Marcus glances at Levi, confused by his wording. "Small world? Why is it a small world?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt this conversation, gentlemen," Mrs Lowry chimes in, slight guilt evident in her expression. "But maybe it's wise to have this conversation once the meeting is over. I think we should come to some conclusion on what is going to happen now."

"Yes. Sorry," Levi apologises, settling himself back in his seat. He watches as his husband takes the chair next to him. "Um, well, I'm happy to move on from all this, provided that Esme just apologises to Kieran. It would be nice to start fresh again."

"I can get behind that," George adds, his voice still a little shallow from being strangled. "Just apologise and move on. As long as that psycho doesn't start telling Esme lies about us again."

"I'll make sure she doesn't," Marcus assures them. "And I'm sure Esme has learnt now, that two men loving one another is perfectly fine."

"I did," Esme answers. "And having two daddies is good too."

"Good," Mrs Hall beams. "So, Esme, what do you say to Kieran and to his fathers?"

"I'm sorry Kieran. I'm sorry Kieran's daddies." She looks to them, with a soft, guilty expression upon her petite face. "I won't say mean and nasty things about you again."

"We accept your apology, Esme," Levi replies, giving her a gentle smile to reassure her. "And I thank you for being so grown-up about this situation. You've done very well."

"Thank you," Esme utters, shyness kicking in.

"Okay." Mrs Lowry clasps her hands together, satisfied with the outcome after all the turmoil that has occurred in the last half an hour. "I must say that was the most eventful meeting I've ever been part of. But I'm glad things have been sorted now."

"Me too," George agrees. "I think we should leave these poor ladies to it now."

"I agree," Marcus chuckles, before diverting his attention to his daughter. "Esme, sweetheart, you should go back to class now. You have one more lesson before school ends."

"Actually, Mr Cartwright," Mrs Hall pipes up. "Seeing as though the children have seen quite a lot unfold this afternoon, it seems only fair to let them go home early. Let them have a bit of time to unwind this evening."

"It won't make a difference to us," Levi explains. "We have to wait for Gem to finish school. So we'll have to wait the last forty-five minutes anyway."

"Would you like me to go and grab her from her class? So you can get yourselves home?" Mrs Hall offers kindly. "It doesn't seem fair to wait for her to finish."

"Would that be okay?" Levi asks. "Thank you."

"Not a problem." Mrs Hall hurries out of the office, leaving the three remaining parents; Mrs Lowry; and the children in the room.

"I just don't know what to do now," Marcus admits. "I don't want to take Esme back home to her mum. She's not right in the head."

"Is there not anywhere you guys can go for tonight at least?" George suggests. "Just so you can both have an evening without arguments?"

"I'm still waiting to hear back about the apartment I want to rent," Marcus tells him. "Referencing is no joke. It takes forever. I'm hoping to hear back in the next week or two. It would give Esme a safe space, too."

"Daddy?" Esme says, to earn her father's attention.

"Yes, darling?"

"Is Mummy going to go to jail for hurting Kieran's daddy?"

"I ... I'm not sure," Marcus responds honestly. "I-I guess it depends on whether Kieran's daddy wants to tell the police about it."

Esme's little eyes avert to George, searching for her answer. George isn't sure how to react to this newfound conversation topic, so he looks to the floor in thought. "Well," he starts, still uncertain on what to say. "Um, it's been a long afternoon, hasn't it? I think we should let the dust settle for today. And then we can talk about it again some other time."

"That seems reasonable," Marcus acknowledges.

The office door then opens; and in come Mrs Hall and Gemma. The young girl looks around at all the faces in the room, a little stuck on the context surrounding who is who and why they're here.

"Hello, sweetheart," Levi greets her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Daddy," Gemma responds. "What's happening?"

"We're taking you home a little bit earlier," George informs her. "We just had a meeting with Kieran and one of the girls in his class, Esme. But we've finished the meeting now, so we can take you all home."

"Oh. Cool." Gemma grins; as expected, she is delighted at the idea of missing out on class.

The entire group say their goodbyes to Mrs Hall and Mrs Lowry, making a beeline for the school playground together. The children run off ahead, whereas the parents take their time and walk behind at a slower pace. Levi makes sure to keep an eye on the kids, as he engages in conversation with his husband and Marcus.

"So, what did you mean about it being a small world?" Marcus asks, his question aimed at neither man in particular.

"I'm not going to give a big introduction to the reasoning," George explains matter-of-factly. "Levi and I are the victims of that homophobic attack you and your mates did back in the eighties. The two young guys sat on the park bench minding their own business."

To this, Marcus freezes on the spot; his eyes flit quickly from George, to Levi; then back to George, then back to Levi. His mouth remains agape, as he is temporarily rendered speechless. "You're not serious."

"I wish we weren't," Levi adds, trying to muster an awkward smile. "I was unconscious for four days. George was unconscious for a good few hours. It took weeks for us to finally get back on with our lives after it happened."

"I-I don't know what to say," Marcus utters. "I-I can't believe you're the same guys. I'm so sorry. That's all I can think of, to say. I'm so, so sorry for what we did to you."

"Why did you do it?" George presses, with no intention of starting any conflict. "Why did you and your friends decide to ruin our lives like that?"

"We were stupid," Marcus answers. "And before I go any further, I want to tell you that I wasn't the ringleader of all this. I know it doesn't excuse the fact I was part of it. But ... I was a dumb kid following the crowd. I wanted to be in with the cool kids. And the "cool" kids were extremely homophobic."

"So why are you so supportive of our community now? What made you change your mind?" Levi questions.

