Page 15 of Derick

Ruby surprised me with how trusting she was with my parents with Hope. From the investigation, I’d learned that she barely let Hope out of her sight. Some of the people we’d talked to hadn’t even known about Hope, she’d kept her hidden so well. The only giveaway that she was anxious without her was Ruby kept gazing at her phone and looking toward the door that Hope and my parents had left through.

“Do you want to give my mum a call? I’m sure she won’t mind you checking up on Hope.” I went to her and gently touched her shoulder as she gazed at her phone again.

Ruby nibbled on her bottom lip as she darted her eyes up to me before she sighed and then nodded. I used my phone and called my mother, who picked up on the fourth ring.

“Hello, honey. I wondered how long she’d last,” Mum said.

“Mum, you’re on speaker.” I smiled at Ruby and nodded at her to talk.

“H…hi, Mrs. Silverman, is my b…baby there?”

“Hope, honey. Come talk to Mummy.” The noise in the background almost drowned her out.

I stroked Ruby’s arm as she gripped my phone so tight her hands looked white while she waited for her daughter. Even I sighed when the little girl’s voice came over the line. “Mummmys, wes at a bigs playground and its insides. I’da swimmed in balls.” The excitement in the toddler’s voice had Ruby relaxing back into the chair, and a smile spread across her face.

“I’m glad you’re having fun, baby. Make sure you use your manners and be a good girl for Mr. and Mrs. Silverman.”

“Aha, Mummy, byes.” And she hung up the phone.

Ruby groaned. “She’s only t…two and knows how t…to use a phone.”

Gathering her up from the chair, I hugged her to me. “She’s a very clever little girl.”

“Mmmm,” she sighed against my chest.

For a moment I held her close and basked in her letting me embrace her. This was just what I needed. Progress.

It had beenover a week since Ruby and Hope had moved in. I’d finally convinced Ruby to go to the mall to get some things with me. She’d been spending her days on the laptop, fixing what needed to be set up to live with us, and then she read or played with Hope. Ruby had told me she loved to read, because before she had Hope it had been her escape from her shitty life. She loved the hammock outside, and I had even found her asleep on it twice now when Hope had been off on an adventure with my parents. She’d wake up when Hope came home telling her about everything she got and what she ate and did.

I was seeing Ruby getting comfortable. She felt safe, and from what I’d learned, that wasn’t a common thing for her. I knew she only trusted her brother, and even then, she didn’t leave Hope alone with him for very long, or at least not without checking on her every hour or so. With my parents, she rang once.

Since Ruby told Hope she could call me Dad, the child had barely left my side if she wasn’t with her mother or my parents. Everyone adored her. Today had been no different either. She’d even wanted me to take her to the toilet, so I’d gone into a parents’ changeroom for the first time. It was better than I expected. There were rows of changing spots, two toilets, and breastfeeding rooms, and a small, fenced-off play area. I hadn’t expected that. Hope called me daddy at every chance.

She was a great kid. She hadn’t complained once when Ruby had gotten some shoes, and we’d spent almost an hour trying onshoes, or when we’d gone to Target and Big W for some clothes and other essentials. I’d never been into these stores before. I had a personal shopper, and anything I had wanted my parents got for me, so there had never really been a reason for me to go into these stores. I admit, if only to myself, I was intrigued by all the stuff. A lot of it looked like…well, basically just crap, or as my grandmother would say, cheap and nasty. But I knew a lot of people weren’t as lucky as me in the financial department to be able to afford top-of-the-line for everything. Again, I knew my privilege was showing, and I bit my tongue to stop voicing that I’d take them to get better quality and I’d pay for it. I had a feeling Ruby may not appreciate it.

I’d been saddened when we’d gotten all Ruby’s things from the halfway recovery house. She had two pairs of shoes. Well, one was flip-flops and the others were joggers that had seen better days. They had gone in the bin last night, along with some other items that were well past needing to be replaced, and I’d convinced Ruby to go shopping.

“I, well, I…I don’t have m…money for these things. I need m…my savings. What if…if Hope needs?—”

I cut her off before she could make another excuse for us not to get the things she needed. “Hope has everything she needs, and if she doesn’t, either my parents or I will happily get them.”

Hope was asleep in the pram I’d bought earlier when she started drifting off on my shoulder. Ruby hadn’t wanted me to buy one, because she already had one, what she didn’t know yet was I’d had it thrown away. I’d been sent photos of her things, and they were all clean, but I knew most were second-hand. I wanted my daughter to have a new, soft, comfortable pram.

Ruby shook her head. “N…no, she’s m…my daug?—”

“She’s ours now. I told you, you’re mine. Which means Hope is mine too. And you’ve seen how much my family adores her.” I grabbed her hand and dragged her into Myers store.

“No. I don’t know if I believe w…what you told me about your family. I’ve been thinking over it f…for days now, and it sounds crazy. Like a fantasy or something cooked up in a b…book. I’m your soulmate?” She pointed at herself. “Even if, by some m…miracle, that was true, it doesn’t say how you feel about m…me.” She tugged her hand, but I wasn’t letting her go.

“I’m falling for you. I’ve never met a woman as brave, strong, and caring as you. Since meeting you, I like myself again. I’ve been a bit of an arsehole lately. I’ve been miserable and felt sorry for myself, but once I learned about you, and all you went through, I’ve been in awe of you and how you’ve survived and protected Hope.”

She stopped pulling on her arm and stared up at me like I had more than one head. “I…I you know ev...everything?”

I promised she could trust me, so I wouldn’t lie to her. “Precious, you know I investigated you. It’s why I knew you were different from your family.”

“Do y…you know how I…I got Hope?”

I nodded, and tears slid down her cheeks. I stopped in the aisle across from women’s underwear and wiped her tears. She backed away from me.

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