‘There he is the little liar. I want a word with you, boy—’

Freddie’s eyes filled with tears and Nick immediately spun back. The anger that had been simmering in his stomach erupted into rage. The primal instinct he’d felt earlier erupting as he faced Seymour Cole and his ire.

As angry as Nick was with Amias, children made mistakes and he’d been willing to think Amias would learn something from today. Mrs White was clearly not going to stand for his behaviour even if his parents were. He had some sympathy for the young lad, but Seymour Cole had always been a snide, arrogant man and calling his son a liar was a step too far. Replaying the word in his head in the nanosecond it took for it to register, Nick felt his muscles flex and a burning in his throat.

‘What did you say?’

‘You heard me.’ Seymour lifted his head defiantly, jowls rippling.

‘You called my boy a liar? All because you don’t want to accept that your son has behaved badly and needs some discipline. Oh, I see. It’s easier to try and blame my boy than to face up to your own bad parenting, isn’t it? But you’re the one who—’

‘My bad parenting? I’m a great dad and a great husband.’ He scoffed. ‘Is it any wonder your wife ran off.’

A small explosion happened somewhere at the back of Nick’s brain. Yes, his wife had run off and it hurt like hell, but he was doing his best for his boy and, he realised now he was doing a pretty good job. His son was kind, funny, clever, hard-working. He’d never think to hurt another child no matter what they did. He hadn’t fought back against Amias partly through shock and partly because he’d been taught that we don’t hurt others. His son was someone to be proud of and he told Mr Cole as much.

‘I don’t know why your boy decided to hurt mine, Seymour, but he better keep away from him in future. Do you hear me?’

‘Or what? What are you going to do about it? You don’t have the balls to do anything. You didn’t have the balls to keep a wife and you haven’t got the balls to stay and face me.’