Page 29 of The Seductress

He was almost as pissed off, as I was when he learned that the man his sister in law was in cahoots with had kidnapped his daughter. “This is a mess. She called from jail, but I told Janet we only got one dog in this fight and that’s you and our daughter. Her sister’s on her own!”

“Thanks for that, and for not holding me responsible, I probably could’ve done some things different…”

“No son, it’s not your fault. My wife and I were thinking the same thing. Maybe if we’d called Jen on the things she’s been doing none of this would’ve happened. I wasn’t too happy about sitting at your table Thanksgiving knowing what we did, but she convinced us that she had changed, that this time was for real.”

“We never knew the whole story, just bits and pieces, but the rumors couldn’t all be lies. We’d put two and two together after the second marriage, and then we found out about Jeremy by chance. The family back north filled us in here and there but they didn’t have the whole storyeither. Now I guess we do.”

“It’s over now and Ash is no longer in any danger. I just hope your wife knows that I plan to destroy her sister. Not only for what she tried to do to me, but for what happened today. I don’t care what I have to do, they’re both going away for a long-long time.”

“Don’t worry about Janet, I’ll talk to her, though I don’t think it’s going to be needed. They messed with her baby girl, and for that little woman that’s a no-no.”

“Okay then as long as we’re on the same page. Did they bond out?”

“Nope. Your friend the judge made sure of that. Near as I can tell they have a list of charges against them as long as my arm. The boyclaims she had nothing to do with the kidnapping but they’re checking into that so I guess we’ll wait and see. I hope for my wife’s sake that at least that much is true.”

I wasn’t too sure about that either but I guess like he said, we’ll wait and see. The women had a whole spread on the table by the time our little powwow was over and surprisingly enough we were able to salvage the rest of the evening.

As if by silent agreement, we steered clear of any talk about Jen and Jeremy. Instead we talked about weddings and grandbabies and holiday dinner. Life goes on.

Epilogue

***

“You do that shit again, I’m taking your keys away and this time no amount of begging or sex is gonna sway me.” I slammed out of the car pissed the fuck off. The girl’s a fucking speed demon.

“Simon, don’t be like that, I was only going ten miles over the limit.”

“Try twenty and I don’t want to hear it. I told you before…do you drive like this with Ana in the car?”

“Of course not.

“Then why would you do it with him?”

I placed my hand on my unborn son who was distorting her tummy even more than his sister had when she was this far along and she was a big baby.

“That’s not fair, I was being careful.” Her lip trembled as I took her hand to lead her up the steps. Fucking hormones, she cries if I even look at her too hard these days. I’m beginning to think she’s milking that shit though.

The door was barely opened, when our one and a half year old baby girl came barreling towards us screaming my name at the top of her lungs. She’s her mother’s kid, no behavior whatsoever. I bent down to catch her up in my arms and accepther wet kisses all over my face.

Her mom is just a little bit jealous of our relationship though she tries to hide it well. She’s already threatening to Bogart my son once he gets here, we’ll see about that. “Hello little princess, what have you been up to?” Her grandmother smiled fondly at her as she lied her ass off about being good.

“Let daddy see what you made.” She waved at her mom over my shoulder as I headed in the direction of the playroom. I knew Ash was going to need some downtime, the way she always does when we come back from one of her doctor’s appointments and grandma would be about ready for a break from my little angel, so it was u to daddy and take up the slack.

If I’d thought my life before was complete I was amazed to realize after the birth of my baby girl that I wasn’t even close. The love I had for her was a different kind of love, the kind that woke me up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night with worries of the future, her future. That little body held my DNA.

She had her mother’s heart and my face, down to what my wife calls my crazy hair. She came into the world kicking and screaming, took one look at me and cooed. Hopefully, she’ll never hear the story of how I lost my shit in that delivery room. How I ranted and raved-threatened and brow beat everyone within earshot until my wife, who was in more pain than a human had the right to, calmed me down.

The first time I held her in my arms, I trembled. I cried along with her and her mother her first few minutes in this world and fell in love so deep it shook me. From the minute we brought her home, she’s had me wrapped around her little finger. She whimpers, I’m up like a shot to check on her in her crib.

Ashley thinks it’s funny. She jokes that now she can catch a break since I have someone else to obsess over. Hah, more like now I have two of them. I want so much for her, want to be so much what I never had in my life when I was a kid.

Others claim I spoil her and her mom, but I don’t see it that way. I see it as them both being my whole world and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep them happy. “Dada wook.” Sheheld up a picture she’d painted of me, her favorite subject. Ash is going to make me pay for this one I’m sure.

“It’s beautiful baby. Do you want daddy to read you a story?” She clapped her chubby little hands together with glee and ran to her toy chest to grab her favorite dog- eared book. Just then a ray of sunlight came through the high curtain-less window and highlighted her curls so like mine.

My heart twitched so hard I had to close my eyes. I never forget how close I’d come to losing it all. Her mother had been carrying her the day she’d been taken. Had I known that then, no way that son of a bitch would be rotting away in a jail cell. I would’ve snapped his fucking neck.

She toddled back to me on herlittle legs and threw herself into my arms. “Let’s go to our chair.” I kissed her curls and inhaled the familiar scent of her hair as we sat in the rocker that had been in her mom’s family for generations. I liked that. Like that my little girl had family history at least from her mother’s side of the family.

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