[UNEDITED]

        When I woke up the following morning, the sheets were tangled around Erin and I. I couldn’t help but smile at the memory of last night.

        I took a moment to look at the woman who was sleeping beside me. She was simply amazing and I really did love her, she was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I just couldn’t see myself with anyone beside her.

        I moved a strand of blonde hair from her face and put a kiss on the top of her head before I carefully pulled my arm from under her head, watching her as she snuggled back into the pillow and remained asleep.

        I quickly pulled a pair of boxers from the drawer and put them on, heading downstairs to make breakfast, only I got more of a surprise when I walked into the living room to see Oliver sitting there.

        “You know, you two should really learn to lock the door,” Oliver said without even looking at me, his attention remaining on the paper he was reading.

        “What are you doing here?” I asked.

        “Well, the thing is I still love Erin and I don’t want her to be with anyone but me. So, imagine my surprise when I came round here and heard her screaming your name,” Oliver laughed. It was so cold that it would put temperatures in the Arctic to shame.

        “Shame she doesn’t love you anymore really,” I said, moving to lean against the door frame with my arms across my chest.

        The man seemed to think I would be intimidated by him but he was sadly mistaken. I have been in fights with guys bigger than him and walked away the winner.

        If he was here to fight, then I would fight him and it would be another thing he could add to his list of failures. He was unable to beat me in a fight because I left him crying like a baby on the floor.

        “I would really beg to differ on that fact,” Oliver stated as he finally stood up and actually took a moment to look at me. “Why are you naked?”

        “Firstly, the fact she was screaming my name last night is proof enough that she doesn’t love you anymore,” I stated with a casual shrug, taking a step towards him so I was practically face to face with him – well, his face was more in line with my torso than it was with my face. “Secondly, because I made love to Erin until the early hours of the morning before we fell asleep naked in each other’s arms.”

        “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to leave and you’re never going to contact her again. Understood?”

        “No, this is what’s going to happen Oliver. You are going to leave and you are going to let Erin get on with her life because, if you don’t do that, then I have the power to make your life a living hell,” I chuckled as I walked closer towards him, causing him to take a couple of steps backwards as he tripped over his own feet.

        The man needed to get over himself. He was pathetic and that’s what made this all the more hilarious, that he actually thought I was going to listen to him.

        “Like I’m sca—“

        He was stopped in his tracks by the sound of a phone ringing. For a moment I thought it was his until I recognised the ring tone I had assigned to my sister so that I would always know her, then I could also ignore it when I wanted to as well.

        “Sorry. Hold that thought. Must answer this,” I put my finger up to him as I pulled my phone from my jacket pocket, which was on the hallway floor where Erin had thrown it last night as I practically dragged her towards the bedroom.

        “But—“

        “Look man, just hold that thought,” I repeated as I held the phone up to my ear but, as I was about to speak, he grabbed the phone from my hand and hung up. “Not cool. That was my sister.”

        “And we are in the middle of something,” Oliver snapped, rejecting the call once again as the sound of Animals filled the room again.

        “And that is my sister,” I replied sharply, quickly extending my fist so that it collided with his face, hitting him directly on the nose. It was enough to make it bleed and to bruise it, but not enough to actually break it. I grabbed my phone from his hand as I pushed him onto the sofa. “Now, I am going to speak to my sister and you are going to sit there in silence. Understood?”

        “Yes Master,” Oliver muttered sarcastically. I threw some tissue at him so that he could deal with the blood which wouldn’t stop flowing from his nose.

        Animals didn’t even get past the first bar before I answered it this time, “what can I do for you sis?”

        “You’re in a good mood. Did you get some last night?” Chloe laughed. Oh how I had missed that sound. It probably sounds weird but, when you’re used to your sister being nothing but angry and emotional, her laughter is a wonderful sound.

        “Oh. I got something,” I chuckled. “It’s nice to hear you in such a good mood.”

        “Great sex does that to a person,” she giggled and it was like she was back at school, she was that innocent teenager who was talking about sex for the first time and found it hilarious.

        “There are some things a brother just doesn’t need to know,” I muttered, pushing Oliver back onto the sofa when I noticed that he was trying to make a run for it.

        “Babe, when are you coming back to bed? It’s been four hours since I last touched you,” I heard Matthew shouting in the background. I think, given the choice between what Chloe was doing to Matthew last night and knowing they only stopped having sex four hours ago, I was prefer to go back to the dinner table last night.

        “As happy as I am that you and Matthew have worked things out, I don’t need to know the ins and outs of your sex life Clo,” I muttered.

        “Look, the reason I phoned was to ask if you and Erin would be able to watch Amanda for a week,” Chloe finally said.

        “Why?”

        “Matthew and I are going on holiday. We need to spend some time together, away from everything which is happening,” Chloe replied and I could tell that she was smiling. I don’t think Matthew and Chloe have ever spent time together, on their own, since Amanda was born.

