Page 107 of Daddy’s Fortitude

He needed to get her down off that roof and into bed. She was obviously delirious.

“Ah, but you’re not telling me what it is. I can’t help but think it must be something terrible.”

“It’s not something terrible,” he told her.

It just wasn’t who he was anymore. He was Ammo, and he had been for years.

“Hmm, I’m not so sure about that. I think it’s Winifred. Your name’s Winifred, isn’t it? Poor Winifred. I wouldn’t tell anybody if my name was Winifred either.”

“Pretty sure Winifred is a woman’s name,” he said dryly.

“All right. Yeah, you’re right. I think it is a woman’s name. Hey, that could be kind of cute for a woman, though, right? Winifred, Winnie, Winwin, Winifredfred, Freddie, Winnie Freddie. Seriously, the possibilities are endless.”

“Are you feeling all right?” he asked. “You really seem to have gone to some other place.”

“Is it Winifred? Is that the male version of Winifred? Or is it Wilbur? Is your name Wilbur? Wait, no. I quite like the name Wilbur. Why wouldn’t you want to be called Wilbur? If I have a child, I think I’ll call them Wilbur.”

“You will not call them Wilbur.”

“I might. Why? Don’t you like the name? You don’t like the name I’ve chosen for my baby? That’s so mean.”

“One, never said I didn’t like the name. And, two, you’re not actually pregnant. You don’t have a baby.”

“I know,” she said. “Isn’t that so sad? Charlie would never have a baby with me, and then I came to realize that was probably a good thing. But when Kelly-Anne stood up at the funeral and said that she was pregnant with Charlie’s baby, well, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad and jealous. How come he’d have a baby with her but not me? I know, I know, it wouldn’t be any good if we’d had a child together, but it just makes me feel a little . . . sad.”

“Fucking Charlie. He was such a fucking asshole.”

Even now, he was still hurting her, and Ammo wished he could dig him back up and punch his face in.

“Aimee, you know it’s a good thing that you didn’t have a baby with him.”

“Yeah, I know. What would I even know about raising a child? Can’t even look after myself, can I?”

He heard her sob, and something started to hurt in his chest. Oh, fuck. That was all he needed.

Was he having a heart attack? How could he be having a heart attack? He was in great shape, and his last health check had been perfect.

So maybe this wasn’t a heart attack. Maybe it was indigestion.

That had to be it.

He was suffering from indigestion. It was quite painful, actually. He was glad he didn’t suffer from this a lot.

“One day you’re going to find someone far better than Charlie. And you might want to have a baby with them.”

Fuck. His indigestion was growing worse. It was almost burning inside his chest.

“Yeah, maybe,” she said in a sad voice.

“Now, we need to talk about how we’re getting you down off that roof.”

“I’m not ready to get off the roof,” she said. “I’m not finished thinking.”

“You are finished thinking. It’s not safe up there and you need to come down here and go to bed.”

“I can’t sleep. My brain won’t stop thinking. That’s why I’m in my thinking spot. So I can get all of the thinking out. And then I can sleep. See? It’s genius really.”

“Right. Sure. Genius. Except for the fact that you’re sitting on an old roof that probably needed to be replaced years ago. It’s not safe up there.”