Page 9 of Griffin

“Yes, sweetheart. Your mommy. That’s why your daddy is here.”

Melody cries.

Loud, sobbing cries that continue as I carry her out of school, my heart in my stomach.

“I want Mommy!”

“I’m so sorry, baby.”

All I can do is hold her close.

She is silent the whole ride home, and I don’t know what to fucking do. I don’t even have a bed for her.

Fuck it, she can have mine.

By the time we get home, it’s dark, and she’s hungry and tired.

“I need Bunny,” Melody whimpers, looking up at me with wide eyes. “And Mommy, Mommy knows I need Bunny, Daddy.”

“Where’s Bunny, baby girl?” I whisper, crouching to my knees.

Melody cries harder.

“At home.”

I almost cry with her.

I don’t have a key to her house, which means speaking to Angelica’s mother again to get one. But I promise Melody I’ll get Bunny tomorrow, and I will.

“I’m hungry.”

“Yeah, I thought you would be. Do you want some Cheerios?”

It’s all I have that she’ll eat. An emergency stash in case Angelica decided I could have her, usually on last-minute weekends when she had plans, and her mother couldn’t help.

Melody nods, her head bowed, her chin on her chest.

“Bunny.”

“Tomorrow, I promise.”

First, I’ve got to move her to a more local school. The poor kid.

4

IVY

I hate stocking the chilled aisle.

Even with gloves on, it’s freezing.

I push the newer date items to the back of the fridge and pull the older ones to the front, blowing my hair out of my eyes.

Shelf stacking pays the bills, but it is boring as hell.

I begin to push the cart back, remembering my dreams of moving to a bigger city and becoming a nanny for the rich and famous.

Ha.

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