Page 87 of Loving Trent
Lying the newspaper on the table, I sit back in my chair and close my eyes. It’s been three weeks since Florida, and our lives are finally settling down. I, for one, could not be happier. The kids we found were not sent there by their parents. Instead, they were kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night. According to Agent Burrows, Stanley and Jules had had enough with the camps and started trying to make a name for themselves in the trafficking scene. All but one was returned to their desperate, scared parents.
“Dad, we’re home,” Harley yells even though she saw me sitting at the table through the window when they walked up.
“Harley, move, I have to pee,” Layla screeches before she races down the hall, her pink backpack bouncing against her back.
I throw my head back and laugh at the sight. As it turns out, Layla wasn’t kidnapped. She was Jules and Stanley’s biological child. When Agent Burrows started looking into her, he didn’t find anything. No social security card. No birth certificate. No record of her ever being born. Jules confessed to having her in secret and never filling out any of the necessary paperwork. Layla is eight, and it sickens me to think of the things she had to endure at the hands of those people. After I talked to the media, I learned that Layla was standing next to Demon because she refused to leave Harley’s side.
We all loaded up in the back of the ambulance and headed to the hospital with her. Eventually, she warmed up to Shawn and me, and she hasn’t left our sides since then. Last week, we got the DNA test results, and just this morning, I got a call from our lawyer and Agent Burrows.
“Daddy,” Layla yells, returning to the kitchen just as fast as she ran to the bathroom. She heads straight for me, and I snatch her up and sit her on my lap. She snuggles into my chest and almost helps keep the annoyance away when fucking Andie Wright follows Harley around the corner and into the kitchen.
“How was school, Shortcake?” I tickle Layla, and my heart bursts at the sound of her laugh. She didn't smile or laugh for the first week she lived here. Then one day, she looked up at Shawn and smiled out of the blue. We held it together until she ran out of the room with her snack before breaking down like babies.
“It was okay, but…"
I look down, finding her little button nose scrunched up and a frown pulling down her lips. “But what?”
“This is going to be good,” Harley says snarkily, and I shoot her a look.
“Five bucks says he blows his top,” Andie says, nudging Raven, who shakes her head.
“I’m not taking that bet,” she says, heading to the fridge and pulling out a soda very much at ease in our home. Which warms my heart on so many levels. “Everyone knows Mr. Anderson is about to lose his cool.”
“Shortcake, what’s going on?” I say, returning my attention to the little girl in my lap.
“Billy kissed me at recess today.” She crosses her arms and huffs. Her blond bangs lift off her forehead for a second, revealing the little white scar underneath.
My face heats instantly while my arms tighten around her. I’m going to fucking kill Billy, and while I’m at it, I’m going to lock both of our daughters up in this house until they turn thirty. The front door slams, and Shawn calls out, “I’m home.”
“Hurry, Daddio. Dad is about to lose his shit,” Harley says, and it’s clear that she is about to lose control over her laughter.
Shawn rounds the corner, and even seeing him in his new uniform doesn’t help the situation I’m in right now. “What happened?”
“Billy kissed Layla on the playground,” Andie says as if it isn’t a big deal. To him, it’s not because he doesn’t know her story. He doesn’t know that had we not been there that night, or even been a second later, a grown ass man would have succeeded in raping her. He doesn’t know that pictures of her were taken down by the FBI. He knows nothing, and if I have anything to say about it, he won’t ever know. Because only family needs to know, and he is not becoming family.
“Oh—”
Tiny hands frame my face, and I look down, knowing Layla wants my attention. “Don’t worry, Daddy, I kicked him in hisballs and told him it’s not polite to kiss someone who doesn’t want it.”
“That’s my girl,” I say, nuzzling my nose against hers. Just because she handled it doesn’t mean I won’t have words with his parents. “Since everyone is here, I have some news of my own.”
Shawn comes over and kisses my nose before pulling out a chair beside me. He looks over his shoulder toward Harley and asks, “How would you girls like to take a mini vacation to the mountains?”
“Seriously,” Harley screams as she starts jumping around.
“Yes, seriously,” I say with a laugh.
She stops jumping and looks right at me. “Wait, why?”
Layla moves off my lap and crawls onto Shawn’s. “To celebrate that this little one here is finally all ours,” he says, kissing her nose.
“I am?” Layla asks. We explained what adoption meant in the best way possible, and all she said was that we were already her dads and asked to go outside to play.
“The adoption went through?” Harley asks, with tears in her eyes.
“The judge signed off on them this morning. We were able to get it done so fast since we had all the background checks done for you.” I stand up and comfort her in the best way I know how. I’m so thankful that at sixteen, she still allows us to hug her, but I think she will always be like this. People like us need constant reminders that we are loved.
“That’s amazing,” Harley says, wrapping her arms around me. “But can Raven and Andie come? Please, is it a four-day weekend?”
