Free The Man Who Sold His Son (Lanarkshire Strays) by Mark Wilson

without your family.”
    The Kinsellas were stunned. Eventually Alex spoke. “Are you so full of your own self-importance that you think that I’d leave my wife and my child to take a job with you? You’re insane.”
    The smile returned. Reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket, Gavin produced a piece of paper and handed it to Sarah. She looked at the paper in her hand. It was a cheque for ten billion pounds.
    “I do have quite an incentive. That money will certainly take care of your family,” Ennis said.
    Sarah threw the cheque back at him. “Time for you to leave, Mr Ennis.”
    Gavin kicked the cheque back over the threshold into the apartment.
    “Quite right, Sarah. Although I have one further incentive for your husband to consider my offer of employment.”
    Alex took a step towards him, eyes blazing, but found Sarah’s arm across the door, blocking his path.
    Ennis gave a little shrug. “I’m chairman of the committee that will decide where and how these Randoms will live from now on. Do keep that in mind when considering my offer .”
    The smile returned to his face for all of a second until Sarah’s fist made contact, knocking him against the adjacent wall. Launching herself through the doorway, Sarah delivered a vicious kick to the businessman’s groin. Ennis hit the blue carpet hard and vomited across it.
    “Go fuck yourself… if you still can.” Spinning around she marched back into their apartment. Alex cocked an eyebrow and allowed a smile to pull at the corner of his mouth. He shook his head at Ennis, who was wiping at his mouth with the sleeve of his very expensive suit.
    Wincing, Ennis rose to his full height, spat a mouthful of bile onto the carpet and did his best to smooth his face into its regular passive mask. “I’ll give you until tomorrow morning to give me an answer. After that, you can expect an announcement on the new legislation.” Ennis retrieved a business card from his jacket pocket. Tossing it on top of the cheque, he sneered at Alex, “Call me.”
    Alex closed the door and followed his wife into the living room.
    Sarah was pacing furiously. Her head whipped around upon hearing Alex enter.
    “That sadistic, bastard.” She rushed towards Alex. “Do you think that he’ll follow through on his threat? Do you think our son’s in danger?”
    Alex wanted to say no, but he’d worked with people like Ennis before. They were focused on the balance sheet, on future profits and new markets. People meant nothing to them. That Ennis had ended up in healthcare was most likely an accident of circumstance and opportunity rather than as a result of any real desire to improve people’s lives. All of the misgivings he’d had about the man were now filling his head.
    “Yes. I do,” he said simply.
    Sarah started pacing again. “Why not simply offer you a job, or pay you for your DNA, like a donor? Why this?”
    Alex shook his head. “I don’t know, Sarah.” It was the truth.
    Sweeping around again, she jabbed a finger at the door as though Ennis still stood behind it.
    “I do,” she snarled. “Men like him. All they do is use people. All they want is control. It’s not enough for men like that to have access to something, to someone; they want to own, they want to control, they want to humiliate.”
    Sarah’s eyes flashed with the painful memories of her childhood – of her father.
    “I’m not letting that bastard take either one of you away from me.”
    Alex walked towards his wife, wrapping his arms around her. Sarah leaned into his chest, wrapped her own arms around his waist and soaked his shirt with mascara-blackened tears.
    “I’m not sure we’re going to have a choice,” Alex said softly.
     
     
     

10
     
    “I simply don’t see how we can continue to produce new stock, Mr Hale.” Gayle had been trying in vain for forty minutes to make the middle-manager accept the reality of his situation. Hale was either choosing to ignore her advice or simply didn’t