"Like I said in the meeting just now — being in prison for a long time really gives you chance to think. And I spent most of the time thinking about you guys. You know, wondering where you were. What you were doing. If you were alright. And I just felt this immense guilt for what had happened. I was still a dumb kid, but I'd developed a conscience, it seemed." Marcus glances down at the floor, not quite confident enough to make eye contact with either of the men stood with him. "I always longed to be able to find you both and apologise for what we did. And I vowed that my mindset on the community was changed forever after that altercation."

"So where are the other guys now?" George presses, feeling a slight tinge of anxiousness at the notion of who he is talking to. "Because presumably, they all ended up in prison, too?"

"There's two or three answers to this one," Marcus divulges, feeling a little less tense now that the focus isn't just on his own wrongdoing. "Two of them are out of prison now — one living in Reading; the other moved to London. They've tried to start their lives again, too. Three or four of them got out at the same time as me, but they reoffended so they're back in prison. And then a couple of them are dead. One got beaten up in there by one of their cellmates. The other one couldn't handle prison life and ... well, they gave up on their own terms."

"Bloody hell," Levi gasps, taken aback by what he has just heard. "So, if you don't mind me asking ... what's your story? I mean, what's happened since you got let out of prison?"

"It hasn't been easy," Marcus admits. "I got out about two decades ago, give or take. I moved from Reading, because I knew I needed to start a new life where nobody really knew me. My parents luckily had a home in Pangbourne, which isn't too far from here. They let me move in with them. My dad had his own small company, so I got a job there to earn a bit of income. Enough to save and eventually rent my own little apartment. I went to therapy to talk through everything I went through and what I did. Then, I met Tanya about twelve years ago. She got hired by my dad, and I guess we just clicked. She seemed like a sweet woman, and she never held my criminal record against me. We got together and got married, then had Esme. That's when her true colours started to show. We were out for a family walk one afternoon, and there was two lasses in the park sitting on a bench together. You could tell they were in a relationship. Tanya expressed her disgust, and in that moment I knew I'd messed up. She'd never said anything about her homophobia before then. To be honest, I'd never thought to ask."

"I guess you were blinded by the love you had for her," Levi evaluates. "I mean, asking somebody's views on the LGBT community isn't exactly most people's first priority when they're looking to marry someone."

"I guess not," Marcus acknowledges. "I didn't say anything at the time to correct her, but perhaps I should have. I just left the subject as it was. Life moved on. That was, until Esme started at this school."

"And that's when Esme started making the comments about us to our son?" George suggests.

"Pretty much," Marcus responds. "Tanya would feed her these opinions at home. It kicked off when I made friends with a gay bloke at work — Benjamin. By this point, Tanya had changed jobs. I invited Benjamin over for dinner with his boyfriend ... as a kind gesture; but also to show Tanya that she doesn't need to be homophobic at every chance she gets. Well, long story short, she caused a huge scene at the dinner; Benjamin and his partner left early; and then Tanya had the nerve to accuse Benjamin of fancying me."

"What?" Levi furrows his brows in shock, unable to fathom the lack of logic the woman evidently has. "Did she say that to his face?"

"No," Marcus explains. "She said it to me after they'd left, because we had a huge argument. I told her she was crazy to think he'd fancy me, especially when he had a partner of his own. The argument got heated and it escalated, to the point where I had to send Esme upstairs to listen to her music in her headphones to drown out the sound. Tanya never has cared how our disagreements affected Esme. I try to diffuse the situation, but she seems to want to add fuel to the fire. It's not fair on our daughter. And the thing is, during these arguments, Esme would hear her mother's unfair opinions and believe them. Hence why she would always say nasty things about you guys to your son in class."

"I never expected it to be this bad," George comments. "That poor girl."

"She's been incredible through all of this with her mum and I," Marcus praises his daughter. "We split a couple of weeks ago for good, but that hasn't stopped Tanya from spitting her usual venom. Other than the bullying at school, Esme's handled the arguing really well. She's been braver than I would have been. To be honest, part of me hopes you press charges against that psycho so that Esme and I can finally have some peace."

"I mean, she did attack me just because I'm gay," George reasons. "That in itself would be considered a hate crime, without all the comments she's made."

"That's true," Marcus agrees. "It may be worth asking the school if they have CCTV footage of the headteacher's office. It could be used as evidence if they do."

"We'll think about getting in touch at some point," Levi assures him. "But for now, I think we should get the kids home. They've seen a lot this afternoon. It's probably traumatised them and left them with a lot of questions."

"I agree." Marcus nods, before averting his eyes over to his child. "Esme? Home time!"

"Okay, Daddy!" she shouts back, leaving Kieran and Gemma in favour of returning to her father. "Will Mummy be at home?"

"I'm not sure," Marcus replies. "We'll see when we get there."

"I hope she isn't," George murmurs, just loud enough for Marcus to hear. "For you guys' sakes, that is."

"Yeah." Marcus lets out a little laughter, unsure of how else to deal with the extreme circumstances he is being forced to deal with now. "Uh, before I forget — could we keep in touch? Just so we can talk about stuff without little ears hearing."

"Sure." Levi offers his phone to the man, so that he can put his mobile number into his contacts. "It might be wise to keep in touch about things. In case we do go further with pressing charges, etcetera."

"Thanks." Marcus types his digits in quickly, before handing the phone back to Levi. He gives both the men a softened expression. "Look ... I'm so sorry again. For everything. Literally everything. I'll see you 'round."

"See you," Levi bids farewell, sliding his phone into his pocket. He watches as Marcus leaves the school premises with Esme; with a new perspective and a newfound sadness for the little girl who has been bullying his son.

"Right," George sighs, deciding it's best to head over to their own children. "I think it's time we went home, too."

Levi follows after him; once they've reached the end of the playground where Kieran and Gemma have been waiting, they all walk back over to the school gates to go to the car.

• • •

Chapter twenty-six! Hope you enjoyed. xx