        One of them was always with her and Amanda was always with one of them. She hated to be alone so she would attach herself to one of her parents for the entire day. The only time she wasn’t hanging off one of them was when she was at school, and that was only for six hours a day.

        “When?”

        “Er, Vivienne is going to drop her off this afternoon. Is that alright?” Chloe asked and I laughed. She was always making plans and then asking for help after the plans were done.

        “Chloe, you need to see to my needs and I know you want me to see to yours,” Matthew shouted suggestively and that was it, I would do anything to get her off the phone so I didn’t have to hear another sexual comment from Matthew’s mouth.

        “Yes. That’s fine. Erin and I will both be here. Bye Chloe,” I rushed and hung up before she had the chance to say another word or before I had the misfortune of hearing Matthew beg my sister to go back to bed with him.

        “Chloe? Pretty name for a pretty girl,” Oliver smirked.

        “She’s married, you dick,” I muttered, putting my phone on the unit next to the living room door and turning my attention back to Oliver. “Happily married for that matter.”

        “Happily isn’t the word I would use,” Oliver said as he relaxed into the sofa, his arms taking a place on the back of it as he looked at me confidently.

        “You don’t know a thing about my family so don’t pretend that you do,” I snapped. I could feel my hands clench at my sides as I prepared to put another punch in Oliver’s pretty little face.

        “I know that you have a five year old niece, Amanda, and she goes to St Florence’s Primary School. I know Chloe and Matthew’s marriage was arranged by your father five years ago. I know that, seven months ago, she lost her son and you caught her husband in bed with your fiancé. I even know that when you were sixteen you got a girl pregnant but she was killed before anything serious could happen,” Oliver looked smugly at me.

        “How the hell do you know that?” I said, my teeth grinding together to stop my anger from blowing up.

        “Which bit?” he smiled proudly.

        “How do you know about my girlfriend?”

        “Right, funny story, I was the one who killed her and your unborn child,” Oliver clapped his hands together like he had just been awarded with a medal for something. “She dumped me and told me that she wanted to be with you. Said she had been cheating on me for four months with you and that she was also two months pregnant with your baby.”

        “Why the fuck did you kill her?” I shouted, my hands grabbing the collar of his jacket and pulling him off the sofa, shoving him against the wall while he continued to smirk at me.

        “I wanted you to feel what I did. I wanted to show you that you can’t have what’s mine but, obviously, you didn’t learn and now I am going to have to make you pay for it again,” Oliver replied calmly.

        “I swear to god, if you touch my family, I will kill you,” I seethed.

        “I was thinking I might start with Amanda, then Matthew, then Erin and then finish with Chloe.”

        I was harbouring an unhealthy amount of anger right now but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of getting the reaction he wanted from me. If I punched him, then I wouldn’t be able to stop and he would be dead before the end of it.

        I wasn’t really feeling prison time right now. I had just got my life on track and I wasn’t going to throw it all away for the sake of some jealous psychopath.

        “Why can’t you just get on with your life Oliver? Why the fuck have you got to screw everyone else’s up?”

        “Because I am tired of people taking what is mine. Everyone is a fucking winner while Oliver Parsons is a fucking loser,” he shouted back and I let go of his jacket, running my hands through my hair as I paced around the room.

        “Erin isn’t yours. You left her for her brother and as for Ria, I didn’t know she was with anyone when we started sleeping together. She told me she was single and since we didn’t go to the same school, how the fuck was I to know she was lying?” I shouted back at him and it was at this point I noticed Erin was stood on the stairs, only her dressing gown on as she tried to work out what the hell was going on.

        I didn’t know how long she had been stood there for but she appeared to have heard most of what had been said from the look on her face.

        “I loved Ria. She was the first girl I actually settled down with. When she told me that she was leaving me for you and that she was pregnant with your baby, that was one massive kick in the gut and I wanted to make you pay,” Oliver sighed as he sat down on the edge of the sofa and put his head in his hands.

        “Y-y-you killed a c-child?” Erin finally spoke from outside the room. I could see the tears in her eyes as I walked over to her and pulled her in for a hug.

        “I was angry and drunk. I got behind the wheel of the car and drove. When I saw her in the middle of the road I, I just, I saw an opportunity and I took it,” Oliver replied. He tried to touch Erin but she flinched away from his touch and moved so that she was closer to me.

        “Would you do the same time? Would you kill me if I told you I was pregnant with another man’s baby?”

        “No. Yes. Maybe. I don’t fucking know,” Oliver said and he cried. He was the one in the wrong, he was one who had admitted to murder but he was the one in tears, feeling sorry for himself and his past.

        “Perhaps we should put it to the test,” Erin said coldly.

        “What do you mean?” Oliver replied and even I was confused. I didn’t know what was going on or what game she was playing, but I would prefer that she didn’t play this game with the man who was stood in front of her.

        “I mean, I’m pregnant Oliver,” Erin said as she took a confident step towards Oliver, looking into her eyes as she finished her sentence. “I’m pregnant Oliver and Jason is the father.”