The Man Who Sold His Son (Lanarkshire Strays) Read Online Free

often. Reaching in, his hand hovered over the vial for a few very long seconds. If he only had the courage.
    Sinclair sighed and picked up the bottle of Beluga vodka and gave a sardonic grin. If you’re determined to be an alcoholic, James, might as well do it in style.
    As he poured himself four fingers of the luxury drink, Sinclair gave a resigned shrug as he heard the front door slam.
     

3
     
     
     
    Thomas had found himself a couple of friends and had been playing handball at the edge of the sea. As usual, his peers’ gameplay was a little genteel for his liking and he’d been trying in vain to liven things up. The kids he was playing with didn’t have the same competitive urge and soon lost interest in the game. They were sitting burying each other’s feet in the sand. Eventually Thomas got bored and walked off towards the sea to skim some smooth pebbles out across the still, gentle surface of the Firth of Forth. Alex watched his restless, outgoing son and smiled. He didn’t bother turning to share the moment with Sarah; experience had taught him that even if she had been watching, which she hadn’t, she didn’t feel the same swell in her heart as he when watching Tommy at play.
    It didn’t matter. It was a beautiful day and Sarah looked peaceful for the first time in months.   Whilst he lay on his back, propped up on his elbows, she had rested her head across his lap and was laid face up, eyes closed, soaking up the sun’s rays. Alex played absent-mindedly with her hair and sighed in satisfaction. It was the most intimate they’d been in months and it warmed his core more completely than the day’s beautiful sunshine ever could. This trip had been a good idea. Days like today had been what he’d had in mind when he imagined his future as an eighteen-year-old new father.
     
    Suddenly aware that he hadn’t seen Tommy for a minute or two, Alex sat up lazily, rising from his elbows carefully, so as to not disturb Sarah. Unable to see Tommy straight away, he shaded his eyes with his hand and scanned along the beachfront. In bright blue long shorts, Thomas shouldn’t have been hard to spot but Alex couldn’t see him anywhere around. Sarah groaned and rolled off him as he rose to his feet, the beginnings of panic starting to surge through him.   Still more or less calm, he walked quickly to the spot he’d last seen Thomas throwing stones from. He began scanning up and down the beach and along the water’s edge once more.
    “Thomas!” he yelled up the beach before sprinting along the water’s edge, splashing and pushing his way along the shore.
    Alex made his way east until he reached the furthermost point of the beach, scanning the depth of the beach and fifty feet into the sea as he went, before turning around and sprinting westward. After spending thirty minutes frantically running, searching and calling for his son, Alex made his way to where Sarah still lay. Grabbing her by the arm, he shook her and pulled her up onto her feet.
    “Have you seen Thomas?”
    “Whaaat?” she replied, groggily. She’d been vaping. Whilst he’d been searching for Thomas, she’d been getting high.
    “Thomas! Have you seen him?”
    Sarah waved him off dismissively and sat back down.
    “He’s over there,” she slurred, pointing to the place where he’d been playing handball an hour before.
    “He’s gone, Sarah.” Alex knelt in front of her, calmed himself as much as possible and took her face in his hands, forcing her to look at and focus on him.
    “Sarah, I can’t find him. We need to call the police.”
    Sarah blinked dumbly a few times and lay on her side before replying, “Och, he’ll be fine.”
    Alex swore loudly at her, drawing the attention of a family nearby.
    Turning around, he’d decided to search the beach one more time when suddenly he spotted the blue shorts he’d spent the last hour looking for.
     
    Thomas was strolling casually towards his father accompanied by a slim, elderly man