Chapter Text
"Bruce Wayne," someone called out to him and he stiffened.
These days Bruce could recognize that voice anywhere. He could recognize the entire family of that voice anywhere. If not for any other reason than because they haunted him so. Hours upon hours of watching them interact with his boy. Wondering why he'd let it all go so wrong. Wondering how he could have made it better. 'What is she doing here?' He thought; stomach tightening and heartbeat racing. 'Is my son with her?'
He did not let the turmoil show on his face however. Putting on a pleasent smile as he turned around. "Tanya Fox," he greeted, the painful pull of a smile long forgotten marring his face. "How have you been?"
The tall black woman smiled back at him from a distance; bustling museum goers splitting them apart for the time being, something he would never admit made him just the tiniest bit grateful. "Bruce," she said with a polite nod; her smile nothing but blinding white teeth and sharp edges. "What an unexpected surprise." The smile cast her face in a beautiful glow of aristocracy.
She looked terrifying.
........................
When their conversation was done, when he was sitting in his car, hands gripping the wheel on his way home. Her last words haunted him like fresh wounds cutting through his flesh and bones until they embedded themselves into his heart.
"I know you did not mean to hurt him," she'd said. "But I also know you did not mean to love him either. The fact is that you rarely do anything with Timothy's well being in mind Mr. Wayne, and that is why I despise you."