Page 43 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 4

She shrugged and then groaned in pain. “I decided I wanted to find out what happened now. Then I come in to find my daughter in bed with a woman I’ve never met, that same woman sleeping soundly as though she had a right to be there.”

“Portia, you have no idea what any of us have been through. You being here, reacting the way you did just pushed back Emily’s healing once again.”

“I’m her mother.” she fired back.

“You haven’t been her mother her entire life! Maia’s been more of a mother to her in mere weeks than you have in all her thirteen years!” I bellowed, my anger taking over. “This is not your home! You shouldn’t even have a key anymore. We’ve been divorced for years, Portia, and you pull this shit? Do you ever want to see Emily again?”

“She’s my daughter!”

“Do you think a judge in their right mind is going to give you any custody when you broke into my house, frightened my daughter, and tried to press charges when you were attacked for breaking and entering? Maia was protecting her soon-to-be stepdaughter. What were you thinking? Coming here at the crack of dawn, using your ex-boytoy Frank to access my home on the sly? I knew I should have fired that fucker when I had the chance. At the time I only cared that I got rid of you. That’s not a mistake I’ll be making again.”

“Rhodes, I’m sorry. I got excited you guys were coming back to LA. I told you, I was going to do better by you and Emily. Show you how I can be a good wife and mother. If you’d only give me the chance…”

I huffed and shook my head. “Portia, I gave you chance after chance. And I haven’t thought about you romantically since the divorce. You and I are long over. And yeah, I’d hoped you’d get your head out of your ass and make more of an effort in your daughter’s life, because she needs a female figure to look up to. Then I realized, I don’t want Emily to be anything like you. And now she has women in her life who mean something to her. They treat her with respect. Give her their time, attention, and love.”

“Alana.” She hissed the woman’s name as if the five letters were poison on her tongue.

“Yeah, Alana. A woman who has chosen to be in Emily’s life since the day she took her first breath. Someone who has always been there. Not missed important days like her fucking birthday or her first play at school. Was her mother anywhere around? Nah, she was too busy having her picture taken in a bikini while she fucked the photographer and planned to marry him. What is it, the fourth or fifth proposal since we were divorced?”

“Sixth, Daddy,” Emily added, still in Maia’s arms.

“Six. Fuck me. You need to leave. I’m calling my lawyer. This last stunt you pulled is it. You’re done. If you want to see Emily from here on out, you’re going to need to request that through the lawyers. I’m taking you back to court.”

“Rhodes, no! Please, don’t do that. I can be better. I can. Let me try…”

I shook my head. “I’ve heard this crap before, Portia. You never follow through, and right now, Emily needs the people in her life who are devoted to her. Willing to do what it takes to help her through recent events. That means visits to a therapist. Being present in her life. Talking to her daily, not once a week in between shoots for a couple minutes. That’s not what a mother is.”

“I can be that.” Her pleading blue-eyed gaze went from me to Emily. “Baby girl, I can. I can be there for you. I swear this time.I’ll stay in California. I won’t miss my scheduled visits anymore. I’ll change. For you, I can change,” she begged, and it did sound genuine, but I couldn’t risk my daughter’s wellbeing on a maybe.

I ground my teeth. Emily shouldn’t even be here for this conversation, especially after what she’d been through.

Marisol came back with the items needed to patch up Portia. Instead of helping her, she set the things on the ground next to her. Marisol despised Portia.

“Ven conmigo pequeña,”Come with me, little one, Marisol gestured for Em to follow.

Maia kissed the top of Emily’s forehead and let her go to Marisol. She spoke a bunch of Spanish as she led my daughter down the hall.

“Can we have huevos rancheros today?” Emily asked, obviously uninterested in spending any time with her mother.

“Anything formi chica,” Marisol smiled, her arm around Em as they went downstairs toward the kitchen.

“Maia, why don’t you go take a shower and get cleaned up and join Emily and Marisol while I talk to Portia?”

Maia nodded, lifted her chin and proceeded to walk past Portia as though she wasn’t even there. Suddenly, she stopped and turned around.

“You know, you should be ashamed of yourself. You’re lucky I didn’t do more damage. Sneaking into your ex-husbands house. Slamming doors open. Not only is it criminal, it’s terrifying to a child who’s experienced the worst week of her life. Being kidnapped at gunpoint isn’t a fucking joke. But you know what is a joke? You.” Maia sneered and then turned on a heel and left, disappearing into our bedroom.

“Kidnapped?” Portia croaked. “Emily was kidnapped?”

“Yeah, Portia. You would’ve known all about it if you’d answered any of my dozens of calls, texts and voicemail messages this past week.”

“I was on a job! We shot in several locations.”

“A job that prevented you from having access to your phone?” I snorted. “You’re pathetic. Emily is a toy to you. One you only want when someone else is playing with it.”

“That’s not true. If I’d had known, I would have—”

“You would have what? Left the job? Held her hand through each interview? Laid in bed with her when she screamed in the middle of the night, afraid she was still living that nightmare? People died right in front of her. She was interviewed and had to give her statement, re-living everything that happened. And you know who was by her side? Maia. Emily clung to my fiancée as though she was a life raft. Her savior. Why? Because she was there. She calmed her down when the nightmares were too much, which is why I suspect she was in Emily’s room. We’ve had to sleep with her the last couple nights because the fear was too much for her. Not that you’d care.”

---