Page 86 of Fierce-Dane

“Maybe twenty,” he said.

“I want you to be happy,” Tiffani said. “But I want you for me too.”

“I want to be happy just like I want you to be too. Sometimes things in life can be hard, but you work through it. We can work through this too.”

He picked her up and carried her to bed with her head on his shoulder. He knew that they’d get there and his worries could lessen some.

24

FAMILY EMERGENCY

“Sloane, there’s a woman on the phone who says she’s an attorney from someplace in Tennessee. I didn’t catch much more,” Natalie said. Natalie worked the least but mainly mornings.

“Did she say what she wanted?” she asked. Sloane couldn’t imagine why anyone would be calling her from Tennessee and almost didn’t want to think of what it could mean.

“No. She said she needed to speak to you right away. I said I’d track you down because you weren’t in your office.”

She was in the back room going over inventory.

“I’ll take it in my office,” she said. She walked to the back of the building and shut her door, then picked up the phone. “Hello, this is Sloane Redding. How may I help you?”

“This is Miranda Star from Knox County Children Services. I’m an attorney for the county. Are you Nadine Redding’s daughter?”

She frowned. “I am.”

She didn’t know why anyone from Children Services would be calling her. Nor from Knox County. She’d beenborn closer to Huntsville in Scott County, but last she knew her mother was in Virginia.

“I’m sorry to inform you that your mother passed away over a week ago.”

Her ears were ringing and she wasn’t hearing much more. She interrupted Miranda. “What happened to her?”

She heard some buttons clicking and papers moving. “It’s unclear the cause of death, but no one suspects foul play. She was working at the hospital and someone found her in the supply closet. I believe it’s routine for the hospital to do an autopsy, but you’d have to get answers there. That isn’t why I’m calling.”

She was writing down what she could. “Can you tell me what hospital she was working at?”

“We can get to that information soon, but it’s not why I’m calling,” Miranda repeated. “Your mother had you listed as her emergency contact and the guardian of Shiloh Redding.”

“Who?” she asked, her jaw dropping.

“When was the last time you spoke with your mother?” Miranda asked.

“It’s been years,” she said. “We don’t have a close relationship with our mother. Me and my sister.”

“You have another sister? I don’t have any information other than you’re listed here in all her paperwork. Shiloh is Nadine’s five-year-old daughter. Your sister.”

Sloane was glad she was sitting down because otherwise she might have had to slide to the floor.

“I had no idea,” she said.

“As I said, you’re listed as her guardian. But in order to release Shiloh to your care we’d have to do some background and assure you are who you say you are. If it’s notsomething you feel you can do or want to do, then she will remain in foster care as she’s been for a week now.”

There was so much running through her head that she didn’t know where to start or what to do.

“Why did it take so long for me to find out about this?” she asked.

“I believe someone in your mother’s apartment building was watching Shiloh. She was afraid Shiloh would end up in foster care and didn’t notify us right away when she found out about your mother. But everything ends up coming out in the end.”

“Yeah,” she said quietly. “I’m not sure what to do or what you need. This is all coming as a shock to me. What about Shiloh’s father?”

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