Page 149 of Severed Rivalry
“I’ll ask,” he offers. “Ayla would do anything for her. Topic change—what do you want for dinner? I can cook or order in. I’m assuming you don’t want to go anywhere?”
“Not today. Tacos?”
“Soft or crunchy? Chicken or beef?”
“I’ll ask Renée, but you know she’ll say veggie.” I stride down the hall but quicken my steps when I hear my daughter’s voice rise.
“That’s not my fault. I couldn’t help it.” There’s a pause then, “I know. But— Okay. Bye.” There’s a whimper and a clunk.
I push the door open. Renée is face down on the bed, tears pouring off her cheeks.
“Née. What’s wrong?” Lying on the bed next to her, I wrap her in my arms, careful not to make her feel trapped. I saw very little of Sunday night, but I saw way too fucking much too.
“Emma’s mom says she can’t hang out with me ever again.” She sniffles.
Completely understandable. I’d make the same choice if my daughter were kidnapped and taken out of state on another woman’s watch.
“I’m so sorry.”
“I told her it wasn’t my fault. And we brought her back. It’s not like we took a vacation. We were kidnapped.” Her voice chokes on the last word.
I hold her until she’s cried out. Finally, I whisper, “Should I have told you everything before?”
She shrugs. “Maybe.”
“I didn’t want to scare you. I wanted you to have a life, a real one, a normal one.”
“I— I… I was so scared. I didn’t know. Honestly?” She pauses until I give an um-hmm. “I still don’t know. What were they going to do? Why? And what about the other girls?”
The silence that follows is heavy. We’ve had some of this conversation already. Not in specifics and certainly not in depth. She brings it up but shies away from knowing more when the time comes.
“I’ll tell you if you want to know. I really never wanted to have this conversation, though. I will. Of course, I will. I just hoped you’d never have to think about it.” I sit up, and she follows.
And I explain. In a world where clitoral mutilation shouldnever exist, that it does, that people knowingly hurt girls and women. That I never wanted her to have these notions in her brain, but more so that I never, never want her to experience it.
And that I’d do anything to protect her from it.
Move after move. New schools and “fresh starts.” Changing apartments and quick pivots in jobs. I hated all of it. But for her? For her, nothing was off the table.
After several long moments where I see the terrible truth settle heavy in her gut, she stammers out words I never thought she’d utter. “Did… Did they do that to you?”
All of this and she’s worried about me? “No, my sweet girl. I ran away. I knew. I overheard some other girls talking and I ran. I got caught several times. I finally escaped. I was younger than you. I felt… older, but I knew so little. And I found Randy and RoRo. And they saved me.”
“But that man… He’s my dad?”
Oh, fuck no.
“That man may be your biological father. But he’s no dad. Some of those girls on Sunday could be your half-sisters, but we’ll never know. He’d still do that to them, though. And no real man who has a daughter could stand her to be hurt.”
“Will he come back?”
“I’ll kill him first.” Cian’s quiet voice holds an authority I’ve never heard before.
“But that’s illegal.” My daughter—the just one.
“It is.” He nods and steps into the room from the hall, his hands shoved in his jeans pockets. “Your mom is the love of my life. She will never be taken from you, and you will never be taken from her if it’s in my power to help it. It would break her to lose you and since I plan to love her until we’re old and gray, I will find a way to protect you both. That man, whose name I will not utter, will never touch a hair on your head.”
“But you’d be a murderer?” My daughter’s voice is a whisper.
