Curtains Close; Take a bow. I think we fooled all of them now.

Oli's POV

It was quiet at home now. The kids and Anthony had been gone for just a day and a half, but I was already regretting what I had said and done. I was out of my head at the moment, and was acting weird. Like I couldn't help lashing out at him because I felt like my life had hit a stopping point. I've spent my whole life running and chasing after what I want, a girl, some kids and a house, but now that I've got it, what do I do with it?

I'd had a dream, about three days ago, that had shaken me up and gotten me confused. I dreamt that Rain and I wanted to take a break for a while, and hold off the marriage. She told me that she wanted the kids, so I just left her at the house with them, and drove back to London where I went out, and saw some familiar faces, bought drugs and partied like I did before I had Hanley.

But that couldn't happen. I knew I loved her, a hell of a lot, but part of me was questioning if I was going to be hanging on like this over and over again while she goes to rehab but fails to get better. What if she came back out, and just wasn't any different, and then what would I do? I've been a single parent for four months now, and I was starting to get cold feet with the idea.

It's moments like these where I do begin to miss SJ. She was very strong. And she wouldn't let me get away with any of this shit. Where as Rain, she is very weak and wouldn't ever say no to me. Rain can't even look after herself sometimes, and I don't know why I didn't see this coming. I should have known from the moment I saved her from killing herself that she wasn't going to change.

"Shut the fuck up." I said to myself out loud. I couldn't let these thoughts return, especially right before she came back from rehab. She would show me that I was wrong, and she would be the perfect mother of my children, and I would never be alone again.

I glanced around the kitchen, I was perched up against the counter where I had been staring around the room thinking hopelessly about how I was feeling. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the liquor cabinet. I clenched my fists up. If Rain could make a recovery, so could I. I walked over to the cabinet, opened the door and then put my hand inside, and pulled out every single bottle in there, one by one. My favourite stuff first, like the whiskey or the white rum, and then the older stuff in the back, like the red wine, or the Baileys.

I took the bin from outside of the house and brought it into the kitchen, where I opened up every last bottle and poured them away into the sink, and then dropped the empty ones into the bin. I didn't really feel anything while I was doing it. I thought I had an emotional attachment to the drink, like every bottle was an escape to somewhere else, but maybe it wasn't the alcohol that I was so attached to. Maybe it was just the feeling itself, of being intoxicated and numb.

I missed her. But it was only five days until she returned for good. And I would be able to hold her, and the kids could play with her. And I could have sex with her, which is something I've been wanting for so very long, right after i proposed to her. I wanted her to trust me and love me like she used to before she got bad again. And I wanted to plan this wedding with her, whether I was having dreams about leaving or not, I knew that this life would be better for me than anything in London.

My attention was grabbed the the sharp ringing of the phone. I put down the bottle of wine I had been tipping out into the sink, and left it on the side with the other five or six bottles I had not yet gotten rid of. I walked across the living room at a fast pace, as I needed to hear someones voice. My own company was driving me insane.

"Hello?" I said, hearing the phone click as I picked it up and placed it next to my ear.

"It's Rain." She sounded upset. I started to panic.

"What's wrong? Are you crying?" I heard her sniffing softly down the other end, and then she just went quiet. "Rain?" I said again, trying to comfort her.

"My brother. He's run away from the centre. They've been looking for him all day. I knew that he was going to. He told me himself that he was going to run away, and never come back. He said he'd been saving up the money, and he was going to do it long before I arrived, but when I came he held back for the four months. I guess he didn't want to say goodbye to me..." She started crying a bit more now, and she was taking heavy, shaky breaths in between.

"What's the matter? I'm sure he's safe out wherever he is." I said to her.

"No. The rehab never did shit for him. He's going to spend all that money on drugs and alcohol... It upsets me because I wanted to introduce him to the kids and you. I wanted him back in my family... I love him, he's my baby brother..." She started to mumble now, and I just went silent, allowing her to let it all out while I thought about what I could do.

"Baby." I said. She sniffed, and then fell quiet. "How about you focus on yourself for these next few days? You're brother will be fine, and the centre will find him. His name will show up on records wherever he goes if he's not careful. And how careful can you be when you're high? But I think, it's important to get you feeling better. Think, we need you better so that you can look after the kids and me. And everything will fall back into it's place when you come home. Don't worry about your brother, to the police he's an official missing person."

"You're right." She whispered. "I just need to get out of here, and hold my babies. Thankyou..."

"It's not a problem at all. Now go on. Get back to whatever you were doing. It's all okay. I love you, goodbye..." I said, ending the call. I looked over at the bottles and raised an eyebrow. What had I let myself become the other day? I'm a soft, loving person, not an aggressive, abusive alcoholic. I went back to the kitchen and carried on tipping out all of the bottles, and then when I found the last one, I placed it in the bin, and carried them all outside where I put them by the side of the house. The rubbish collection was due tomorrow, and they would get rid of all my empty bottles so that I never had to look at them again.

I was so glad to be doing this for myself. And the kids, and Rain. I just wanted her back, and our family to be happy again.

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