6. About a Wife

Mentor was already settled in bed. He picked up his phone from the nightstand and found Shilla's number.

After three rings, the call was picked. A baby voice came over the line.

"Heyyo?"

His eyebrow quirked and he smiled. That had to be Dexter, his two-year-old nephew.

"Hi, Dexter. It's Uncle Mentor. Can you give the phone to your mommy?"

"I don't have a uncle," the boy protested rather loudly.

A chuckle broke from his lips. "Yes, you do, sonny. I'm Mommy's brother."

The boy didn't reply to this and all Mentor heard was heavy breathing on the line. He started to wonder if he should cut the call or try calling his brother-in-law and he settled for the former, the latter being something he didn't look forward to doing.

As luck would have it, Shilla's voice came in the background. He heard her asking her son who he was speaking to. The boy blew a loud raspberry and giggled, and then Shilla's voice was speaking on the phone.

"Oh my God, Mentor. Sorry about that." She chuckled. "I can hardly wait for him to start pre-school too."

Her first son, Dustin, would be six now and had started elementary school last year.

"He said he didn't have an uncle."

Shilla didn't say anything at that. He heard her pop gum in her mouth and he knew was Shilla rolling her eyes and blowing a bubble because that was just so characteristic of her.

"Stop being petty," she said.

He noticed her voice was a bit off. Raspy. He shook his head, Shilla had gone back to smoking. Anyway, he had called for a different reason, he could scold her later.

"Queen said you called today," he stated. Then a feeling of suspicion combed at his heckles when his sister kept mute. "So?" he said, impatient.

"Are you going to keep ignoring my pleas?" Shilla started. "You know I'm right and you know I have Ilene's best interest at heart."

Slight anger made his pulse click higher. This was exactly the reason he tried to avoid conversation with his sister. And the same reason he had been wary of her since she started up three years ago. He was never going to give his daughter up, whether to a family member or not. The very thought made him want to puke blood. Maybe in a profound part of him, he was scared his defences would get porous and he'd have no choice but to give in.

"Do you really plan to raise the kid alone in that middle of nowhere?" Shilla continued. "Mentor, a kid her age needs a motherly figure to look up to, and since you've refused to remarry, I don't think there's any hope for that there.

"She told me she was starting elementary school next week, do you realise how stressful that's gonna be on you? If she's over here with me, she could attend Harsh's school and . . . I did raise her as a baby, after all

Mentor rubbed at his forehead. A peaking headache was forming between his eyes and it pounded something wicked in his skull. All these talks about Shilla taking his daughter usually caused it.

" Yes, I'm aware you raised her when she was a baby, thank you very much. But, that doesn't mean you can come take her just because you want to. If you feel entitled, you had better delete that feeling, Shilla. I'm not letting my daughter out of my sight.

"And you didn't have to rub it in about her starting school. If I could handle her on my own for the past five years, I don't see why not now. Have you heard of the word 'single-father'?"

Shilla sighed deeply into the phone. He could imagine her now pushing her gum around her mouth with her tongue. It was something she did when she couldn't have her way with a cause and was thinking deeply about the line of action to take next.

"Okay," she finally said. "What do you think about taking a vacation then?"

"Huh?" He was confused by the twist of conversation. If he didn't know his sister better, he'd say she really meant it at face value and had no ulterior motive.

"Yeah. You could come up here with Ilene for a few weeks. Who knows, you might meet the love of your life here and fall in love. I don't suppose you fancy anybody in that small town, seeing as you've married none."

A mixture of disgust and chagrin blended in him and churned his insides up. His jaw clenched and unclenched and he wished for something to hit. "What's with you and me getting married?" he spat out.

"Oh, don't be silly," Shilla berated. "It's more for your daughter's sake than your own sake." She hissed. "I could come over anytime you want. . . "

"I swear to God, if you come over again with one of your single friends to matchmake me with, I'm sending you back before you get to put your bags down."

"Tush," said Shilla. "You're having a storm in a teacup. I -"

"You know what, I don't even know why I stay long on these conversations with you. It's night here and I'm going to sleep." He pressed the red button and tossed the phone on the bed beside him. He combed his dark-blonde hair back from his head with his hands, trying to calm his orbiting pulse.

What right did Shilla have to interfere in his life?

He definitely didn't have time for women right now. And even if he did, he was keen on finding someone who would get along with his daughter, someone who actually liked his daughter and wasn't after his money or looks alone. Since that was what most of the ladies in Lucerne-Alpane were after, to his best knowledge.

The last time he had let himself get match-made by his friend Garth Mowman's wife he had almost fallen into believing the lady was alright. That was until he caught her threatening his cheeky three-year-old kid.

He wiped a hand over his mouth. He didn't feel so sleepy all of a sudden. He threw back the bed covers and made his way downstairs to the revolving bar where he picked up a decanter and poured himself a glass of sherry. He found comfort in the way the drink burned something hot down to his stomach.

Shilla of all people should have understood his hesitation. His fears. They had both been victims of their stepmom, after all.

Their own mother had died from cancer when they were both kids. He had just turned seven then and Shilla was around ten. When a year later, their father had come home with a woman and announced she was their new mother, they hadn't known what to make of her. The woman was indifferent towards them and their father who was always busy at work was never around to notice. It had been like they had had no mother at all.

Within the next year, they had had to relocate to Lucerne-Alpane as per the family doctor's prescription for their father's health.

As if having their lives being uprooted from beneath them didn't suck enough, their stepmother had gotten pregnant. She had obviously been excited about it, so when she had miscarried the twins six and a half months later, Mentor and his sister had understood her pain.

Unfortunately, the miscarriage had been a bad turn of events for them. He didn't know if the sight of them every day had made her miss what could have been hers or if the woman had been plain abusive before. Anyway, the woman had descended on them. She has been just plain insensitive before her pregnancy, but then she hit them if they so much as laughed in her sight.

Their father had been preoccupied with running his business remotely and regularly travelling to and fro the city, so he never noticed anything. The two siblings had learnt to stay out of her sight and take care of themselves.

They finally got peace of mind when she packed her stuff and left them and their father three years later. They never heard of her after then.

All these were what he thought about that made him fear his daughter could be a victim. He'd rather raise his kid alone than make her subject to all that.