Page 58 of Severed Rivalry
He stops at a red light and turns to me. “Yes.”
“I don’t… That mug shot could be really bad for me. Even worse for my daughter. Her biological father is not a good man, and I’d like her to survive to adulthood before making a decision to know him.”
“Is he named on the birth certificate?”
I shake my head. “No. I wanted no connection between them. I don’t know that he knows she exists. I’d like to keep it that way.”
The light turns green, and we pause for a long moment before he faces forward and continues to my house.
“I’ll do everything I can. Though, if I may say so, my daughters are the light of my life. If I didn’t get to know them, I’d be so disappointed.”
“He has others,” I whisper.
What I don’t add is I don’t thinkdisappointedis the word he uses when he thinks of them.Property, maybe more so. Beyond that, I can’t consider it. I won’t.
Jumping bail is the least of my concerns for Renée to be free of that man.
I’ll do it if I have to.
In a heartbeat or less.
In no time, we’re back to my house. I’m dead on my feet but wired beyond belief. My body is sluggish and dragging, but my mind is what I assume it would be like on speed.
The kitchen looks the same as when I left it this morning. My daughter and Ayla stand in the living room with a movie paused on the TV. They were halfway through one of the Avengers movies or so it seems.
I rush to her and wrap her in a hug, not caring a lick about the movie for once. “Love you, Née. So proud of how you handled that.”
Her death grip on my jacket tells a story her words don’t. She holds me more tightly than any time I can remember. “I was so scared.”
“Me too, baby. Me too. But that’s behind us.”
I look over her head to the woman who was just about Renée’s age the last time I saw her and mouth, “Thank you.”
Her smile is her answer. She shoves a hank of her thick red hair behind one ear and slides to one side toward the kitchen.
“Will you stay for a moment?”
“Sure thing.”
I pull back from my daughter. “Shower please.”
Her eyes dart to Chris Hemsworth on the big screen frozen in flight.
“We’ll finish when you get out.”
Her questioning look can’t be missed.
“I’m calling in tomorrow, and we’ll call you out of school. You haven’t had your free day this year. I figure we’ll check on Rosie and then explore, but no need to be up at the normal time. Not after tonight.”
A smile lights her eyes, but it quickly morphs to concern. “How is RoRo?”
“I’m working on finding out. I don’t know where they took her, but you know she’ll call as soon as she can.” I spin her toward the hall and tap her booty. “Now go.”
Heading to the kitchen, I see what I failed to notice when I arrived. The peonies are in a tall glass recentered on the table. The broken vase was cleaned up and tossed in the trash. The bouquet is down by one or two blooms, but since it’s been almost a week, that’s reasonable anyway.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” I start only to be bum rushed by a second hug of the night.
“Sariah. You look amazing.” She pulls back. “I’m happy I could help. Ci is— Well, you know, right? He’ssupposed to be on bedrest. Tonight about did him in. He can’t drive and didn’t want to scare either of you.”
