The rest of the day was quiet. Uncle Steve and his friend—Al, Justin had discovered—drank and watched TV, and the kids generally kept quiet enough to keep off Uncle Steve’s radar. There was one incident when Scarlett started crying, but Justin rushed to her and changed her, and then took her outside until she calmed down again.
Still, Justin felt like he was crawling out of his skin by the time the day was ending and he was helping the kids get showered and dressed for bed. The kids couldn’t live like this, that much was clear. Justin didn’t want them growing up the way that he had, scared of his own shadow in the times that Uncle Steve had been living with them, and acting out whenever he wasn’t. He wanted the kids to grow up in a normal household, with a family who loved them. Not one t
