money goes into a pot for the whole school, and we can use it according to need at the time.”

“Ah, I see, and when has Hayley had a ‘need at the time’, requiring any of the budget allocated to her to be spent on her? Has she had any additional input at all ? Anything above and beyond the other children to reflect the six thousand your school is given for that very purpose?”

“We are going wildly off the point here,” the headteacher snapped. “I don’t?—”

“It’s not fair; we know that,” the form teacher blurted out. “Hayley isn’t disruptive. She gets on with her work. She’s bright. She just…”

“Doesn’t speak,” Ollie said. “And because Hayley’s pain is silent, she doesn’t warrant the help that she has been deemed to need? In fact, I would hazard a guess that the money is actually being spent on the children who bullied Hayley today. Am I right?”

The form teacher looked to be on the verge of tears now, and the headteacher’s face had paled.

“Excuse me, Mr Harding, but I didn’t quite catch your relationship with?—”

“The correct way to address me is as Your Grace, and I’m engaged to Miss Forest. Both Lottie and Hayley are part of my family,” he said firmly. His voice lowered then, his next words vibrating with fury. “And nobody fucks with my family, Mrs Franklin.”

“Well, I don’t think there’s any need for that kind of language. I?—”

“My language is the least of your problems,” Ollie said. “I’m not sure what kind of shitshow you think you’re running here, where the level of supervision allows an eight-year-old girl to be beaten up by a group of children – and, as I understand it, this is not the first episode of bullying. But I am sure that OFSTED will be interested, and I’m also sure that Hayley will never enter this school or be under your care ever again. Good day.”

He swept both of us out of the office then, leaving Mrs Franklin and Miss Lever behind with open mouths. There were two boys and a girl outside the office, flanked by their parents. I was happy to see that at least one of the boys had a bloody nose. Good. Just like me, Hayley could be scrappy when pushed.

Ollie stopped in his tracks, focusing on the kids and his eyes narrowed. “You little shits ever bully another kid, and I will know. Understand me? I’ll know and I’ll rain hell down on you and your families.” His gaze snapped to the parents. “Control your children.”

We got into his town car in a complete daze. Hayley and I snuggled together on the backseat and Ollie took the one facing us, snapping at his driver to take us back to his home.

“You will never be hurt like that ever again,” he said to Hayley, his voice low and firm. “And if anyone even looks at you wrong, you come to me. Understand? Nobody fucks with us, Hayley. Nobody ever fucks with my family. Not for over five hundred years.”

I blinked at Ollie but kept my mouth shut. Hayley stared at him, and I knew she could feel the absolute certainty coming off him in waves. She tilted her head to the side and then she did something that made my world explode.

“Okay,” she said to Ollie with a firm nod. I stiffened, and my arm that was around her automatically tightened. Ollie’s eyes lit with intensity on hearing that one word from my sister, and he leaned forward to take both her hands in his.

“You understand, don’t you,” he said to her. “You and Lottie are my family.”

“Family,” Hayley repeated, and then she smiled. And it wasn’t one of her small smiles she used to placate me; no, this was a proper happy, teeth-showing beam.

“You’re a tough stowaway, aren’t you?” Ollie said, ruffling her hair. “I saw that little shit’s nose. You got your punches in too, huh?”

Hayley shrugged. “I kicked the other one in his privacies,” she said proudly. That explained why the other boy hadn’t been able to sit up straight.

“Good. I’m quite sure that his privacies deserved it,” he said firmly. “Well, you’ll both be having self-defence classes anyway. You can teach your sister some of your moves.” I rolled my eyes. “But that will just be a precaution. Florrie will kick any bully’s arse in your new school, so you don’t need to worry about bullying anymore. That girl rules the place.”

My eyes went wide and my mouth dropped open. Florrie went to a private school. An extremely exclusive private school. There was no possible way I could manage those fees yet. What was he doing? And promising that he was our family. He couldn’t do that either. It was cruel to do that to a child. Hayley and I weren’t his family. And both of us had had too many broken promises to have to deal with another one.

“Ollie, I don’t think?—”

“Later,” he said, glancing at Hayley then back to me. I pressed my lips together and gave him a curt nod.

When we returned to the house, Mrs H was there, and my resilient, brave Hayley was happy to skip off to the kitchen with her for cookies. In Hayley’s mind her hero had struck again, and it had only cemented her knowledge that we could rely on Ollie. Once we were alone, I let my anger and fear show.

“You can’t do that,” I snapped as I spun around to face him in the library. He crossed his arms over his broad chest and fixed me with a patient stare. Ugh, it was so unfair how attractive he was. His blue eyes were burning from his earlier fury, his muscles pulling his suit jacket taut.

“Do what?” he said, and his calm tone only ramped up my anger.

“Tell us we’re family. Build up Hayley’s hopes.”

“You are my family.”

“No, we’re not!” I said, my voice rising for the second time that morning, but I felt completely out of control. All I ever wanted to do was protect Hayley, but now I’d exposed her to the biggest risk of all. My eyes began to sting, but I was not going to cry in front of him. “It will break her, Ollie,” I said, no longer shouting but the unsteadiness in my voice was perhaps worse. His expression softened, and he uncrossed his arms as he came towards me, but I backed away, and he frowned.

“What will break her?” he asked in a soft voice.

“Losing you,” I managed to get out past the lump in my throat. “Losing you will break her heart. Last time her heart was broken she stopped speaking. What will happen next time? You have to take it back.”

He advanced then, ignoring my outstretched hand and pulling me into his chest. I resisted for a moment, but he was so solid against me, his arms so strong. “You have to take it back,” I repeated, even as I let myself sink into him, my hands coming up to grip the lapels of his jacket. One of his arms was wrapped around my back holding me up. The other pushed my hair back from my face at my temple and then kept stroking there.

“Everything’s going to be okay, darling,” he said, his voice heartbreakingly soft now.

“I can’t afford Florrie’s school,” I said into his chest.

“You won’t be paying for the school, Lottie,” he told me.

“What if she’s bullied there as well?”

He sighed. “I know private schools have bullying too. But this would be a fresh start for her, and Florrie would make sure she was okay. It’s a small school. She won’t get lost there. There are state schools with better SEN provision that would be great, but there’ll be waiting lists. This way, she can move immediately. And this is the school the Harding family attend. Hayley won’t be any different.”

“You can’t tell us we’re your family.” My voice broke as a rogue tear made it down my cheek.

“Yes, I can.” He pulled back slightly so that he could look into my eyes. The blue burning even more fiercely now as our gazes locked. “I’m not going to let you down, Lottie. I know that you and Hayley have been let down before. Too many fucking times. But I’m not going to do that. And my word means something. Listen, even if things don’t work out between us, which, if I have anything to do with it, they fucking well will, I wouldn’t abandon Hayley. I’d still be in her life.” My breath hitched.

“I want to believe you,” I whispered, and his arms tightened around me again.

“Then do it. I’m here. You just have to trust me.”

I closed my eyes as another tear fell. “They hurt her,” I said, my voice breaking again.

“Yes, they did,” he said, the fury from earlier leaking into his tone again. “But believe me, that’s the last fucking time anyone ever hurts either of you ever again.”