Page 58 of Dirty Little Secret
“I ran over here by myself,” he informed me as he kept looking at Taylor’s plate. Then he looked at me. “Hey, you’re my mother. You can tell me I can have some pancakes, right?”
“Okay, hold on a minute.” The idea that his father had let his ten-year-old son sprint across the city to my apartment, alone, didn’t sit right in my brain. “Fox, does your father allow you to go places all by yourself?”
“Um, well, I’m allowed to walk to Aunt Nancy’s and Uncle James’, and I’m allowed to walk to the park with my friends sometimes.” He glanced at the glass of chocolate milk in front of Taylor, which was still half full. “Hey, if you said it was fine, then I could have some of that milk too.” He looked back at me. “Is it real cow’s milk?”
“Hell, yeah, it is,” Taylor said, then looked at me. “What’s wrong with you, Mom? Get your kid something to eat, will ya?”
I had a strange feeling that there was a lot more going on than Fox was saying. “In a minute. Fox, does your father know where you are?”
“Um, he’s probably figured it out by now.” Jerking his head toward the kitchen, he said, “So, how about that milk and those pancakes now?”
As adorable as the kid was, I knew I had to make a phone call before I did anything else. “How about you take a seat on the sofa and I call your dad?”
His green eyes went to the floor, his small shoulders slumped. “Oh, man.”
“I knew it! You left your house without telling him, didn’t you, Fox?” I was horrified and knew Kane would be furious.
All Fox did was nod as he went to sit down. “I’m really hot from running all the way over here. It was like fifteen blocks or something like that. I looked up the address on my computer and found you.”
I went to get him a bottle of cold water from the fridge and gave it to him before taking my phone out of my pocket and making a call I never expected I’d get to make. Even when all this started, I never imagined I’d be the one to call Kane to let him know that he’d been anything less than vigilant in watching and caring for our son.
Kane answered with the very first ring, “Please tell me Fox is with you!”
“He’s here with me, yes.” I could actually feel his fear coming through the phone.
I could tell his teeth were gritted as he growled, “Keep his ass right there, Zandra. I’ll be right over.”
“Kane, can’t he stay with me a little while? I’ve missed him so much.” I ran my hand over his little sweaty head. “And he must’ve missed me too. I know what he did was bad—”
“It was a terrible thing,” he interrupted me. “Not just bad, Zandra!” he shouted at me.
“I know. I know he did, but Kane, he’s here now. He’s safe now. Please, just let us visit a little while before you come get him.” I felt like I was begging, and I didn’t like that I had to beg anyone to be able to see my own son for a little while, no matter what the circumstances were.
“Zandra, what he did was dangerous.” He sighed heavily. “He had to cross two busy streets to get to you. He’s got to be punished.”
“I agree, but not right away. I’ll talk to him about how dangerous that was and how he should never do it again, but for now, can he and I just visit?” My heart ached thinking about the trouble Fox had gotten himself into. I didn’t even want to think about what kind of punishment Kane was going to give him. “He only did it because you haven’t let us see each other, Kane.”
“I know,” came his soft reply. “I’ll give you guys a few hours, and then I’m coming to get him.”
“Okay.”
I’d won this battle, but I had a feeling there were going to be more of them in the foreseeable future. I just hoped we wouldn’t have a war.
