Page 114 of Who's Your Daddy?

I leave her to play with him for almost two hours, and it doesn’t take long for Ambrose to warm up to her. Her animated expressions while she’s playing peek-a-boo even get a few heart-felt laughs out of him. But we have a routine, and it’s already bath time.

I stand up. “It’s getting late. I think it’s time for you to go.”

The statement shocks her as if she’d lost track of time. “Okay.”

She leans over to kiss him before she stands up. Without looking in my direction, she strides right past me to get to the door. I follow her to let her out.

She stops on the front step and nervously twiddles with her fingers. “Is it...” Her eyes stay glued to the ground. “Is it okay if I come by...to see him again tomorrow?”

I want to say no, but I decide to not go with my knee-jerk reaction this time. “Okay.”

“Thank you, Peter. You’ve taken such good care of him. I can’t thank you enough. These last few months haven’t been easy for me, and I—”

Hearing her sob stories is not high on my priority list right now, so I cut her off. “Come by at eleven.”

I don’t wait for confirmation and shut the door. I let out a slow breath and allow myself to decompress because that was awkward and tense. Crossing through the foyer, I go back to check on Ambrose.

“How you doing over there, li’l Bro? You good?” He gives me that wide smile, and the dimple on his cheek reminds me of the asteroid of problems that has just entered the stratosphere of my life. “I’m glad you’re okay because I’m...somessed up, but we’re not gonna dwell on it. We just have to find a way to deal with this, right? We have until tomorrow to figure out a game plan, and, uh...” I rake my hand through my hair. “Ah, shit. Seeing her again is really screwing with my head...especially because she didn’t...she didn’t look okay...at all.” I shake it off. “But she’s a grown woman. She doesn’t need me. She blocked my number, remember? That means she can look after herself. She’s been doing that for the last four months, right? I’m not gonna even worry about this.”

Yet even as I say this, I’m pulling out my phone to check the security cameras. I watch her as she walks down to the main gate, but as soon as she’s outside, she just kind of stands there, looking up and down the road. I watch her for almost eight minutes, and she doesn’t move.

Eventually, I call the guardhouse at the main gate. “Hey, Dave. Can you ask Brenda to come up here for a few minutes? There’s something I gotta do.”

“Sure, Mr. Danahay.”

I wait for Brenda to come up to the house and instruct her to look after Ambrose for me. I take the ten-minute walk down to the main gate, and Lia is still outside when I get there, sitting on the sidewalk. The sun is fading, and she’s scrolling through her phone like it’s not almost dark out. Dave opens the gate for me, and she quickly stands up when she sees me walking toward her.

“What are you still doing here?” I ask.

“Um...I’m just waiting for a friend to pick me up.”

“Who?”

She struggles for a second as if she wasn’t expecting the follow-up question, and that stilted pause is a sign that the next words out of her mouth are going to be a lie. “Uh...Tori.”

“I know for a fact you haven’t spoken to Tori in months.”

Again, she seems surprised by my response and remains silent.

“I’m going to ask you again. Who are you waiting for? Is it...” My jaw clenches as I try not to cringe. “Is it Teddy?”

His name is like fucking acid on my tongue, searing the inside of my mouth. I didn’t want to say it, but the question needed to be asked because I don’t want him anywhere near my house.

“No, it’s not Teddy,” she answers, and something is so off about her reply.

I step closer, encroaching on her personal space, and her body stiffens. “Eyes here. Look at me.” I hook my finger under her chin and force her head up. I keep my voice low to not draw any attention to us. “You have twisted your stories. You have omitted facts and left out key details. You have manipulated me repeatedly. And you have screwed me over one too many times. So, I’m going to caution you to not fucking lie to me again. Who’s coming to get you?”

She doesn’t answer right away. Instead, she stares off into the distance until I tilt her chin up for her to look at me again.

“No one,” she whispers. “No one’s coming to get me. Someone at the—” She stops herself short. “Someone told me about a shelter nearby, and I was...I was trying to find it on my phone, but I can’t seem to get a proper signal here.” She swallows hard enough for me to hear her pride go down. She steps back out of my grasp and points to her left. “Um...before I got here, it was saying I should head that way, so...uh, I should get going. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She turns and starts walking down the sidewalk.Don’t do it, I tell myself. I don’t need to be a hero or a knight in shining armor. That was the exact complex that put me in this situation to begin with.

Don’t do it. Just let her go. She’ll be fine.

Don’t. Do. It!

“Lia,” I call out before she’s even taken her fourth step. I wait for her to face me again. “Come inside.”

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